Editing Bronze Age

The '''Bronze Age''' is a period usually marked out by the development of Bronze, an alloy of copper and tin and a period in which human civilization really got going. In the late [[Stone Age]] basic agriculture had been worked out and a few farming communities had emerged. By the Bronze Age these had developed into fairly substantial and sophisticated societies with a high degree of specialization and stratification, complex governments, laws in place of customs and widespread trade networks reaching for thousands of kilometers. Writing and mathematics were developed as tools of governments and were used to build large scale projects. At this time cities grew into the tens of thousands, first as independent city states and latter as empires. 

Beyond these early centers of civilization newer agrarian societies would emerge and rise while nomadic pastoral peoples would develop along their own lines and would trade and fight with the more developed civilizations who saw them as [[Barbarians]].

Technically the Bronze Age was preceded by the '''Copper Age''' in which the basics of metalworking were worked out and first applied and which developments were made, but for sake of simplicity on this site it's getting lumped in with the Bronze Age. Bronze Smelting began around 5,700 years ago in the Fertile Crescent and China about the same time and would spread from those two points. Several Native American civilizations (such as the Incas and the Aztecs) would reach a Bronze Age level of development before the arrival of more advanced.
== The appeal of the Bronze Age ==
The Bronze Age is the earliest period that we have accounts of, even if they are incomplete. In this time that the earliest forms of civilization are gradually taking shape. To the eye of the romantic, priest-kings reign over populations of devoted followers who demand that their legacy be set in stone with great monuments and by fire and blood as they clash. Ranks of spearmen and bowmen march into battle led by charioteers which clash on burning sands with the winners taking the losers as spoils of war. The heroes might be favored faithful servants to their city and their king and the new world that is rising or barbarian warriors seeking glory, freedom and plunder. 

If we want to get more fantastic, this period has produced complex mythologies with pantheons of squabbling gods and epic tales such as the story of Gilgamesh. All of which are ripe material for a fantasy writer to mine.

== Bronze Age inspired Games, Factions and Settings ==
* [[Conan the Barbarian]]
* [[Tomb Kings]]

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[[Category: History]]