Editing Bronze Age (section)

==Europe==
Being relatively close to the Fertile Crescent and consisting largely of peninsulas reachable by maritime travelers, Europe was able to profit from the Bronze Age developments relatively early on. The period started with the Aegean Bronze Age in 3200 BC and spanned the entire 2nd millennium BC lasting until ~800 BC in central Europe. It is worth noting however that the Balkan area (centering on modern Romania, Serbia and northern Croatia) was likely doing metalworking on it's own as far back as 3700 BC, further adding to the proliferation of copper and bronze throughout Europe. [[File:Los_Millares_reconstruction.jpg|250px|thumb|right|This whole civilization thing isn't all that bad, eh Pablo?]]

The two most well known and developed European Bronze Age civilizations are the Myceneans and Minoans, both situated in the Aegean region of south-west Europe. The Myceneans were essentially proto-Greeks with a sophisticated society that utilized stone and metals in everyday life. The city of Mycenae had a reasonably complex layout with a palace, graveyard and impressive cyclopean walls. Conversely the Minoans were their own thing and even more advanced that their mainland cousins, constructing vast palatial complexes that featured four-story buildings, sewer systems and architecture that circulated air and kept the interiors cool during the summer. However, due to the lack of major river systems and suitable climate, along with fairly hilly geography, southeastern Europe could not develop vast civilizations like those found in wide river valleys of Mesopotamia and Egypt, having to contend itself with somewhat limited agriculture focused on valleys surrounded by mountains which limited the carrying capacity of land and thus the size of polities there.
[[File:BE_Europe_Tumulus_burrial.jpg|250px|thumb|right|That's no moound!]]

Elsewhere in Europe, the situation becomes more interesting but also more muddled by the mists of time. Recent archaeological research has shown that central, western and parts of northern Europe were by the time of the Bronze Age home of a number of fairly sophisticated cultures that were capable of producing artifacts of great beauty and complexity such as Tumulus, Unetice, Terramare and Apenine culture, to name a few. Unfortunately they could not move from culture to civilization stage since a great limiting factor in this regard was the aforementioned absence of fertile river valleys that offered relatively constant and secure stream of water around which vast agricultural areas could be organized. The only such place in Europe would have been the Po river valley but the area was thick with forests and marshes which inhibited agriculture, not to mention harsher weather and as one would go north, these factors would become increasingly more prevalent. This absence of large-scale agriculture may have had a silver lining of a sorts, as the absence of large and organized societies led to the development of a more tribal and democratic societies based around chiefs elected/supported by their cadre of warriors who could depose them in moots if the head honcho was not to their liking. Millenia later these systems would make their way into the crumbling [[Roman Empire]] and indirectly give rise to the eventual modern European democracy along with a more direct inspiration taken from the Greeks.

[[File:Knossos_Reconstruction.jpg|250px|thumb|right|It ain't no trick, to get sophisticated quick, when you follow Egypt's schtick!]]
Another issue facing modern archaeology and hindering our knowledge about Copper and Bronze Age Europeans is the fact that a large portion of buildings were made out of wood which rotted as the centuries rolled by, leaving only the foundation holes in the ground as some clue as to the size and shape of the structure. Thus, the vast parts of central and northern Europe were dotted with villages and small towns made of wood, mud and a bit of stone that nevertheless had a respectable amount of culture and even trade which for instance brought amber from as far north as modern Denmark and Kaliningrad. Thankfully - since earth and a bit of stone were also used and usually for funerary structures which would also contain the largest amount of artifacts we have evidence of fortresses and even towns like Arkaim, Hünenburg or Los Millares while artificial hill-tombs called Tumuli represent Europe's equivalent of Pyramids and Kofun.