When did the Bronze Age start?

When did the Bronze Age start?

AI Answer tool on Academia.edu:

British numismatist:

1860.

😬

 Quite right. 

N#3377 as example. 

 Previously copper. 

N#4721 as example. 

 Interesting article: 

https://www.britnumsoc.org/images/PDFs/BNJ_2018/09_Holland_1853_3rd.pdf 

The 1860 bronze re-coinage of pennies
Paul M. Holland 

Thx for the reference, Zac. As you probably already know, people generally disliked the copper coins:

Chambers’s Journal no. 354, London, Oct. 13, 1860: “Our Condemned Coinage” 

Now the fiat has gone forth, the copper currency will soon be of the past, and we may congratulate ourselves upon the advent of small change that will not try our tempers and pockets to carry; and so let us give a hearty welcome to the age of bronze.”

And even Dickens…

Charles Dickens, The life and adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1839), Chapter 34 

‘I am a demd villain!’ cried Mr. Mantalini, smiting himself on the head.’ I will fill my pockets with change for a sovereign in half-pence, and drown myself in the Thames […].’

Some places like Congo's Mbuti Pygmies, Australian Aborigines and some jungle tribes of Brazil are still stuck at a Neolithic or even Paleolithic (Stone age for you less edumakated people) level of existence.

Even my Maori's were unfamiliar with any kind of metals before the White people arrived (They were at a Neolithic level of development, although the endless wars, social strata and cannibalism zoomed them up to the Iron Age in those aspects).

I think the question was confused with “When did Bronze coinage in the UK begin” and this got construed to the “Bronze Age” an era of late prehistory in Europe, Asia and parts of Africa.

Bronze coinage was first issued in the UK in December 1860 when farthings, hapennies and whole pennies issued in Bronze were issued replacing a heavier Copper coinage. Although some conder tokens from 1787 and 1811 were apparently bronze.

The Bronze Age started around 3300 - 3000BC in the Near Middle East/Greece - and spread around most of Europe and Asia to Indian subcontinent by 2000BC. It reached China around 1800BC, Korea, Vietnam and Thailand in 400BC and Japan by 200BC.

It should not be confused with the late/epi Neolithic culture called the Chalcolithic which was the copper age. They could use soft metals like Copper, Silver and Gold, but the could not alloy them, Bronze was an alloy of tin and copper and thus Bronze Age begins with the ability to smelt and alloy metals, the Copper Age is merely melting and shaping a single metal like copper or gold.

You can get Neolithic metal use too, as in some Native Americans found raw copper ingots and beat them into shape, but did not melt them, so sub metal age metal!

Varna in Bulgaria (4000BC) and Otzi (c3200BC) are chalcolithic as they were objects of a single metal only, so not bronze age. the Bronze age was also an era where metal was still rare and many toolkits still featured stone tools, mostly flint. Metal only became common at the very end of the Bronze Age (Late Bronze Age was golden era of heroic Greece, Hittites, Egypt New Kingdom etc).

Well, I know this exactly: "The Bronze Age began immediately after the end of the Iron Age"

Before the Iron Age, as far as I know and remember exactly, it was the Stone Age.  After it was the Iron Age and then the Bronze Age. Now we have a post-covid and gender era.   But I don't know exactly what awaits us, I just feel that it will stink a lot there and it's usually at the back.

Ivan😁

Iron Age came AFTER the Bronze Age. Iron had a much higher melting point than Bronze and thus required better technology to melt it.

Part of why Mycenae, Egypt New Kingdom and Canaan collapsed, was their lack of understanding of Iron, the Sea Peoples, Israelites and Phoenicians all could use Iron and they survived. Of course this may be incorrect in some case, some people claim Iron nails found in the Great pyramid (2600BC - early Bronze Age), but again they could be tin or lead.

In Britain, the Bronze Age starts around 2000BC, but the Iron Age not until 700 - 500BC. In Japan the Iron Age began as late as 400AD in the Kofun period, in China the Shang and Chou dynasties were also too dumb to use Iron and it came in around the late Warring States Period - 400BC.

However Iron like Bronze still corrodes over time and oxidises, hence why Steel the most modern metal was not used until the Roman era. Steel usage fell in off the Post Roman era and only became widespread in the late 18th century - although the Japanese had used it at least since 1100 AD, as Samurai swords were made out of a steel like metal.

https://www.e-education.psu.edu/matse81/node/2129#:~:text=The%20beginning%20of%20the%20Bronze,everywhere%20in%20our%20modern%20cities.

Thx for the feedback you all.

My point was of course to play on the mening of words. A British numismatist or coin collector may use “Bronze Age” in the way I suggested, but actually it's just a reform of the copper based coinage. However important that was for the British people of the time, especially the lower classes, the bronze reform was in no way consequential on the development of civilization as the ancient mastery of bronze was, and for which it's legitimate to talk about an Age in human history.

Iron is ugly and corrodes badly and quickly, but it's harder than copper or bronze and better to make lethal weapons. Once your neighbours and potential enemies have learnt to master iron smelting, you have no choice but to do the same ASAP. It's a matter of security and even survival.

The original method to work iron, which is a very common metal, was to smelt it to remove as many imperfections as possible and then hammer it into swords and other weapons and tools. It couln't in any way be brought to the melting point. Apparently, the iron used for Roman swords was pretty crappy — you could say they were mass-produced given the size of the Roman army from the Middle Republic until the Late Empire. 

Fun fact 1: the mastery of iron smelting and blacksmithing was a source of prestige at first, so even earrings and other jewelry were sometimes made of iron. Fun fact 2: some of the early uses of aluminium were also about prestige, such as Napoleon III's army helmets. Aluminium was quite valuable because it needs a lot of electricity to be produced. Back then (1850s–1860s), of course, electricity was quite a rare thing.

Sorry I studied Anthropology in my early Uni career and one first year paper is just all about evolution from Ardipithecus (Earlier hominins were not known in 1995) to Julius Caesar and the Neolithic/Bronze age was like a month long unit. Ages of prehistory are baked into my skull basically. Blame Indiana Jones and Brian Fagan (Anyone who has done undergrad Anthro will know exactly who he is).

I have remained fascinated with bronze since. Agree that early Iron was a crappy metal, that corroded fast, but there was much more of it and it meant there was metal for the masses, whilst Bronze remained a prestige metal. However steel was a different story.

It was a bit of fun to wind everyone up to and we took it all in good jest.