The Bronzing of Europe introduces new tools and weapons, harder than copper and less brittle than stone. Bronze is made with about 88% copper and 12% tin and possible other alloy metals. Originally, bronze is an alloy of copper and arsenic or arsenic-bearing metals. The earliest tin-copper-alloy artifact dates to c. 4650 BCE in Serbia.
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Bronze is the second of three metal ages, the first being the Copper or Chalcolithic Age from 3500 - 3300 BCE. The third, the Iron Age, begins 1200 BCE as sources of tin deplete and full scale migrations interfere with trade.
While traditions, materials and skills develop locally, many come into general European use during the far-reaching Bronze Age. Weapons and warrior essentials use old and new techniques. Bronze Age weapons include:
Axes - from stone to bronze, hand axes, battle axes, tools and weapons
Bows and Arrows - bows of wood evolve, and arrows get bronze tips, sometimes
Dirks and Daggers - bronze daggers in Eurasia from 3300 - 3000 BCE
Halberds - scythe-like blade attached to wood handle at right angle
Shields & Armor - beaten bronze techniques develop in the Bronze Age
Spears - early spears are sharpened flint or stone tied to a wooden shaft.
Swords - first appear 1700 - 1600 BCE; tapered like an elongated dagger.
Wooden Clubs & Mallets - objects of weaponry & tools found preserved in bogs
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The metal ages overlap, with copper being used into the Bronze age and bronze tools and weapons still made in the Iron Age. For some time iron is considered inferior to bronze.
Bronze is a favorite metal in artwork. Many marble statues are copies of earlier bronze works melted down for currency.
Evidence indicates some young men of the Proto-Indo-European Bronze Age Steppe cultures leave home and live in the wild with an older man, who instructs them in hunting, warfare and raiding.
They're called wolves of the Steppe. After a few years of 'wild' living the men return to settle down and have families.
In artwork bronze is a cherished casting metal. The oldest bronze statue dates to 2500 BC in the region of today's Pakistan, and bronze is still the most common medium for statuary and metal art.
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In and after the Bronze Age, bronze is popular for tools, weapons, armor and building materials. To make bronze, the tin-bearing ore must be mined and smelted to extract tin. The tin is then added to hot copper.
During the Bronze Age major advances such as standardized trade routes take form. The horse, domesticated by people of the Cambric steppes about 3800 BCE, arrives in Europe c. 2000 BCE to become a popular form of transport and valuable in trade.
Previously, people use oxen or donkeys for work or travel. In the East, the camel is domesticated c. 3000 BCE, leading to the birth of empires.
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The Bronze Age is marked by steady progress in Eurasia, facilitated by the Amber Road from the northern Baltic to the balmy Mediterranean, and the early Steppe trade routes. People, goods and information travel like never before. Luxuries like Baltic amber and Egyptian Blue Faience become coveted items of trade.
With advances in metallurgy weapons became stronger and faster. Chain-mail and plate armor protected vulnerable bodies. The earliest bronze armors were found in Greece dating from the late Mycenean period (1750 - 1050 BCE).
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Bronze Age armor might include the body cuirass, made of breast and back plates fastened together; shoulder guards, breast plates and lower protection plates. Earlier armor is created from hardened leather or fabrics.
Metal body armor makes its debut c 1400 BCE among the Mycenaean Greeks. Chain mail doesn't appear until much later, in the 4th century BCE, following scale armor.
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