... primitive techniques

It is hard to date the discovery of bronze (approximately 8,000 years) : I don't think that one morning someone got up saying "Hello ! Let's have a go at making bronze !". We can imagine that the first smiths who were working with copper, happened to drop a few arrow heads into a fire where, by pure chance, native tin was already present. The lot melted down and pieces of bronze appeared which the men worked as usual, no doubt they realized straight away they had obtained a metal not only different in colour but also in strength.

Being a smith myself... at times I have let my work melt and next morning there are bits of copper at the bottom of   my hearth.

Casting was therefore possible. These smiths created moulds to receive the molten metal : the first ones made of carved stone, then made of clay. But   they probably had to battle to find   the right mixture of clay, sand and   plants.

But first they had to make the piece they wanted :   beeswax   was certainly the easiest to work.

Since then, apart from the technical progress, nothing has changed : a beeswax model, a mould made of clay (or any other modern material) and, when the wax has melted, pouring of the molten bronze in the hollow.

These very simple techniques have worked for thousands of years and are still used in Africa