The Bronze Age is a period of chronological time that represents the ability of ancient cultures to be able to manufacture weapons and artifacts made from copper and its alloy, bronze.  It falls between the Stone Age and the Iron Age.  The significance of this location is the Stone Age represented a time where there was no ability to smelt natural ores and remove their metal content.  The Bronze Age represented a time where there was an ability to smelt copper and tin, and an ability to combine the two to manufacture bronze.  The iron age represented a time when there was an ability to not only smelt copper and tin, but also iron, from naturally occuring ores in the Earth.  The Bronze age represents a significant achievement in the history of technology in terms of weapons and artifacts manufacture.  The earliest known bronze weapons and artifacts are from the the third millenia, B.C.E.