THE NEW UPPER Recent digs at Copper Age sites across Europe are overturning longheld beliefs about the continent’s earliest cultures by Andrew Curry 40 nce largely ignored by the scholarly community, the Copper Age has become a hot topic. Since the collapse of communism in 1989 opened doors for western scholars in countries including Bulgaria, Romania, and Ukraine, a new appreciation for the region’s prehistory is taking hold. The centuries between 5000 and 3500 b.c. are now seen as a crucial transition period during which early Europeans began to use metal tools, developed complex social structures, and established far-flung cultural and trading networks. Far from being a historical footnote, Copper Age Europe was a technological and social proving ground. Archaeologists have found the earliest evidence of distinctions between rich and poor, rulers and the ruled. There ARCHAEOLOGY • March/April 2011 O