Bronze Age

The Bronze Age of a culture is the period when the most advanced metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use) in that culture utilised bronze. This could either have been based on the local smelting of copper and tin from ores, or trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Many, though not all, bronze age cultures flourished inprehistory.

The naturally occurring ores typically included arsenic as a common impurity. Copper/tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact that there were no tin bronzes in western Asia before 3000 BC. The Bronze Age is regarded as the second part of a three-age system for prehistoric societies, though there are some cultures that have extensive written records during their Bronze Ages. In this system, in some areas of the world the Bronze Age followed the Neolithic age. However in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, theNeolithic age was directly followed by the Iron Age. In some parts of the world, a Copper Age followed the Neolithic Age and preceded the Bronze Age.