Kingdoms in Copper Age

[Rwexler]

I hope this is the right place for this topic, please correct me if it isn't!

Hello there folks! It's been a while since I where active in this forum.
In my current project I am building acomplete world from the ground up. After several months of many bigger and smaller work sessions I am done with the natural aspects of the world.
Also human civilization is a thing I am working on steadily, regarding to finding ideas and actually writing down some stuff.

The reason for this topic here is to discuss about theoretical kingdoms in the copper age. Since I develope the whole history of civilization step by step without an end goal (Actual goal is the development itself)
I wanted to have some actual kingdoms (very small realms) in the early history. The thing is that I might miss some crucial aspects that need to be considered in terms of the political and economical structure.

I will try to describe my situation better and with an example:

Kingdom:
Age: - right now about 250 years
Name: Ard - named after Ardeas its founder

Linguistical background: celtic - I try to get all my names and terms in a mix of the modern celtic languages
+ sources from early history

Archetectural style: celtic + roman infrastructure - I developed on the base of historic celtic structures
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heuneburg
I mixed it with the roman infrastructure ideology of cityplanning (rectangular planning of spaces in towns, roadbuilding)

Economy: - the young kingdom relies heavily on traderoutes along the big river and the coast with the outside tribes and settlements
- Payment is regulated on corn base (like the early egyptians did) so no real money
- in the east there is a spot where copper can be mined
- the complete northern border is a coast, salt can be extracted there
- good stone comes from the hills in the south
- in the south western edge of the realm there are dense forests for hunting and wood
- most of the remaining land is suitable for farmland
- the economical center is the city Bheldûnon, located at the outlet of the big river Durbrig
- Fârgraí is a pretty new city with a stud, located a day march south of Bheldûnon
- There are no other real cities yet in the history. The whole kingdom simply consists of many tribes and settlements that slowly get more structured
- There is one actual stone road built yet. The copper road that connects Bheldûnon with the eastern part of the realm

Politics: - outside of the kingdom there are mainly smaller tribes,
the kingdom can't get bigger though, because it can't handle more territory right now.
- north west of Bheldûnon along the coastal open lands there are the Capaill Dubh
a collection of tribes that speciallize in horse riding

Religion & Myth: - none yet

Now what are your thoughts when reading through this? There is definitly some stuff I forgot to mention or that I have brainstormed about to little to put it intothis thread right now.
I would really like to start a discussion about how a kingdom in the copper age (realisticaly we have none in the real world) would have to work.

[Falconius]

True arches were not developed until the roman period, well into the iron age. Before that it was all pillar and lintel or variations thereof (things like corbelled arches). They generally used thick wood beams to span large distances. Most building would be with mud compositions, natural wood, and perhaps shaped wood for more wealthy people, and stone for the really big community projects or large cities.

As for "copper age" do you actually mean copper age or do you mean bronze age? The copper age is basically the very end of the stone age and personally I don't think it could actually be defined as an "age". Copper smelting was discovered and alloying swiftly followed. Personally I don't think alloying copper would really be independently developed, it probably developed hand in hand with copper use, at the very least by accident. And kingdoms developed hand in hand with the use of copper alloys, before that it was all rather boring proto-civilizations.

[Rwexler]

@Falconius
Okay I will try to react on all statements you made:

- Archers: You are absolutely right with that. The military of the kingdom consists mainly of spearmen. In the recent decades they where able to copy the cavalry warfare of the Capaill Dubh. I did not much think about archers until now. Had more slingers in mind.

- The buildings do consist mainly of mudbricks or fire hardened claybricks. In Bheldûnon people whitewash their buildings with chalkpaste. They also start to paint the fassades with colors they can make of berries and such.

- I really mean copper age. Which is actually a timespan of around 1000 years. Here is my reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalcolithic I wanted to start my human civilizations in that era.

- In that timeframe I have some space to develop the foundations of civilization and then go further into the bronzeage stuff^^

[Falconius]

Not archers, arches as in the architectural/structural element.

The reason I say the copper age is just not very engaging is that copper by itself is worse then everything else they had available to them in terms of tools and containers. A flint knife is better than a copper one, a wooden club is a better weapon than anything that can be done in copper, a spear tipped with flint or even just bone or hardened wood is better than a copper tip, and all those things are easier and cheaper to make than anything with copper is. Copper containers can be useful but they too are not so easy to make, wooden, stone, or clay bowls etc. are a lot easier to make and in many cases have much more desirable properties. So that's the reason there is no real "copper age", copper just isn't as useful as things they already had access to, it's basically good for mirrors that one has to constantly shine, and adornments. It is not a defining leap forward in technology, it allowed another avenue to do things they could already do generally with far more efficiency than by using copper. Copper alloys on the other hand starts to make things that are useful, it allows for technologies that would assist in maintaining and give reason for civilizations to form.

[Rwexler]

Oh sorry - I misread that part and had only archers in mind when answering^^
To the Arches, good comment on that topic. it is noted for further investigation. Right now there are no arches in use in my copper age kingdom. There are some smaller megalithic structures like rows of pillars carrying some lying stones.
It is kinda as you say. Wooden beams support bigger roofs. There are not many buildings that need arches yet.

To the usage of copper. Yeah in retrospective it might not be the absolute best thing to use copper for tools. But right now my folks do that. Historically actual weapons and tools where made out of copper. Copper is easier to form that stone and has a better reusability than the latter. If you do not have flint at hand (And there are enough situations where this was the case) copper proves a good alternative.
Copper is also the main material for art and basic jewelry in the kingdom.

I really don't want to defend my point no matter what - but copper HAD an enormous impact on society and got used for much stuff. It was the main metal to use for about 1000 years until bronze was discovered.

[Falconius]

I'm not saying it wasn't used, just that it was not an age defining technology (in other words I'm disagreeing with the idea of it having much of an impact). It hardly matters though as it does mark the transition into an age defining technology. I should note that flint was traded quite commonly and has been found in significant quantities far from any areas where it naturally occurs, just like metal really. What's really good about copper for your kingdom is that it's very easy to set things into like precious stones etc.