north-eastern Iraq, which may or may not have been worked, the earliest copper
objects in Mesopotamia are a cold-hammered awl from Tell Maghzaliyeh, of seventh
millennium BCdate, and two roughly contemporary beads from Tell Sotto, sites
located in northern Iraq. From this point onward we can document a gradual increase
in the number of copper beads, pins and spatulae at sites dating to the sixth millennium
BCThe range of small, personal objects of copper, to which we may add buttons,
was augmented during the fifth and early fourth millennia BCby tools (adzes, axes,
chisels) and weapons (spear- or lanceheads). By the late fourth and early to mid-third
millennium BC, copper was being incorporated into architectural decoration in
Mesopotamia. Ringed poles set up in the Stone Cone Temple (Steinstifttempel) at Uruk
were covered with copper sheeting, and the famous relief showing stags and a mythical
lion-headed bird found at Tell al-Ubaid was cast in copper. By the time of the Royal
Cemetery at Ur (c. 2500 BC), the variety of copper (and bronze, see below) tools,
weapons and vessels in the Mesopotamian repertoire had increased markedly, while
cast (lost wax or cire perdu) copper statues and statuettes were becoming increasingly
common. Throughout the later periods copper continued to be important, even though
the advent of iron metallurgy greatly diminished its role from the first millennium
BConwards.
— Babylonian sources of exotic raw materials —Figure 8. 1 The so-called ‘Loftus Hoard’, a collection of copper and some bronze tools discovered
in 1854 by W.K. Loftus at the site of Tell Sifr, ancient Kutalla. The hoard was carefully hidden
away, indicative of the value that was attributed to metal tools, and was found alongside the archive
of a local businessman, who seems to have buried his valuables in the tenth year of Samsuiluna
( 1740 BC), shortly before the occupation of his home town came to an end (courtesy of the Trustees
of the British Museum).