Cell phones, computers, coffee machines, vacuum cleaners, and countless other appliances and applications where copper is used should be grateful to development history of copper, which goes back to 10 000 years.
While the last ice age still covered Scandinavia, far away in Near East and Egypt ancient people already knew how to work copper and make small items such as arrowheads, hooks etc. of it.
Stone Age ended and Copper Age begun
The use of copper and gold marked the transition from the Stone Age to a more modern way of life. Ancient civilizations could use copper because it was found in its native state in nuggets and masses on the surface of the earth, adjacent to streams, in the walls of canyons. Although exposure to weather changes copper's reddish color to blue-green, it was easy to recognize.
We have no way to know for certain how copper was discovered long ago. We know that humans already recognized gold. Maybe somebody dropped a piece of rock on some copper, and dented the copper without breaking it. Then, this clever ancient inventor might have realized that pure copper could be hammered into useful or pretty shapes. Later, another observant person, maybe a potter, accidentally dropped a piece of copper in a fire. This early metal worker learned that the copper became less brittle and easier to shape if hammered after heating.
Mesopotamia and Sumeria
Archeological excavations in the dry-land of South-East Asia tell us that ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, especially the city-states of Sumeria, were among the earliest to invent the use of copper and gold (now-a-days Iraq). Gold was too soft to be used for weapons, but copper was harder for many purposes. The Sumerian city-states comprised the first great metal-using civilization. The Sumerians navigated the Euphrates River for commerce, including the transportation of copper from Armenia to the north. The Sumerian word for copper, "urudu", is the same word for the Euphrates, literally, their "copper river."
Shaping stones with copper tools
At Gerza on the Nile River just south of the modern site of Cairo, the Gerzeans developed a civilization based on the metallurgy of copper. In about 3500 B.C. they learned basic copper metallurgy from immigrants from Mesopotamia.
In addition to the important copper deposits of Cyprus, copper is relatively common around the Mediterranean.
Copper tools have been found in the tombs of the Egyptian kings. These were used in the construction work of the pyramides, the great buildings of the Egyptian civilization. The Egyptians mined copper in the Sinai Peninsula. The scale of copper mining in the Sinai reached a size that made it the first real industry of the ancient world. The Egyptians mined deposits of the green copper mineral malachite. Malachite, a copper carbonate, was prized because it was the easiest copper mineral to reduce to copper metal. The closely related blue copper carbonate mineral azurite also was discovered. Near these two copper ore minerals, the early prospectors often found another copper mineral, blue-green turquoise. Turquoise is still prized around the world as a gem stone.
With the help of copper implements, King Zoser, built the first great pyramid, the Pyramid of Saqqara, about 2900 B.C. The Great Pyramid of Gizeh, built by King Khufu, followed 100 years later.
Early metalsmiths of Sumer, Babylon, and Egypt were highly prized members of their society. They were so valuable that invading armies made a special effort to carry them off in captivity. Metalsmiths transmitted their secrets to their children. Their guilds may have been the first trade unions in history.
Bronze Age
Bronze (copper + tin) was brought to Europe by roving Mycenaean merchant fleets. The island of Crete was a center for the expansion of the bronze trade to Europe. With few metal deposits of its own, Crete became a crucial center of trade. In the ruins of the vibrant civilization of ancient Crete, bronze weapons, tools, mirrors, and even razors are found.
The Mycenaeans created the finest bronze weapons. Their traders reached the island of Sicily and the Italian main land, their bronze-age culture encountered the culture moving south from the metallurgical centers along the Danube River in Central Europe. They reached the peninsula of Spain (also known as Iberia) about 2000 B.C. The stone-tool using population was eager for bronze tools. The merchants discovered tremendous mineral deposits in Spain, including gold, silver, iron and copper. Sailing around the Iberian peninsula, the Mycenaeans also settled in what is now Portugal.
The Danube River provides a trade route from the east into Central Europe. Bronze reached the Danube valley as early as 2400 B.C. Troy was a gateway to this trade. The Erzgebirge, or "Bronze Mountains" of Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) provided both copper and tin ores to the new civilization.
The Bronze Age lasted from about 2500 B.C. to about 1000 B.C. In 1500 years, human beings had developed trade, metallurgy and mining. They had learned how to seek and use natural resources. They created institutions to protect and to expand their trade and industry. The entire Eastern Hemisphere was changed forever. The foundation stones for modern civilization were laid.
