Age of copper

The age of Copper , corresponds in a more restrictive direction and a cultural meaning to the Chalcolithique of the French prehistorians (the Italian prehistorians employ as for them the term Eneolitico ). It often indicates - wrongly - an intermediate period of the Préhistoire, stage of transition between industries lithic S and osseous characteristics from the Neolithic final and the incipient metallurgical industry which then supplants them with the Bronze Age. Actually, in the cultures of Chalcolithique, of the ores such as the Gold, the money and the Cuivre are exploited within the framework of a secondary craft industry, the essence of the production remaining out of stone and bone.

The age of Copper in Western Europe

In Western Europe, the age of Copper roughly extends from -2500 with -1800. Initially, the diffusion of a craft industry of copper in these areas could be made since the Aegean Sea thanks to a Danubian shopping street. And still, this one appears limited. It should be noted that on the Atlantic facade, for example, the first dominant metallurgical production until that of bronze remains that of gold. Between -1800 and -1600, the mixture of the tin and Cuivre give birth in these areas to the metallurgy of the Bronze, characteristic of the first true age of metals and at the origin of many upheavals.

Characteristics of the craft industry chalcolithic

With the difference of bronze and Iron, the craft industry of copper seems to have coexisted very a long time with that of the stone, without bringing real socio-economic upheavals in civilizations which knew it. It is also attested by archeology that the use of copper relates to civilizations contemporary and close to others which are unaware of it, or others which have already a metallurgy of bronze.

The weak incidence of copper on the prehistoric cultures can be mainly explained by the difficulties and the weak benefit of its exploitation: collected in small quantities in a natural state, native copper is hammered before being molten and is moulded with 1000 °C approximately. The production anecdotic is compared with lithic industry and relates to mainly parts of modest size. Daggers with silk and pointed of it are most representative. At the same time, the productions lithic S are also often finer.

The cultures or the civilizations most representative of Chalcolithique are especially known for:

the “final improvement by pressure”, technique allowing an unequalled smoothness in the lithic development of furniture, by the successive detachment of small glares.
the campaniform Ceramic : ceramics is known as “twisted”, because of the reason applied to the raw paste. It is of Scandinavian origin and comes from the areas of the Jutland, of the Germany of north and the current Holland)
the Megalith S of the Atlantic facade, such those of Carnac in Brittany or of Stonehenge, in Great Britain.
anthropomorphic steles of the north of the the Mediterranean (Languedoc-Roussillon, Gard, Vaucluse, Corsica, Sardinia).

Chronological reference marks

The age of Copper not being a period, it is excluded to give a chronology of it. Nevertheless, some reference marks make it possible to evaluate the diffusion of metals in prehistoric industry:

in Egypt, furniture coppers some is spread at the period characterized by the site of Nagada, towards -4000 with -3200: axes punts, adzes, scissors, knives with handle in bone and pins testify some;
in the valley of the Indus, the use of metal is attested towards -2500: the sites of Harappa and Mohenjo-Darô provided furniture to it in Plomb, money, copper with strong content of Arsenic (in a quasi-natural state) and even bronzes some as testify some saws, pearls, clasps of collars, or rings of ankles;
with Cyprus, it is undoubtedly under the influence Anatolia nne that the exploitation of the copper ore develops. Ambelikou, the presence of red ceramics makes it possible to go back it to approximately -2300 with -2000;
With Troy, excavations of Heinrich Schliemann révêle the presence of copper at the oldest level, but it is especially on levels II-III (-2300 with -2100) that furniture coppers some multiplies;
the oldest craft industry of the copper known in Bulgaria date of -4500 with -4000;
in Swiss, it is gone back to approximately -3700 (Civilization of Pfyn). ;
at the civilizations précolombiennes, the use of copper precedes by little the arrival by Europeans at the beginning of the 16th century.

See too

Random links: