Culture, Chronology and the Chalcolithic

To some, the Chalcolithic (4700/4500-3700/3600 BC cal.), as the first period with metallurgy, large sprawling villages, rich mortuary offerings, and cult centres, represents a developmental stage on the road to the urban Bronze Age, the "dawn of history". Others have called it ''the end of prehistory''. More recent scholarship focuses upon the diversification of the subsistence economy, elaborated...