Small Round Square Swirl Copper Earrings

Discovery of Copper by Dr. Doug Stewart

• Of all the metals, copper is the one most likely to be found in its native state, often released by the chemical reaction of its ores.
• Although only small amounts of native copper can be found, there was enough of it for our ancestors to discover the metal and begin using it.
  Copper has been used by humans for as many as ten thousand years. Beads made from native copper dating from the eighth millennium BC have been found in Turkey.
• Crucibles and slags found in Europe suggest that smelting of copper (producing the metal from its ores) took place in the fifth millennium BC.
• Copper mining and smelting were commonplace by 4500 BC in the Balkans – Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Turkey.
• The Copper Age sits between the Neolithic (Stone) and Bronze Ages. It took place at different times in different cultures, when people began using copper tools alongside stone tools.
• The Copper Age was followed by the Bronze Age, when people learned that by adding tin to copper, a harder metal that is also more easily cast was formed.
• Again this happened at different times in different locations in the world.
• The word copper is derived from the Latin word ‘cuprum’ meaning ‘metal of Cyprus’ because the Mediterranean island of Cyprus was an ancient source of mined copper.
• The element symbol Cu also comes from ‘cuprum.’

Classification: Copper is a transition metal
Color: orange-red
Atomic weight: 63.546
State: solid
Melting point: 1084.62 oC, 1357.77 K
Boiling point: 2560 oC, 2833 K
Electrons: 29
Protons: 29
Neutrons in most abundant isotope: 34
Electron shells: 2,8,18,1
Electron configuration: [Ar] 3d10 4s1
Density @ 20oC: 8.96 g/cm3

Medium Round Square Swirl Copper Earrings