ABSTRACT
The Copper Age commenced in about 8000 bc. Copper was the first metal to be named for one of the Ages of Man. Oxidised copper minerals such as the carbonates had been found earlier, before the days of smelting. In the Middle East, Neolithic man, while seeking suitable stones and also collecting gold, came upon occurrences of this reddish metal, which was really native copper. The probable birthplace of copper smelting was Susa, in Iran, where the art of pottery making and that of annealing and casting was already highly advanced for those times. The Egyptians derived their copper ores from Wadi Maghara in the Sinai Peninsula, east of the Gulf of Suez. Although the Bronze Age had long since begun in the Middle East, Egypt had been slow to embrace the use of bronze. Egypt, however, had given great gifts to mankind in stonemasonry, architecture, agriculture, geometry, medicine, jewellery, metalsmithing, sculpturing, glassmaking, papermaking, and fine weaving.
