During the last few decades archaeologists have been engaged in opening up ancient rubbish-mounds and sites throughout the Near East, from Crete and the Greek islands across Turkey and Iran to the Indus; and they have made some extraordinary discoveries, disclosing the remains of many an ancient civilization, such as at Hissarlik, in Azerbaijan, and elsewhere. In addition, already famous sites such as Mycenae, Minos and old Jerusalem have been further examined. Most of the new discoveries relate to thriving but hitherto little-known towns and buildings in which many bronze or copper articles have been found. Most of them range from between 2000 B.C. and 1000 B.C. They serve to show the universal demand for these metals and often, too, a high and hitherto unsuspected degree of skill in working them. The coppersmith's art reached a particularly high level at Urardhu, south-east of Lake Van, whose people were celebrated for their skill in metal-working many hundreds of years before the Roman legionaries penetrated to that part of the world. Some wonderfully lifelike bronze bulls, which were made by the Urardhu people, can now be seen in a London museum. In Western Iran, not very far away from Lake Van, bronze horse-trappings have been found, including the rein-ring and bits together with harness-mending pins.
