BRONZE was a titanic leap forward in the evolution of human civilization.
Smelting and working low-melting-point and low-strength metals such as gold, silver, and lead was hard-won generational knowledge amassed by brilliant craftspeople working with improvised tools. Overcoming the high-smelting-temperature barriers of copper and tin, formulating a useful alloy, and producing tough, edge-keeping, durable bronze objects was an accomplishment enormously more significant to society than our more-recent leap past the sound barrier.