The extraction and working of metal can be considered a ‘technological revolution’. At the dawn of metallurgy, the use of copper products remained limited due to both the poor availability of ores and complex extracting procedures.

In the Alpine region, It was first processed at the beginning of the 4th millennium BC. In the 4th and 3rd millennium BC, copper blades in Europe often resembled the shape and figure of previous stone blades.

Copper is resilient, but very soft metal. Care had to be taken when forging weapons out of it, for it could easily bend, crumple or collapse. While longer and heavier sword blades were impractical, spearpoints and daggers could be created from copper.
The earliest copper daggers had short, stout blades with a triangular outline that attempted to balance out the metal’s softness. They were either cast in mold or cut out and hammered into shape.

Early on, a separate hilt was required, usually made out of a hard organic material, which could be riveted or glued to the blade. This was later replaced by adding a tang, that could be then inserted into the hilt section.
Another development was an introduction of a medial ridge. With a thick central spine, the rest of the blade could be thinner and lighter.

High temperatures even exceeding 1,000 degrees Celsius were necessary for extracting metal from ore. To generate the necessary heat, air was supplied to open fireplaces using blow-pipes and bellows.
Apart from tools and other objects as well as molds for making them, many sites yielded various smelting implements, among them cylindrical bellow nozzles, blow pipe nozzles, crucibles and ladles.

Sources: docs.google.com/document/d/1mnK9tpEvz9UgeVWuUh8fPF…

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