Archaeological
evidence demonstrates that copper was used as far back as 10,000 years
ago for items such as ornaments in western Asia. During the prehistoric
Chalcolithic Period (derived from chalkos, the Greek word for copper),
man discovered how to extract and use copper to produce ornaments and
implements. As early as the 4th to 3rd millennium BC, workers extracted
copper from Spain's Huelva region. The discovery that copper, when alloyed
with tin produces bronze, led to the Bronze Age, c. 2500 BC. Israel's
Timna Valley provided copper to the Pharaohs (an Egyptian papyrus records
the use of copper to treat infections and to sterilize water). Cyprus
supplied much of the Phoenician, Greek, and Roman needs for copper. "Copper"
is derived from the latin Cyprium, literally Cyprian metal. While the
Greeks of Aristotle's era were familiar with brass, as a copper alloy,
it was under Augustus' Imperial Rome that brass came into being. In South
America, the pre-Columbian Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations exploited
copper, in addition to gold and silver. During the Middle Ages, copper
and bronze works flourished in China, India, and Japan. The discoveries
and inventions relating to electricity and magnetism of the late 18th
and early 19th centuries by scientists such as Ampere, Faraday, and Ohm,
and the products manufactured from copper, helped launch the Industrial
Revolution and propel copper into a new era. Today, copper continues to
serve society's needs.
Archaeological
evidence demonstrates that copper was used as far back as 10,000 years
ago for items such as ornaments in western Asia. During the prehistoric
Chalcolithic Period (derived from chalkos, the Greek word for copper),
man discovered how to extract and use copper to produce ornaments and
implements. As early as the 4th to 3rd millennium BC, workers extracted
copper from Spain's Huelva region. The discovery that copper, when alloyed
with tin produces bronze, led to the Bronze Age, c. 2500 BC. Israel's
Timna Valley provided copper to the Pharaohs (an Egyptian papyrus records
the use of copper to treat infections and to sterilize water). Cyprus
supplied much of the Phoenician, Greek, and Roman needs for copper. "Copper"
is derived from the latin Cyprium, literally Cyprian metal. While the
Greeks of Aristotle's era were familiar with brass, as a copper alloy,
it was under Augustus' Imperial Rome that brass came into being. In South
America, the pre-Columbian Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations exploited
copper, in addition to gold and silver. During the Middle Ages, copper
and bronze works flourished in China, India, and Japan. The discoveries
and inventions relating to electricity and magnetism of the late 18th
and early 19th centuries by scientists such as Ampere, Faraday, and Ohm,
and the products manufactured from copper, helped launch the Industrial
Revolution and propel copper into a new era. Today, copper continues to
serve society's needs.