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Copper - Fascinating History
The name copper - In their picture writing the Egyptians used the Ankh sign for copper. Appropriately it was also the symbol of Eternal Life; and as that still happens to be one of the main features of copper, it is used everywhere today for the metal. A long time afterwards Homer, following the Greek practice of around 1000 B.C., called the metal Chalkos; hence the Copper Age is also known as the Chalcolithic. Finally, after another thousand years had elapsed, the words "aes Cyprium" appear in Roman writings of the Early Christian Era because so much of the metal came from Cyprus. 'Copper' is the anglicized version of this Latin phrase.
Copper probably first came into use as the earliest non-precious metal employed by the Sumerians and Chaldeans of Mesopotamia, after they had established their thriving cities of Sumer and Accad, Ur, al'Ubaid and others, somewhere between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago. These early peoples developed considerable skill in fabricating copper and from these centres the rudiments of craftsmanship spread to the river-dwelling people of Egypt, where it continued to flourish for thousands of years long after their own civilization had degenerated.
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