Many Metals page 65

About 9,000 to 11,2000 years ago people in the Stone Age experimented with gold and copper that they found in rocks. In addition, they discovered that these soft metals could be heated hammered and shaped jewelry. By 30000 B.C people had figured out how to make copper into a stronger material by adding tin. This new alloy was bronze and its discovery markes the beginning of the Bronze Age in human history Bronze was used to make everything from pins and coins in swords and axes and shields like this one.