Bronze is denomination commonly used for alloys consisting of copper and tin, sometimes it is also used for alloys with aluminium, lead, beryllium, silicium, manganese, iron, nickel or mixture of them. Exception are alloys consisting of copper and zinc, which is called brass. Historically the bronzes were classified into classic and soft bronzes. Classic bronze was alloy that contained around 10% of tin. Higher content of tin lowers the melting point and rises the hardness of bronze, so it was used in casting. Soft bronzes were alloys with around 6% of tin. Due to softness they were used in forging and forming.
Bronze Age was a period, when usage of bronze in Europe reached peak, between 2300 and 800 BC. Oldest examples of bronze products dating from around 3300 BC were found in Middle East. Bronze was very rare material, since it was produced from copper and tin, two raw materials which are almost never found in same place. Therefore, the production of bronze was highly dependent on trading. In comparison to iron, which was already known, bronze was much more useful due to lower melting point and corrosion resistance. Once the technology of iron smelting advanced, the production of iron started to rise due to easy accesible iron ore deposits. This brought on the fall of Bronze Age and rise of Iron Age, when usage of iron overtook the bronze.