Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin, the optimum proportion being about nine parts of copper to one part of tin. It has a number of advantages of pure copper: a lower melting point, it is harder, and above all it is easier to cast without flaws. Tin and copper do not normally occur naturally in proximity and this resulted in a significant rise in trade, which led to the rapid diffusion of ideas and was an important factor in the progressive differentiation of status.
In Europe the Bronze Age conventionally spans the period (2000-600 BC). Metalwork centres were established in the Aegean (Minoan/Mycenaean), central Europe (Unetice), Spain (Argaric), Britain (Wessex), Ireland and Scandinavia. During the Later Bronze Age, the great folk movements led to the spread of the Urnfield culture (c.1300-c.750 BC).
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