Materials · c. 4,650 BCE

Bronze

Copper alloyed with tin: harder, castable, and worth trading for.

A tin-bronze foil from Pločnik, Serbia, comes from an undisturbed context dated to about 4650 BCE. Its composition suggests smelting naturally mixed copper-tin ores. Much later, bronze tools and weapons helped drive long-distance trade networks for tin.

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Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 1

Copper smelting 5000 BCE

What it led to 5

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

World GDP over a million years Latest: 41k billion 1990 international $ (2000) Source: DeLong 1998, Estimating World GDP, One Million B.C. - Present; Wikipedia: Gross world product (DeLong table, cross-check)

World population over a million years Latest: 6.27k million people (2000) Source: DeLong 1998, table 'Total World Population' (Kremer series); Kremer 1993, Population Growth and Technological Change: One Million B.C. to 1990, QJE 108(3)