Metal Age TOOLS

One of the factors that helps us to divide Prehistory is the tool creation, since the discovery of certain objects makes us differentiate stages depending on the progress made by human beings in them. To talk about the main tools in each of the advanced prehistoric phases, in this lesson from a Teacher we must talk about the Metal Age tools.

Index

1. What is the Metal Age?
2. Main tools in the Copper Age
3. Tools in the Bronze Age
4. Tools in the Iron Age

Before listing the main tools of the Age of metals We must briefly define this stage, thereby understanding the years it covers and serving to understand the areas it covers.

The Metal Age is the term used to speak of a technological period that took place in the Prehistoryin the European and Asian areas, being the second great period of this stage of humanity. We must bear in mind that, as happens on many occasions, the Metal Age does not appear in all historiographies, being typical of the western one and varying greatly with respect to others such as the Asian or the Oriental.

We can say that the Metal Age is the second of the great stages prehistoric, being after the Stone Age. It was at this stage that human beings went from making everything in stone to creating tools using different types of metals.

Regarding its historical context, its origin dates back around the 6th millennium BC. C. time in which human beings discovered the first ways of working metals, the first being copper, this happening in the area of ​​Asia Minor. On the other hand, in the European area its origin dates back to the III millennium BC. C. with the arrival of metallurgical processes in the Aegean Sea area.

We began to discover the tools of the Metal Age talking about the first of the periods: the Copper Age.

This stage is characterized by being the first of the metal age, so when talking about the main tools of the period we must talk about the first ones that They are made with metals, although the use of stone still remained relevant and with great expansion. In addition to stone and copper, it has been possible to find tools created with other materials, such as el bone, coal, or wood.

When talking about the Copper Age, therefore, we talk about a huge number of tools, of which some are made with copper, but many others were created with other materials. Between the main tools of the Copper Age we can find the following:

• Copper axes: Being the most defining element of the Copper Age. These axes were drilled and had different uses, such as attacking someone, felling trees, chipping stone or to form holes in the ground for agricultural work.
• Ornaments: The appearance of copper served to improve craftsmanship, thereby increasing the amount of products that were traded in the areas where copper was used. Among these ornaments we can find rings, vessels, or bracelets.
• Hammers: One of the resources was still made of stone, being huge hammers that were used for many tasks, one of the most important being to mold copper for use.
• Ladders: Improving the use of wood, the inhabitants of the Copper Age created huge and advanced staircases to facilitate access.
• Chisels: Thanks to copper, the prehistoric people were able to make chisels much more effective than stone ones, serving to decorate the stone and other elements and move towards writing, although there were years left for it.

The intermediate period of the Metal Age is characterized by exchange copper for bronze, this material being somewhat harder and more resistant than its predecessor.

As in the previous era, in the Bronze Age elements such as stone and bones were also maintained, although their replacement by metals was increasingly common. The main tools of the Bronze Agewere the following:

• Weapons: Bronze proved to be a very useful material for the creation of weapons, so it is very interesting to know the enormous number of weapons of bronze that we have found of the time, ranging from versatile axes to elements more focused on killing such as swords or daggers.
• Agricultural tools: Bronze made tools, such as those used for the plow or sickles, a stronger material and more useful for long sessions of work in the field.
• Vessels: The vessels increased their value with the new material, managing to improve their trade and becoming a key economic value.
• Transportation: The greater resistance of bronze made it serve more elements that suffered greater erosion, being a clear example the means of transport. Chariots with bronze reinforcements became a key value for the society of the time.

To conclude this lesson on the tools of the Metal Age, we must talk about the main tools during the Iron Age, being the time when this began to be used more resistant and stronger material for the manufacture of tools, causing such rapid evolution that in a short time it would pass to the Ancient Age. The main tools of the Iron Age were the following:

• Agricultural equipment: Pickaxes, shovels, plows and other elements began to be manufactured in iron, resisting much more and thus achieving greater ease when cultivating the field, greatly increasing the production of the nations that used the iron.
• Weapons: Iron weapons were much more resistant and dangerous than bronze or copper, causing this that civilizations that passed to the Iron Age earlier had a huge advantage in campaigns military.
• Hammers: Iron was a stronger and more present metal on the planet, but it was also more difficult to treat than metals used previously, which is why the creation of steel hammers to treat steel was necessary.
• Jewelry tools: Iron tools were capable of forging artisan products and jewelry like never before, improving trade and creating some regions great commercial empires.

If you want to read more articles similar to Metal Age: tools, we recommend that you enter our category of History.

• Subero, M. TO. A., & de la Cruz, P. I. (2011). Age of metals. In History of Calahorra (pp. 45-64). Friends of the History of Calahorra.
• Arce García, A., Arnáiz Martínez, M., Barrio Rodríguez, J., Bellostas Sagredo, P., Burón García, N., Jodra Esteban, P.,... & Urquiza González, M. (1993). Neolithic and Metal Age.
• Longa, V. M. (2016). At the origin. Technique and creativity in prehistory. Ludus Vitalis, 17 (31), 227-231.