Page 106 - 100 Events That Made History

The birth of bronze
By 3250 BCE, people had learned how to
Discovery a soft, red metal called copper with a little
EXTRACT METALS FROM ROCKS by
heating them. Then they found that mixing

of bronze
tin made a new metal that was tough, but
still easy to shape. This useful new stuff
was called bronze.
How METALS made life easier

When people figured out
how to mix metals to make
bronze, they soon realized
it was the perfect material
for all kinds of tools
and weapons.

Items were cast in molds
or hammered from flat
sheets of bronze.

Sticks and stones
Paleolithic, or Stone-Age, people could use
only WOOD OR STONE to make the tools they
needed. But wood snapped easily and rotted
quickly, and stone was difficult to shape, so
early tools and weapons were rather basic.

What came before…

The first metals that humans The COPPER AGE began
learned to use were GOLD AND around 6500 BCE, in the
SILVER. Both metals could be Middle East. Copper was
found naturally in the ground slightly harder than gold
and were soft enough to be and silver; it could be used
shaped without heating. to make tools or weapons.
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