There are many Bronze Age mines in the Old World that collectively produced thousands of tons of copper, enough to make millions of tools, weapons, and decorations for Europe and the Near East.

This is the story of the origins of copper mining and its development through the Bronze Age.

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Video Sources

The Horse, the Wheel, and Language - David Anthony ➜ https://amzn.to/3aD3Rhu
The Rise of Bronze Age Society - K. Kristiansen & T. B. Larsson ➜ https://amzn.to/3r0xkdU
Prehistoric Copper Mining in Europe - William O'Brian ➜
https://amzn.to/3vw0Omp
A History of Metallurgy - RF Tylecote ➜ https://amzn.to/3s2Go1Y
Metals Make the World Go Round: the Supply and Circulation of Metals in Bronze Age Europe - Ed. C.F.E. Pare ➜ https://amzn.to/3KtR9B4

Arsenical Copper in Minoan Crete - Alessandra Giumlia-Mair and Fulvia Lo Schiavo
Bronze Age Beginnings: a Scalar View from the Global Outskirts - H. Vandkilde (2019)
Bronze Age Metallurgy in the Peloponnese - Maria Kayafa (1999)
Chrysokamino in the History of Early Metallurgy - James D. Muhly (2006)
Early Bronze Age Copper Smelting on Seriphos (Cyclades, Greece) - O. Philaniotou, Y. Bassiakos, and M. Georgakopoulou (2011)
Early bronze age metal trade in the eastern Mediterranean. New compositional and lead isotope evidence from Cyprus - JM. Webb, D. Frankel, ZA Stos And N. Gale (2006)
Further Evidence for Bronze Age Production of Copper From Ores in the Lavrion Ore District, Attica, Greece - Noel H Gale (2009)
Shifting networks and mixing metals: Changing metal trade routes to Scandinavia correlate with Neolithic and Bronze Age transformations - HW Nørgaard, E. Pernicka, H Vandkilde (2021)
Ösenringbarren and the Classical Ösenring Copper M. Junk, R. Krause and E. Pernicka (2001)
(And many more)

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Relevant Videos on the Old Copper Culture of North America

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Music

Muddy Banjo - Humans Win
Western Renegade - Humans Win
Deep Mind - Atlantis Music & Sound
Float - Geographer
Singularity - Michael Vignola
Bulgarian Spirit - Psystein
Tuvan Throat Singers - Psystein
Falling Sun - Atlantis Music & Sound
Electra to the Baltic Sea - Guiseppe Rizzo
Mystica - Atlantis Music & Sound

Video Chapters

00:00 Neolithic Copper Mines
02:31 Ancient Copper Mining on Cyprus
04:25 Lead Isotope Analysis
05:27 Copper Trade in the Amarna letters
06:09 Oxhide Ingots
06:31 Mycenaean Copper Use
07:04 Copper mining on the Cycladic islands
07:36 Early Metalworking on Crete
07:57 Early Balkan mining and metallurgy
09:44 Yamnaya culture steppe miners of the Volga
11:18 Middle and Late Bronze Age European Mining
11:47 Unetice culture miners
13:33 Nordic Bronze Age Copper Imports
15:37 Mining in Bronze Age Britain and Ireland
16:28 Bronze Age Copper Mines of Europe