The bronze (non) age
The discovery of bronze is at least five thousand years old, but it took a while to find a good use for it. It is found in Cretan remains of 3000 BCE, in Egyptian remains of 2800 BCE, and in the second city of Troy 2000 BCE. We can no longer speak strictly of an "Age of Bronze," for the metal came to different peoples at diverse epochs, and the term would therefore be without chronological meaning; furthermore, some cultures like those of Finland, northern Russia, Polynesia, central Africa, southern India, North America, Australia and Japan-passed over the Bronze Age directly from stone to iron.
Source: Durant, Will, The Story of Civilization, Vol. 1: Our Oriental Heritage, A history of civilization in Egypt and the Near East to the Death of Alexander, and in India, China, and Japan from the beginning. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1954.
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Full disclosure, I may occasionally borrow a sentence from Will Durant's Story of Civilization. I absolutely love that collection!