The Çayönü site in modern-day southeastern Turkey stands as a pioneer of the Copper Age, pushing human exploration of metal back to approximately 7200 BCE. Unlike later civilizations that mastered bronze sword-casting, these early ancestors were more like 'metal collectors': they utilized cold-hammering techniques on native copper to craft exquisite beads, pins, and awls. Interestingly, while the hardness of these copper artifacts was vastly inferior to later smelted bronze, their value as 'status symbols' far outweighed their practical utility. Compared to the massive metal industrialization of later eras, Çayönü’s metalcraft was a millennium-long artistic experiment, marking humanity's definitive stride from the 'Stone Age' into the 'Age of Metallurgy'.