Stay Curious

SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER AND UNLOCK ONE MORE ARTICLE FOR FREE.

Sign Up

VIEW OUR Privacy Policy


Discover Magazine Logo

WANT MORE? KEEP READING FOR AS LOW AS $1.99!

Subscribe

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?

FIND MY SUBSCRIPTION
Advertisement

5 of the Most Unique and Luxurious Bronze Age Artifacts

Sun disks, special wine vessels and vases, and even dancing dwarfs were all coveted possessions of the time. Learn more about these precious Bronze Age artifacts.

ByJoshua Rapp Learn
Egyptian dwarf deity Bes, a household deity associated with fertility, music, children and more.Credit: Olaf Tausch, CC BY 3.0/Wikimedia Commons

Newsletter

Sign up for our email newsletter for the latest science news

Sign Up

The Bronze Age is known for its epic heroes, grand civilizations — the ruins of some still stand today — and of course, the increasing development of precious objects as some cultures became more socially stratified.

At the simplest level, the term “Bronze Age” is used to denote the period when cultures in Europe, Asia, and Africa began the first major use of metalworking. The Bronze Age roughly lasted from 3000 B.C.E. to 1200 B.C.E., after the Stone Age and before the Iron Age in most cultures.

Aside from advances in working with metal, the period often includes a number of other important developments in human societies such as writing systems, urbanization, and more complex state systems. Other technologies like the plow and the wheel also appeared in this time.

What kinds of things were considered luxurious by people of this age? Luxury, like beauty, is a perception of the ...

  • Joshua Rapp Learn

    Joshua Rapp Learn is an award-winning D.C.-based science journalist who frequently writes for Discover Magazine, covering topics about archaeology, wildlife, paleontology, space and other topics.

Stay Curious

JoinOur List

Sign up for our weekly science updates

View our Privacy Policy

SubscribeTo The Magazine

Save up to 40% off the cover price when you subscribe to Discover magazine.

Subscribe
Advertisement

0 Free Articles