Bronze Age Blast-Off
The oldest gold objects in the world have been found in a cemetery in Bulgaria. The oldest copper mine in the world, dug with antler picks and stone hammers, has been discovered in Yugoslavia. A vast prehistoric metal industry has turned up in the Austrian Alps. All this evidence of early European emergence from the Stone Age has suddenly reversed a long-held belief that all our technology came from the Near East. For this bustling, independent activity in metallurgy has been found to pre-date the ancient civilisations of Egypt, Sumer and Troy. Could it be that European supremacy in technology took off as long as 6,500 years ago?
Narrator PAUL VAUGHAN
Film editor JOHN LEE
Editor SIMON CAMPBELL-JONES
Written and produced by DOMINIC FLESSATI