Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Metallurgy" in English language version.
The scale and technical quality of the Carpathian-Balkan copper industry totally overshadows that of any other contemporary production centre. This, together with the late sixth-millennium date for its beginning, gives strong support to the suggestion that the art of copper smelting was first perfected in the Balkans. The region can also claim to be the first to produce gold, beginning in the mid-fifth millennium, five hundred years or more before the earliest gold objects appear in the Near East.
The general area of the Carpatho-Balkan Metallurgical Province (CBMP) equaled approximately 1.5 million sq. km spread from the Danubian basin in the Western flank to the Mid and Lower Volga basin in the Eastern flank of this province. The most characteristic features of the CBMP are 1) casting and hammering of various heavy tools and weapons made from chemically pure copper; 2) a big number of gold decorations and ornaments. Metallurgical revolution and CBMP formation emerged independently from centers of the Proto-Metal area [in the Middle East] where in the 5th millennium BCE there continued a limited production of primitive handmade copper goods.
Egypt and adjacent regions closely mimic the metallurgical trajectories of the nearby Middle East. Egyptian metallurgy started with the working of copper around 4000 BC. (p.17) The earliest evidence for metallurgy in Africa comes from the Nile Delta in Egypt and is associated with the Maadi culture dating between 4000 and 3200 BC. (p.19)
The general area of the Carpatho-Balkan Metallurgical Province (CBMP) equaled approximately 1.5 million sq. km spread from the Danubian basin in the Western flank to the Mid and Lower Volga basin in the Eastern flank of this province. The most characteristic features of the CBMP are 1) casting and hammering of various heavy tools and weapons made from chemically pure copper; 2) a big number of gold decorations and ornaments. Metallurgical revolution and CBMP formation emerged independently from centers of the Proto-Metal area [in the Middle East] where in the 5th millennium BCE there continued a limited production of primitive handmade copper goods.
Egypt and adjacent regions closely mimic the metallurgical trajectories of the nearby Middle East. Egyptian metallurgy started with the working of copper around 4000 BC. (p.17) The earliest evidence for metallurgy in Africa comes from the Nile Delta in Egypt and is associated with the Maadi culture dating between 4000 and 3200 BC. (p.19)
