The earliest use of copper seems to date back to around 8000BC when it was worked like a soft stone, not cast. The first definite use of cast copper was in about 6400BC in Turkey. The first use of copper in Egypt was for weapons and utensils in about 5000BC. It is in Egypt that we find the first use of bronze, which is an alloy of copper and tin, in a rod in the pyramid at Meidum in about 3700BC. However, the normal start of the Bronze Age is normally set at 3000BC when metallurgists in the Near East (around Syria and Eastern Turkey) started producing bronze in relatively large quantities. Bronze is harder than copper and easier to melt and cast. It is also harder than pure iron and much more resistant to corrosion.

The earliest methods of working bronze and copper were basic casting or hammering. The 'lost wax process' was developed in about 1500BC in the Near East and separately by the Moche people of Peru about 100AD. This involves a wax 'positive' encased in a clay 'negative', so that when the hot metal is poured in the wax melts, runs out and is replaced by the bronze.

The earliest culture with the most sophisticated bronze production is undoubtedly China, where fine cast bronzes were being produced from the Erlitou period (c.1700BC).

Chinese bronze casting involved making a model of the item in clay, often using the readily available loess clay that doesn't shrink or distort when it is fired. A mould would then be made, again of clay, part-fired to the consistency of leather. This mould would then be cut away and reassembled and reinforced. The bronze would be poured into the space and allowed to harden. When the bronze was cool the mould would be broken away from the finished object. Although the mould would be broken and non-reusable the model would still exist so that identical moulds could be produced allowing a limited form of mass production.

The first modern plastic was celluloid. Items made from it by Alexander Parkes were first displayed at an international exhibition in London in 1850. In 1868 Daniel Spill invented the synthetic plastic trademarked Xylonite. In 1869 the American John Wesley Hyatt developed the substance trademarked as Celluloid independently of Alexander Parkes.

The polymath Joseph Needham once described lacquer as the first industrial plastic known to man. It was in use in China in 1300BC and possible even earlier. A recent exhibition at the British Museum had objects from the tomb of Fu Hao, a consort to a Shang Dynasty Emperor who was buried around 1200BC, who had a lacquered coffin.

Lacquer is obtained in a similar way to rubber, from the sap of the lac or lacquer tree (Rhus verniciflua, formerly known as Rhus vernicifera). It is collected and painted on to a former of wood, bamboo or cloth. For carved lacquer over 100 coats would be applied to produce the necessary depth. Urishiol monomers in the sap are polymerised in a free radical-mediated reaction by the enzyme laccase (urishiol oxidase) in the presence of oxygen. Many people think that lacquer is produced by evaporation, but in fact the 'drying rooms' in which the polymerisation reaction occurs are always humid – if the lacquer dries out when setting it can cause the item to crack and split. The lacquer tree is common in central China at altitudes of 3,000 - 7,500 feet. The trees are tapped in summer and are then left to recover for five to seven years. Fifty grammes of lacquer is the most a single tree can produce. There are different grades of lacquer: the best is tapped from between the inner and outer bark of trees aged between 14 or 15, and inferior quality lacquer comes from the inner layers and the branches.

Lacquer is a good preservative and is resistant to strong acids and alkalis. It is not affected by heat below about 230 degrees Celsius and as an electrical insulator it is almost as good as mica. It is insoluble in most solvents, resistant to both bacterial and insect damage, and is also water-resistant. In fact most of the early lacquer objects that have been found in China have come from flooded tombs.

The oriental collection at the British Museum contains a Han Dynasty lacquered wine cup with gilt bronze ear-handles from 4AD that has the names of all the people who worked on it. The inscription includes: wooden core by Yi; lacquering by Li; top coat lacquering by Dang; gilding of ear-handles by Gu; painting by Ding; final polishing by Feng; it also includes product inspection by Ping; supervisor-foreman Zhong; head supervisor Zhang; chief administrator Liang; his deputy Feng; executive officer Long and chief clerk Bo.

An engineering feat

The great pyramids at Giza in Egypt are probably the single most recognisable tourist attraction in the world. However, the Hollywood version of their construction, with unwilling slaves being forced to build them, could not be further from the truth.

Up until about 2630BC rulers, nobles and high-ranking officials would have been laid to rest in rectangular, flat-topped tombs of mud brick some 3.6 metres high called mastabas. A mastaba was probably built for King Djoser (the second king of the third dynasty) by his chief architect Imhotep. But it seems that Djoser wanted a special type of sepulchre and Imhotep had the idea of expanding the mastaba and then building a series of smaller ones on top of it. This is how the first pyramid – the step pyramid at Saggara – was built. It was the first building in history to be built of cut stone level courses and had steps rising to a height of 60m with a base measuring 120x108m. But this was only a part of the tomb complex.

Imhotep designed and built a mass of passageways and chambers under the pyramid, various mortuary buildings, chapels and courts all surrounded by a stone wall a mile long and 10m high. Imhotep had made a name for himself as the greatest architect and later generations raised him to the level of a demigod. There are numerous pyramids in Egypt today but amazingly the giant ones are the earliest and best built.

The next pyramid to be built was at Meidum and can be seen as a 76m high core surrounded by rubble. This was the first true pyramid, which was sheathed in limestone to give it smooth sloping sides. The Bent pyramid is so called after its crooked slope that rises steeply but gets gentler towards the top. This may be because the original slope was too steep, or the gentler slope may have been used to finish off the pyramid quickly so that work could begin on the Red pyramid, famous for its ruddy limestone.

But these were soon surpassed by the pyramid built for Khufu (Cheops) which was built with stone coming from as far away as Aswan, some 400 miles to the south. This great pyramid is the last surviving of the Seven Wonders of the World. It is thought that a ramp was built to raise the two million blocks, each of them weighing 15 tons, to the top of the growing pyramid. These stones were cut and dressed using only simple stone, wood and copper tools.

Although Khufu was known to be a despot, the builders were not slaves. It's more likely that they were peasants conscripted during the season when the Nile was flooded and farmers could not tend their fields. They were formed into work groups that had competitions to see who could work fastest and best, and prizes were awarded.

The Great Pyramid complex is a truly amazing wonder when you think of the rudimentary technology available 45 centuries ago