The Chalcolithic Period

The Chalcolithic Period, or Copper Age, is the archaeological transitional period between the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, generally dated from roughly 4500 to 3300 BCE in the Near East and at varying dates elsewhere, marked by the first widespread use of copper alongside continued reliance on stone tools. During this period metalworkers learned to smelt and cast copper, initially for ornaments and small tools and later for more substantial implements and weapons, a technological step that preceded the discovery that alloying copper with tin produced the harder bronze that would define the following age. The period coincided with growing social complexity in several regions, including larger settlements, more pronounced social stratification visible in burial practices, and, in areas such as the Balkans and the Levant, some of the earliest evidence anywhere in the world of organized copper mining and metallurgical specialization. The Chalcolithic gives way to the Bronze Age once tin-bronze alloying became widespread.