Page 49 - DK Children's Encyclopedia
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Bronze Age                                                                        SEE ALSO

                                                                                               ▸ ▸ Buildings  p.48
                                                                                               ▸ ▸ Crafts  p.75
           The Bronze Age is a period of history after the Stone Age                           ▸ ▸ Iron Age  p.140
           and before the Iron Age. It began about 5,500 years ago                             ▸ ▸ Metals  p.162
           when societies first learned to make a metal called bronze.                         ▸ ▸ Stone Age  p.243

           Bronze is a mix of the metals tin and copper. Combined,                             ▸ ▸ Trade  p.257
           these metals are stronger than they would be alone.                                 ▸ ▸ Writing  p.280








                Bronze Age bracelets                                                          Bronze Age spear tip



                                                                          Bronze weapons
                                                                          were used by the
                                                                          first armies during   Early writing
                                                                           the Bronze Age.
                                                                                              The first written language
                                                                                              was invented in the Bronze
                                                                                              Age. It was called cuneiform.
                                                                                              Writers used pointed reeds
                                                                                              called styluses to make marks
                                                                                              in soft clay tablets, which
                                                                                              then hardened.

         Bronze                                         People traded more with
         Using bronze tools allowed                     other societies during the
         societies to clear more land                   Bronze Age. Some traders
         for farming, and to grow, store,               used their money to buy
                                                        bronze jewelry.
         and trade more food and goods.
         Bronze was also used to make
         weapons and jewelry.



                                                                                                Bronze Age cuneiform
         Settlements                                                                              tablet from Iraq
         During the Bronze Age,            These buildings                 The houses have
         people lived together in          in Germany are                  wooden frames and
                                                                           are built on stilts.
                                           copies of Bronze
         large groups for the first        Age houses.
         time. Settlements were
         bigger than earlier
         villages had been.
         There were even
         towns and cities.












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