The Egyptians or the people of Northern Asia considered bronze to be the metal of the Gods. About 250,000 years before Christ, the first significant developments of humanity occurred. The old stone age man made an important discovery which set him apart from the other beasts of the forest and field. Fire and mans development for controlling it for his own purposes. For cooking purposes, pottery was developed thus discovering the refractory qualities of clay.
Evidence seems to indicate that meat was packed in leaves and covered with clay to prevent charring.
When the combustibles burned away the clay still remained. Thus the stage was set for the coming of casting bronze. Now they had fire to melt metals and clay for crucibles to hold it. It is fabled that a native banked his fire one night with a copper bearing ore and in the morning noticed some gleaming beads in the ashes. Hammering of copper now was attempted.