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Copper, a Precious Metal
The central Alps, especially modern-day Tyrol, Austria and Trentino, Italy, are rich in copper ores, which were already being mined in the late Neolithic period. The ore was broken from the rocks, crushed, roasted and then melted in furnaces at over 1000° C. The high furnace temperature was achieved by burning charcoal and feeding air to the fire using bellows. The smelting process produced a large volume of slag as a waste product. After several melting stages, round cast cakes or billets were obtained.
Cast copper cakes and billets were brought to settlements or traded farther afield.
In the settlements the cakes and billets were remelted in crucibles. Finally, the molten copper was poured into stone or clay casts to manufacture weapons, jewellery and everyday utensils. Taking hard stone and producing from it liquid metal that could be formed into valuable objects must have seemed like magic to the people of the time, and smelters and casters probably assumed a high rank in Copper Age society.
