Questions tagged [bronze-age]

For questions about Bronze Age (approx. 4,000B.C.–1,000B.C.) societies and technologies.

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Is it feasible to kiln-dry timber in the same kiln that is used to fire ceramics?

In the story I'm writing, my modern-day characters have the need to produce a great quantity of bricks in a relatively primitive setting and society, equivalent to ancient Sumeria. They have access ...
Monty Wild's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
622 views

Peak Copper Age Society

How far could the technology of a copper age society get; Could they work up to the level of late antiquity? Context: Im working on a si-fi/fantasy world were people have been transplanted onto a ...
William.L's user avatar
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4 votes
4 answers
334 views

Could the source of nightly attacks from underground on a bronze age society stay undetected for an extended period of time [closed]

In a short story I am writing, a human kingdom on the technological level of late bronze age greece, has begun to be raided by a species of cruel catfolk called grimalkin. The humans are neither aware ...
Amianas's user avatar
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3 votes
2 answers
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Could advanced Aboriginal Australians have domesticated the Emus/Cassowaries?

In an alternate universe where Eurasia is less advanced and the native peoples of the Americas and Australia build powerful civilizations, what animals could be domesticated that weren't domesticated ...
ITM_Coder's user avatar
11 votes
3 answers
4k views

If Aluminum was non-reactive, could there have been an "Aluminum Age" instead of a Bronze Age?

Aluminum is the most common metal on Earth. Despite this fact, this element wasn't discovered until the 19th Century. This is because Aluminum is never naturally found in the ground. Instead, aluminum ...
ITM_Coder's user avatar
11 votes
3 answers
429 views

Would intelligent humanoid carnivores start a civilization?

Let's say in an alternate world, Homo Sapiens died out but another Homo species evolved. Homo Carnivorous is very similar to Homo Sapiens with one big difference. Homo Carnivorous can only digest meat ...
Rhymehouse's user avatar
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1 vote
3 answers
590 views

If linen armor is really that effective, why was it not used? [closed]

Looking into possible lines of development of armor in low-tech civilization, I came across this: https://jhupress.wordpress.com/2013/04/24/unraveling-the-linothorax-mystery-or-how-linen-armor-came-to-...
rwallace's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
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A meteor falls in a Mediterranean-like sea: what is the impact?

A meteor with a diameter of 300 meters crashes into the middle of a circular sea with a radius of 1500 km and with a speed of 30 km/s. Civilizations (and humanity as a whole) that are situated around ...
Bowman's user avatar
  • 619
7 votes
4 answers
369 views

What Bronze Age Jobs Couldn't be Replaced by Extremely Well Trained Animals?

In this setting magpies and mammoths have been domesticated for hundreds of millennia, allowing them to become far more diligent and trainable than dogs by a wide margin. The mammoths come in full ...
Vakus Drake's user avatar
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16 votes
9 answers
4k views

How can I justify an Iron monopoly?

In my world, only 2 cultures (who share a common ancestor, but are rivals) regularly use Iron, which they have for hundreds of years now, the rest of the many, many cultures have naught but bronze, ...
Sarāntairi's user avatar
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3 answers
134 views

A Unified, Global Bronze Age, How It Would Affect America [closed]

Here are the points of departure to this scenario: China, not Southwestern Asia, began the Bronze Age in 3300 BCE Either China or the nearby steppes of Central Asia, not Eastern Europe, was the ...
JohnWDailey's user avatar
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7 votes
1 answer
306 views

With modern knowledge, what would be the most effective way to smelt iron with bronze age technology?

Basically, assuming you have all of modern human knowledge about smelting iron/steel, and the technology level you have is approximately bronze age, what would be the most effective approach to turn ...
Radvylf Programs's user avatar
8 votes
5 answers
365 views

How Quickly Can you Get From a Population Of 100 Humans to a Walled City-State?

For an RPG, I'm building a world that is the inverse of the fantasy world which contains ancient ruins and long-lost arcane secrets. This world will be home to the folks who built those first ...
Sean Dalton's user avatar
-2 votes
2 answers
122 views

What MacGuffin can convince a "bronzish" age city state with no stakes on a war to go to war [closed]

First of all, not sure if it's a worldbuilding question but I've read some of the questions here and on RPG stack exchange and my question seemed more fit for this stack exchange. Hope I'm right. I'm ...
Miquel Adell's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
165 views

What would be the most lethal melee weapon for trunks creature on land?

Imagine a race of intelligent humanoid beings standing almost 2m tall with 2 trunks instead of arms for handling and gripping objects, these trunk-like arms are similar to the elephant's except they ...
user6760's user avatar
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14 votes
14 answers
5k views

What is the realistic approach for a person from modern age to build a modern weapon factory in the Bronze Age?

I often read a light novel that tells a story about a person who is transferred from their high tech modern society Earth to a fantasy land. These persons often have some expertise in modern science ...
iko chomi's user avatar
  • 483
5 votes
3 answers
993 views

Could Bronze-Age Nomads Effectively Utilize Chariots for Warfare?

Horses were first domesticated on the steppes around 3500 BC, but the horse would not be ridden directly into battle for at least two more millennia. Instead chariots ruled the battlefields of the ...
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3 votes
1 answer
462 views

Could a Greater Relative Abundance of Tin Extend a Bronze Age?

Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin, and copper is a significantly more abundant metal in the Earth’s Crust, at about 70 PPM compared to tin at 2 PPM. Because tin was the limiting factor in bronze ...
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7 votes
4 answers
308 views

Ancient 3D Printing

Worldbuilding Stack Exchange. I ask for your aid. In my project, an Bronze-age alien civilization living near the coast has discovered a mollusk that can secrete ooze that later hardens into nacre, ...
WorldCraftTrainee's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
322 views

How Could People Utilize a Hypereutrophic Sea?

In a previous post I asked about the feasibility of connecting the ocean to a dried sea bed with hand tools and it was pointed out how environmentally disastrous this would be. So the bronze age ...
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24 votes
5 answers
7k views

How long would it take to dig a 10 km canal with Bronze Age technology?

There’s a a decent sized kingdom that is situated between the ocean and a gigantic dried out seabed. The Priest-King and his lackeys want to flood the useless desert because who wouldn’t want more ...
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0 votes
2 answers
143 views

Worthy bipedal challenger for dominant species of large frogs possessing medieval technology [closed]

I'm looking for a bit of inspiration to help me with a bit of writer's block I've got going on at the moment. In my novel, "A Tale of Galaxies", every being is bipedal due to various peculiarities of ...
J. Campbell's user avatar
18 votes
5 answers
4k views

Getting fresh water in the middle of hypersaline lake in the Bronze Age

An ancient kingdom covers a several rivers in a desert basin all converging on a central, hypersaline, lake. Because of its central location, and the importance of the salt, the lake has important ...
Maciej Piechotka's user avatar
7 votes
3 answers
1k views

Bronze Age Underwater Civilization

I was thinking of an alternate history, in a part of a civilization, living along the Eastern Mediterranean, during the Bronze Age moves to the sea floor to found an underwater civilization. They ...
Anders Gustafson's user avatar
7 votes
6 answers
764 views

Low-gravity Bronze Age fortifications

I’m designing a human Bronze Age civilization on a world with only ⅓ of Earth’s gravity. This reduced gravity will allow humans to jump much higher than they could on Earth. It will also allow humans ...
Mike Nichols's user avatar
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18 votes
4 answers
3k views

How do you conduct xenoanthropology after first contact?

In the very near future, humans (somehow) travel to a distant planet - and discover aliens who turn out to be uncannily like us. Their appearance is, to put it bluntly, freakish, but they are humanoid ...
Flux's user avatar
  • 281
8 votes
2 answers
572 views

Ancient Egypt - Primitive Blockchain Technology

Premise The goal is to implement a bronze age version of blockchain in ancient Egypt to introduce a layer of security for the royal tombs. Tomb raiding was rampant, and at times even the legitimate ...
Arash Howaida's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
394 views

How would lower gravity influence Bronze Age projectile weaponry?

How would lower gravity, let’s say around ½ of Earth’s, change the efficacy of different Bronze Age projectile weapons? How would the effective range, accuracy, and penetrating power of bows, javelins,...
Mike Nichols's user avatar
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20 votes
13 answers
6k views

How would a Bronze Age tribe arm themselves vs. dinosaurs?

In this world, a Bronze Age tribe hunts and is hunted by multiple species of large dinosaur. What bronze age weaponry would be utilized by these people for the purposes of combating these beasts, ...
Mike Nichols's user avatar
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2 votes
3 answers
742 views

Effects of Homeopathy on technology in the Bronze Age

What would be the most significant impacts on bronze-age technology if the basic principles behind homeopathy worked? Let's say, that during the bronze age, some crafty philosopher discovered, that ...
TheSexyMenhir's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
1k views

Bronze age Aztecs?

We see from The Zande People that a culture can remain in a tribal mentality yet have steel weaponry. We also see that their weaponry evolved after having access to metals. I am wondering how ...
TrEs-2b's user avatar
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7 votes
8 answers
2k views

Building and powering a computer in a bronze age world

A character needs to build a computer out of raw materials in a bronze age. He has a nano scale factory, so manufacturing chips and such from silicon is possible, but I'm not sure of the best way to ...
AndyD273's user avatar
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