↑ Bronze was independently discovered in the Maykop culture of the North Caucasus as early as the mid-4th millennium BC, which makes them the producers of the oldest known bronze. However, the Maykop culture only had arsenical bronze, a naturally occurring alloy. Other regions developed bronze and the associated technology at different periods.
↑ The Near East period dates and phase ranges being unrelated to the bronze chronology of other regions of the world.
↑ Piotr Bienkowski, Alan Ralph Millard (editors). Dictionary of the ancient Near East. Page 60.
↑ Amélie Kuhr. The ancient Near East, c. 3000-330 BC. Page 9.