Bronze appears in the Royal Tombs at Ur in the Third Millennium BC. After smelting, the most important discovery was that of bronze, the copper-tin alloy. The necessary tin is from the mineral ore cassiterite, found in veins, lodes, or alluvial gravels in Iran around Khorasan, Astrabad, and Tabriz; and in Anatolia near Alium, Kutchia, and Trebizond. Tin oxide makes up 76% of cassiterite, with oxides of iron and tantalum sometimes also present. Deep brown to black in color, it's sometimes red (ruby tin), or yellow (rosin tin). Metallic tin is often found in the same gravel deposits as gold in alluvial stream beds. It can be obtained by simple reduction. Stannite is a rare complex ore associated with copper, iron, and zinc in varying proportions.

Pure copper was still used alongside bronze throughout the ages. Bronze is more yellow in color, has a different sound when hammered and is much harder than copper. While bronze is the most important alloy of prehistory, other unintentional ones occured by smelting impure ores. These included many arsenic and antimonal alloys. Brass requires zinc and was not in use before Roman times due to the difficult process required to extract zinc from its ore.

In Cyprus two daggers show that early tin-bronze is found during the Early Cypriot I Period in the Vounous cemetery, which implies the importation of tin from Asia Minor. The excellent craftsmanship of Early Bronze artifacts show an expansion of developing material culture. Since 3000 BC techniques such as granulation, filigrain, incisings, engravings, inlay, soldering, and cire-perdue were used in Mesopotamia. After a spectacular debut which resulted in the perfection of a limited range of tool and weapon types, the local metal industry in Cyprus stagnated, and archaic designs were the hallmark of their Middle Bronze Age. Here, in the absence of evidence of a major upheaval, the transition from Early Bronze to Middle Bronze Age is arbitrarily linked to pottery changes. The cities of Ambelikou, Alambia, Enkomi, Epishopi, and Kalopsidha show a semi-urban society with specialization in metallurgy.

In the Late Middle Bronze Age Cypriot copper came under the control of centers of demand and supply. Links to Syria, Caanan, and the Late Minoan I world of the south Aegean became closer. Oxhide shaped ingots of Cypriot copper were an important medium of exchange. Oxhide ingots were cast, unlike planoconvex ones, outside the furnace, in a crude mould made in wet sand. A Hittite text describes the procedure for breaking up a copper oxhide ingot to make different objects, including 7 1/3 minnas of copper to make 10 daggers. The one talent ingot seems to be the standard.

The Keftiu (from Crete) and the Retenu (from Syria) are shown carrying oxhide ingots in Egyptian wall paintings from the New Kingdom tombs of Senenmut and Rekhmire.
For during the Late Bronze Age, around 1500 BC, Cyprus found herself the center of active commercial relations between the Aegean and the Near East. Cypriot bronze metalwork improved considerably, with the appearance of agricultural tools such as shovels, hoes, picks, ploughshares, pruning hooks; carpenters tools such as axes, adzes, awls, chisels, drills, and saws; and smithing tools, tongs and sledgehammers.

In Enkomi from this time there is the sanctuary of the Ingot god, found in a stratum surrounded by cult vessels. These are painted krater, jugs, and cups with handles. Two monolithic stone altars and the remains of hundreds of cattle and other horned offerings attest to a fervent cult. Large bowls and a brass knife were found in a niche in the walls. The Ingot god, found by the archaeologist Schaeffer, was made by the old lost wax technique. He is crowned with a helmet with bulls' horns and is wearing greaves. He is carying a shield in his left hand and a raised spear in his right, with his feet resting on an oxhide ingot. His posture is similiar to Resef, or many other Smiting god figures of the Near East. His greaves, however, could only have come from the Aegean, but horned helmets are rare in the Aegean. He is therefore at least an amalgam, while his ingot proclaims him a true Cypriot. He is known as the Ingot God of Enkomi and rules over the Bronze Age.
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