The Copper Age Explained (The rise of civilization)

The Copper Age Explained (The rise of civilization) Chalcolithic Mesopotamia

Some sources used include:
Mesopotamia and the near east (Roaf, Michael )
Northern Mesopotamia (Potts, Danie)
Archaeologies of the Middle East: Critical Perspectives (Pollock, Susan)
A History of the Ancient Near East(Van De Mieroop, Marc)
On pins and needles: tracing the evolution of copper-based alloying (Thornton, C.P.; Lamberg-Karlovsky, C.C.; Liezers, M.; Young, S.M.M.)

This video is sponsored by my patrons over on Patreon

[allonzehe]

The super ancient vids like this are the best ones.

[egillskallagrimson]

Somewhere I read that the depiction of Ephestus the forge god as a deformed men was a depiction of ancient blacksmiths using arsenic in their craft to make bronze. Long term exposure to arsenic it's not only mortal also can deform limbs an incapacitate before killing. So for the ancient greek their forge god had the features of the great forge masters of the mythical times.

[miniondaechir]

I've never seen a youtuber tackle the copper age. Props to you, man.

[khediveabbashilmiiiofegypt]

You know shit is real when Epimetheus stops talking about Bronze age

[mauricevanderheiden]

The real world depiction of the different materials at the beginning were a very satisfactory representations. You have my admiration for this idea.

[alexandersarchives]

Man, how did you manage to secure a copper sponsorship? You hardly see them sponsoring anything nowadays

[GenScinmore]

8:06 good to see the Uruk-hai developed their own civilization after the War of the Ring

[arianghotbi_]

WE MISSED YOU EPIMETHEUS !!! WE NEED MORE CONTENT FROM YOU

[devinpowers]

I find it so interesting when inventions like copper smelting are invented independently of other civilizations. The crossbow is another good example.

[liviavaleria]

NOBODY TALKS ABOUT THE COPPER AGE OH MY GOD I'M SO HAPPY YOU ARE EPI!!

[daniell]

I found the Bronze Age endlessly fascinating, and some independent research taught me about the Copper Age, but this video does such a great job at really illustrating this period of history. I didn't understand why copper became so important, but the context makes it clear. Coming from tools of stone and bone, metal probably turned society on its head! I loved one comment in particular, of how the people in the Bronze Age saw the Copper Age as a time of myths and legends. In the same way, we today look at our past and try to imagine it, so too did the people who came before us.

[Shadeem]

i love the cute little gem trees at the start

[carhose]

When ever Im sick I enjoy mimicking Epimetheus voice

[thsavage]

Ah, the last time a penny was worth it’s weight.

[peter]

some guy probably: Puts nice green stone in the fire
green stone: melts and turns into a shiny redish metal
same guy: $$$

[vikingshark]

High school history be like: First there was the Stone Age, and that lasted like three generations. Then papyrus, then Rome then the Magna Carta and pretty much nothing in between.
With a final that's fifty questions like: 'The Bronze Age was known for the use of ____ in tools and weapons.'
(a) bronze
(b) rechargeable batteries
(c) lasers
(d) all of the above

[rennor]

The Copper Age must have been quite interesting maybe deadly but certainly not boring.

[MrBritishNinja]

Every time I watch one of your vids on the pre-iron age, I'm convinced an excellent strategy game could be built from the resource gated situation: do you breed your warhorses, or risk them on expansion? Do you risk losing your copper weapons on an mercenary expedition, sell them as jewelry to neighbours, or increase crop yields with tools? Do you share metallurgy knowledge so you can trade for it later, or keep it secret and limit the total available resource?

[jayantkumar]

Stone- copper- bronze- iron - gunpowder- coal- oil-nuclear energy

Story of humanity

[markusbroyles]

I did not know that arsenic was in some ore deposits of copper... makes sense that this would give rise to an alchemical mythos. The original name for Egypt was Khemit ~ Origin of the word CHEMISTRY ~ I suspect that gold and silver also had very early origins.