Essay - Copper is Perhaps One of the Most Important Elements for...

Copper is perhaps one of the most important elements for mankind, both due to its multiple uses and to its capacity to replace iron in many cases. Starting with making objects out of copper and continuing, as mankind progressed, with ***** use as a conductor *****nd building material, copper was part of everyday life ever since the copper age. Even today, despite new d*****coveries that brought about artificially made compounds and alloys, copper remains an ***** element still significantly *****d in practice.

Copper is generally found in different minerals, such as bornite and chalcocite, but especially in its oxide form, as a cuprite. Its accessibility in the ground and ease of use, comb*****ed ***** its numerous mechanical and electrical properties (the second highest electrical conductivity after silver, large charge density etc.), made it preferred ever since the early days of *****.

***** ***** not difficult to trace the ***** ***** copper, as copper objects were discovered ***** accurately dated. Apparently, the use of copper can be traced ***** far back as 10,000 years BC, although the discovery of a ***** pendant in Mesopotamia, dated around 8,700 BC, means that this timeframe is safer ***** point as the period when copper initially *****gan to be used by mankind. With 5,000 BC, one can already ********** copper ********** smelt, which was obviously an advancement, making production easier and the diversity of objects that could be made *****r.

The bronze age, starting around 3,000 BC, ***** copper even more into people's lives. Bronze ***** an alloy ***** is made primarily of copper ********** a secondary element, usually tin. The main characteristic of the bronze age was that almost all objects from ***** ***** of time were ***** of bronze. However, sometimes copper was simply not mixed with o*****r elements and ***** used in its original form. Discoveries of ***** made objects, including in Europe, by the year 2,000 BC, abound.

As the activities of mank*****d diversified in antiquity, copper began to have new uses as well. One of the important ones w***** its use as a source for currency making. In the beginning, ***** an alternative ***** gold, ***** was used in lumps. However, it soon beg***** to be molded in what looked ***** like the co*****s we are accustomed to today. It *****came a form of prestige to m*****ke your coins as an emperor, like Julius Caesar started to in the 1st century BC. This trend continued in the Middle Ages, desp*****e the fact *****, especi*****y dur*****g the first centuries of this historical period, people had reverted to autarchy and trade w***** almost non-existent. Even **********, some of the US coins (dimes, nickels and quarters), for example, ***** made of copper on the inside, ***** an outer layer ***** copper-nickel alloy.

***** the same time, copper, ***** in ***** br*****ze form, had an important use as an element of art in Antiquity. Even today statues of the Roman *****s, made from bronze, can be admired in the museums of Rome. This *****