Copper Age state societies

Chalcolithic
Eneolithic, Aeneolithic
or Copper Age
↑ Stone Age
↑ Neolithic

Africa

Naqada culture, Gerzeh culture, A-Group culture, C-Group culture, Kerma culture

West Asia

Ghassulian culture, Uruk period

Europe

Yamna culture, Corded Ware
Cernavodă culture, Decea Mureşului culture, Gorneşti culture, Gumelniţa–Karanovo culture, Petreşti culture, Coțofeni culture
Remedello culture, Gaudo culture, Monte Claro culture

Central Asia

Yamna culture, Botai culture, BMAC culture, Afanasevo culture

South Asia

Periodisation of the Indus Valley Civilisation, Bhirrana culture, Hakra Ware culture, Kaytha culture, Ahar–Banas culture
Savalda Culture, Malwa culture, Jorwe culture

China

Mesoamerica
Metallurgy, Wheel,
Domestication of the horse
↓ Bronze Age
Painting of a Copper Age walled settlement, Los Millares, Iberia

The Chalcolithic or Copper Age is the transitional period between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age.[1] It is taken to begin around the mid-5th millennium BC, and ends with the beginning of the Bronze Age proper, in the late 4th to 3rd millennium BC, depending on the region.

The Chalcolithic is part of prehistory, but based on archaeological evidence, the emergence of the first state societies can be inferred, notably in the Fertile Crescent (Sumer, predynastic Egypt, Protominoan Crete), with late Neolithic societies of comparable complexity emerging in the Indus Valley (Mehrgarh) and in China.

The development of states—large-scale, populous, politically centralized, and socially stratified polities/societies governed by powerful rulers—marks one of the major milestones in the evolution of human societies. Archaeologists often distinguish between primary (or pristine) states and secondary states. Primary states evolved independently through largely internal developmental processes rather than through the influence of any other pre-existing state.

The earliest known primary states appeared in Mesopotamia c. 3700 BC, in Egypt c. 3300 BC, in the Indus Valley c. 3300 BC, and in China c. 1600 BC.

List of known polities

City period
Assur 3500 BC
Bad-tibira 5000 BC to 2300 BC
Eridu 5400 BC onward
Isin 3500 to 2100 BC
Jericho Neolithic (first settlement) until Late Bronze Age
Kish 4000 to 2300 BC
Lagash 4000 to 2250 BC
Heliopolis (Lower Egypt) 3500 BC?
Mari 5000 to 1759 BC
Girsu 5000 to 2100 BC
Nippur 5000 to 2450 BC
Susa 4200 to 2330 BC
Nekhen (Upper Egypt) 3500 BC?
Ur 4000 to 2000 BC
Uruk 4000 to 3100 BC

See also

References

  1. ↑ The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) ISBN 0-19-861263-X, p. 301: "Chalcolithic /,kælkəl'lɪθɪk/ adjective Archaeology of, relating to, or denoting a period in the 4th and 3rd millennium BCE, chiefly in the Near East and SE Europe, during which some weapons and tools were made of copper. This period was still largely Neolithic in character. Also called Eneolithic... Also called Copper Age - Origin early 20th cent.: from Greek khalkos 'copper' + lithos 'stone' + -ic".
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