The Bronze Age is the prehistoric time period when people made tools from a metal called bronze. Bronze is a mixture of two other metals: a lot of copper and a little tin. Wood, stone and other materials were also used for tools, but bronze was better for cutting and chopping, and was easy to shape. The bronze age was not at same time everywhere, because different groups of people began to use bronze at different times. In Western Europe, the bronze age lasted from about 2000 BC until 800 BC. In the Middle East, it started about a thousand years earlier.

Archaeologists think that people became more organised in the Bronze Age. This is because making metal tools was difficult and needed special skills. The people who had these new skills would have been important. Before the Bronze Age, in the Stone Age, people might have been more equal. The new metal tools were bought, sold, or traded across large distances.

Later, when iron tools spread, the Bronze Age ended and the Iron Age started.

Ancient history

Bronstyd | عصر برونزي | Edá de Bronce | Yr Oes Efydd | Bronzealder | Bronzezeit | Εποχή του Χαλκού | Bronze Age | Edad de Bronce | Bronzepoko | Âge du bronze | Idade de Bronce | 청동기 시대 | Zaman Perunggu | Età del bronzo | תקופת הברונזה | Bronzas laikmets | Bronstijd | Bronzetiet | 青銅器時代 | Bronsealderen | Epoka brązu | Idade do bronze | Бронзовый век | Бронзано доба | Bronsåldern | Бронзовий вік | 青铜时代