Who Discovered Copper

"Who discovered copper" is a million dollar question. The reason is no one knows exactly who discovered copper. Copper is a metal used by people who lived in prehistoric times. Archaeological evidences suggest people who had lived between 5000 BC and 1,200 BC discovered copper. There are many historical evidences that reveal the people of the ancient world used copper to make jewelry, utensils, and weapons such as spear tips and shields.

To tell about the history of copper, it is estimated that copper has been used for at least 11,000 years. The historians opine, the Romans used copper in large scale. The Romans smelted copper from the ores found in island of Cyprus. The chemical name of the metal copper is cuprum and it has been named after the country Cyprus.

Jordan, Egypt and Israel have copper smelting locations that date back to 4500 B.C. The people who lived in that historical period combined copper with iron or tin to produce an alloy called bronze. Another alloy of copper is brass. The brass and bronze are stronger than copper. Hence, it was used to make weapons such as spear tips, hammers, axes and so on.

Copper and its alloys were widely used in Southeast Asia and Turkey between 5000 BC and 4000 BC. Archaeological studies show that an ancient copper smelting site in Cyprus, Agia Varvara-Almyras, was associated with the entire process of mining and the metallurgical process used to produce the alloys of copper.

The archaeologists and the historians opine, in ancient India copper was used to make idols, coins, lamps and utensils. Durability is another important feature that made copper a much-preferred metal throughout the history. This ancient metal does not easily erode and is not affected by wind and water. Archaeologists have discovered copper tubing in many of the Egyptian pyramids, tombs and temples. Many of the copper tubings found in these historical monuments are still in excellent functioning conditions.

Today, large deposits of copper ore are discovered in Canada, Chile, Peru, United States, Zambia and Zaire.