Q 01/05

Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper together with which other metal?

A) Zinc

B) Tin

C) Lead

D) Iron

Answer · why

B) Tin

A typical mix is about 12% tin; alloying with zinc instead gives brass, which reached Britain only late in the first millennium BC.

Q 02/05

In the three-age system, the Bronze Age sits between which two other ages?

A) The Iron Age and the Classical Age

B) The Copper Age and the Steel Age

C) The Ice Age and the Iron Age

D) The Stone Age and the Iron Age

Answer · why

D) The Stone Age and the Iron Age

A transitional Chalcolithic or 'copper-stone' age is often slotted in between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age.

Q 03/05

Which 19th-century Danish archaeologist put the three-age sequence on a scientific footing while classifying a museum collection?

A) Christian Jürgensen Thomsen

B) Sir John Lubbock

C) Jens Jacob Worsaae

D) Oscar Montelius of Uppsala

Answer · why

A) Christian Jürgensen Thomsen

The idea of metal ages goes back to Lucretius in the first century BC; Lubbock later split the Stone Age into Palaeolithic and Neolithic.

Q 04/05

By roughly what date had the Bronze Age begun across much of the Old World?

A) 3000 BC

B) 6000 BC

C) 1500 BC

D) 500 BC

Answer · why

A) 3000 BC

Different regions crossed the threshold at different times, so each has its own chronology.

Q 05/05

Why did bronze remain rare and expensive in many areas throughout the period?

A) Copper had to be imported from India

B) Tin occurs in relatively few places

C) Only priests were allowed to smelt it

D) It required charcoal from a single sacred tree

Answer · why

B) Tin occurs in relatively few places

Copper is very common, but the earliest tin was probably panned from river gravels like placer gold, and finished bronze was keenly recycled.