Bronze

Definition

Bronze was significant to any culture that encountered it. It was one of the most innovative alloys of mankind. Tools, weapons, armour, and various building materials like decorative tiles made of bronze were harder and more durable than their stone and copper ("Chalcolithic") predecessors. Initially bronze was made out of copper and arsenic to form arsenic bronze. It was only later that tin was used, becoming the sole type of bronze in the late 3rd millennium BCE.

The earliest tin-alloy bronzes date to the late 4th millennium BCE in Susa (Iran) and some ancient sites in Luristan (Iran) and Mesopotamia (Iraq). Copper and tin ores are rarely found together (exceptions include one ancient site in Thailand and one in Iran), so serious bronze work has always involved trade. In Europe, the major source for tin was Great Britain's deposits of ore in Cornwall. Phoenician traders visited Great Britain to trade goods from the Mediterranean for tin.

Though bronze is stronger (harder) than wrought iron, the Bronze Age gave way to the Iron Age; this happened because iron was easier to find. Bronze was still used during the Iron Age, but for many purposes the weaker wrought iron was found to be sufficiently strong. Archaeologists suspect that a serious disruption of the tin trade precipitated the transition. The population migrations around 1200 – 1100 BCE reduced the shipping of tin around the Mediterranean (and from Great Britain), limiting supplies and raising prices. As ironworking improved, iron became cheaper, and cultures learned how to make steel, which is stronger than bronze and holds a sharper edge longer.

Based on Wikipedia content that has been reviewed, edited, and republished. Last reviewed by Jan van der Crabben on 28 April 2011. Please help and improve this definition!

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Bronze Books

• The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean Eric H. Cline Oxford University Press, USA (01 January 2012) Price: $44.59

• Pompeii: The History, Life and Art of the Buried City Anonymous White Star Publishers (07 September 2010) Currently unavailable

• The Ancient City: Life in Classical Athens and Rome Peter Connolly Oxford University Press, USA (18 May 2000) Price: $24.26

• Greece and Rome at War Peter Connolly Greenhill Books (01 January 2006) Currently unavailable

• Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia Anonymous University of California Press (07 November 2005) Price: $55.27