The Bronze Age is the period in which people first made widespread use of bronze, an alloy of copper with tin, for tools, weapons and ornaments. It began at different times in different regions, starting in the Near East, where the Sumerians, Egyptians and the cities of the Indus valley belonged to it, and reaching Europe and East Asia later. The age saw the growth of cities, writing, states and long-distance trade, since tin often had to be carried hundreds of kilometres from its sources. In the eastern Mediterranean it ended in the turmoil of the Late Bronze Age collapse around 1200 BCE, when many palace centres fell. Iron, which was more widely available, then gradually took over as the main working metal.
Before and after
- c. 3,501 BCEPeople first tame horses on the steppe
- from c. 3,500 BCE to 2,500 BCEOrigins of Brú na Bóinne
- from c. 3,500 BCE to 2,500 BCEAfanasevo culture
- 34th century BCEWriting is invented in Mesopotamia
- from c. 3,300 BCE to 600 BCEBronze Age
- from c. 3,300 BCE to 1,100 BCEMinoan civilization
- from c. 3,300 BCE to 2,600 BCEYamnaya culture
- from c. 3,300 BCE to 1982Origins of Qatna
- from c. 3,250 BCE to 400 CEEgyptian hieroglyphs
More in Evolution & life
- from about 50,000 years ago to 2nd millenniumPre-Columbian era
- from about 50,000 years ago to 9,726 years agoUpper Paleolithic
- about 23,100 years agoPeople are already in North America
- about 15,100 years agoDogs are domesticated
- from about 15,000 years ago to 1st millennium BCEJōmon period
- c. 9,750s BCEQuaternary extinction event
The era
This moment belongs to the Human prehistory (300,000 years ago to 3,200 BCE), the human story before writing.