Copper: The First Metal

Copper, like many aspects of modern civilisation, originated in the Middle East. The earliest known copper items, including needles, hooks and jewellery, date to around 8800BC and were discovered at Çayönü, a settlement around 50 miles from the temple site of Göbekli Tepe and dating in its earliest form to around 10,000BC.

The workable properties of copper, known as firestone in Broken Skies, were discovered by the Anunnaki and its magical properties are a key part of the story.

The copper was found in natural seams which could be worked directly, and was hammered into shape without heat. Later came the use of malachite (copper ore) which was heated and smelted and could be poured into moulds to create a variety of objects. The start of the Copper Age or Chalcolithic Period is dated to around 6000BC in the Middle East, when copper became widely used, and the technology rapidly spread across Europe and the East. The mixing of copper and tin to make the far superior bronze soon began to change the world beyond recognition.

Copper ore (malachite). Rob Lavinsky, Wikicommons,

The first appearance of metal objects, entirely unprecedented in the ancient world, was likely greeted with wonder and reverence for the people producing or owning them. Metal soon became a statement of wealth and power, and then came a new social order based on a few individuals, typically men, who controlled land, people and wealth. This was reinforced by the greater possibilities of metal: swords, daggers, shields, armour, and of course money. The vicious circle – wealth leads to danger and greed and fear, so the wealthy amass more wealth and armies and slaughter their rivals for fear of attack, while the poor grow poorer and become little more than pawns – is one which still governs our world today.

This will be a theme in the next book of the Ouroboros series.

Some of the Hittite-period jewellery and ornaments, found in Turkey dating to c1500BC.

Meteors: Faith and Fear

Comet Hale-Bopp (Philipp Salzgeber, Wikicommons).

Around 12,000 years ago, a huge comet smashed into Earth. The ensuing explosion, triggering infernos, tidal waves, pollution, toxic rain and darkness caused the extinctions of dozens of species and near wiped out humankind in large parts of the world. I’ve talked about this in detail in an earlier post.

Legends of this cataclysm have been handed down from our remote ancestors and are still told across the world today. And across the world, comets are still seen as a terrible omen. This may simply be because they are an anomaly in the perfectly predictable cycles of the skies. Or it may be a deeply buried race memory of the time when humankind nearly died.

The Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh describes fire and flood caused by a comet. In Mongolian lore, comets are the daughters of the devil and trigger destruction and storms. A comet was blamed for the Black Death in Medieval England and for the bloodshed between Caesar and Pompey in ancient Rome.

Meteorite fragment found in Russia. Svend Buhl / Meteorite Recon, Wikicommons.

The ancient sky-watchers would not have been able to distinguish between meteors, comets and other celestial phenomena as modern astronomers do, and all were considered moving or falling stars. Meteors often survive their impact with earth and have been revered objects for millennia. Their exceptional weight for their size, their reflective surface and their unique nature all added to their mythical status. 

Iron meteors were incorporated into Native American shrines. The Black Stone of Mecca, revered since pre-Islamic times, is probably of meteoric origin. A meteor was placed in the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. A large meteorite was incorporated into a Neolithic or Bronze Age burial mound in Wiltshire in southern England. The first iron used by ancient people was of meteoric origin and the previously unknown characteristics of metal would have added another dimension to the magical nature of meteors.

And this may have entirely originated with that ancient star fall, 12,000 years ago. This is the line I’ve taken in Broken Skies.