Materials · c. 4,700 BCE

Lost-wax casting

A wax model melted from a clay mold leaves a perfect metal copy.

Radiocarbon dating of short-lived organic material in casting cores places sampled Nahal Mishmar objects at about 4700-3800 BCE. The method made complex metal shapes and is still used for turbine blades.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia Source

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