In their picture writing the Egyptians used the Ankh sign for copper. Appropriately it was also the symbol of Eternal Life; and as that still happens to be one of the main features of copper, it is used everywhere today for the metal. A long time afterwards Homer, following the Greek practice of around 1000 B.C., called the metal Chalkos; hence the Copper Age is also known as the Chalcolithic. Finally, after another thousand years had elapsed, the words "aes Cyprium" appear in Roman writings of the Early Christian Era because so much of the metal came from Cyprus. 'Copper' is the anglicized version of this Latin phrase.
