The term ‘Bronze Age’ normally includes the period before the introduction of bronze workings, when the working of copper and gold started to appear.  As well as this advance in technology and the appearance of metal working the Bronze Age also represents a gradual society change from the Neolithic hunter gatherers who became farmers into a permanently settled way of life. 

The Bronze Age is often subdivided into different levels by archaeologists.  In a simplified way it is possible to separate the period into early and later Bronze Age (2600-1400BC and 1400-700BC respectively).  The difference between the two phases covers the appearance of the new technology and the transition effect, followed by the consolidation of the organised society structure which eventually leads to the Iron Age.