Bronze Age
Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing. According to archaeological evidence, cultures in Mesopotamia (cuneiform script) and Egypt (hieroglyphs) developed the earliest viable writing systems.
The overall period is characterized by widespread use of bronze, though the place and time of the introduction and development of bronze technology were not universally synchronous. Human-made tin bronze technology requires set production techniques. Tin must be mined (mainly as the tin ore cassiterite) and smelted separately, then added to molten copper to make bronze alloy. The Bronze Age was a time of extensive use of metals and of developing trade networks (See "Tin sources and trade in ancient times"). A 2013 report suggests that the earliest tin-alloy bronze dates to the mid-5th millennium BC in a Vinča culture site in Pločnik (Serbia), although this culture is not conventionally considered part of the Bronze Age. The dating of the foil has been disputed.
Port, Switzerland
The banks of the Zihl/Thielle river were inhabited since at least the neolithic. The remains of a neolithic Cortaillod culture stilt house village from the second quarter of the 4th Millennium BC were discovered in the Stüdeli area. The area was resettled often during the following millennia. From Bronze Age settlements a number of artifacts were discovered including swords, spearheads, axes and sickles. A Celtic settlement from the 2nd and 1st centuries BC left behind two helmets, metal vessels and about 120 swords and spearheads. However, most of the swords were broken or bent. One bent iron sword contains an engraving, in Greek letters, of the name Korisios. This is considered the oldest written document in Switzerland. Wooden pilings from the same era indicate that the settlement built a bridge over the river. Scattered tools and weapons from the Roman era, the Early Middle Ages and more recently indicate that the area remained settled.