Already in the 6th millennium BC, man used copper, as evidenced by beads found at archaeological excavations made of native copper, but this cannot be considered the beginning of metallurgy.

The prehistoric period that marked the beginning of metallurgy and the discovery of copper, a metal that began to be used for the manufacture of primitive tools and weapons, is called the Copper Age in the literature (Eneolithic, Eneolithic or Stone-Copper Age).

Generally speaking, this period covers the third millennium BC, according to the high chronology from 3300 to 2000/1900 years. P. P. E. and on classics from 2200 to 1700 BC P. E. This is the period of the subboreal climate.

At the first stage, copper was used as a petrographic raw material, it was native copper that was used for jewelry in an earlier period. In Europe , we are already seeing the appearance of native copper and oxide ores in late Neolithic cultures . Copper ore deposits are located in the Carpathians , in the Czech Plain, in the Caucasus, in the Urals (where the mixing of copper and arsenic begins early , which gives arsenic bronze ).

Large mines in the Eneolithic era were of good quality. Initially, ore was mined, and then a vein of sulfide ore was crushed and then extracted. Later, simple furnaces for ore processing were developed. Oxide ores were smelted in pits (ore at the bottom, coal was burned around it) or hearths. The metal will end up in large ceramic pots. There was also "recycling", which means the re-melting of old tools and weapons.

Sulfide ores required a large fire, bellows were needed, and it is assumed that the "sopal" is a hollow ceramic object that was used for blowing (kindling fire). Such items were found on archaeological sites of the Eneolithic era next to foundry vessels . Molten copper was caught in small pots.

Mold appears in the late Eneolithic . They were stone, hollowed out, originally solid, disposable. The two - component form will not appear until 2300/2200. P. P. E. in the Vucedol culture .

By mixing copper and tin, a hard alloy was obtained - bronze, completely suppressing stone as a material for making objects. Copper is not the only metal after which an entire epoch in the prehistory of mankind is named, it is the next epoch, called the Bronze Age, which replaces the Eneolithic, and it is called the Bronze Age doradobet peru