Question

Which was the first metal discovered by man?
a.) Bronze
b.) Silver
c.) Iron
d.) Copper

Answer 1

Hint: In historical terms, the Chalcolithic age precedes all the other ages named after metals (i.e. Iron Age, Bronze Age etc).
Think of which metal lends its name to the term ‘Chalcolithic’.

Complete step-by-step answer:
Let us go through the chronology of the discovery of each of these metals in order to help us answer this question more effectively.
Copper was first used by man over 10,000 years ago. A copper pendant discovered in what is now northern Iraq has been dated about 8700 B.C. For nearly five millennia copper was the only metal known to man, and thus had all the metal applications.
Early copper artifacts, first decorative, then utilitarian, were undoubtedly hammered out from "native copper," pure copper found in conjunction with copper-bearing ores in a few places around the world.
By 5000 BC, the dawn of metallurgy had arrived, as evidence exists of the smelting of simple copper oxide ores such as malachite and azurite.
Around 3500 BC the first signs of bronze usage by the ancient Sumerians started to appear in the Tigris Euphrates valley in Western Asia.
One theory suggests that bronze may have been discovered when copper and tin-rich rocks were used to build campfire rings. As the stones became heated by the fire, the metals contained in the rocks were melted and mixed.
Around this time, there was an increased use of many metals other than copper and lead in Mesopotamia as there is evidence that both gold and silver were exploited as native metals.
By 3000 B.C., silver and lead were being used and the alloying of copper had begun, first with arsenic and then with tin.
The earliest-known iron artifacts are nine small beads dated to 3200 BC, which were found in burials in Egypt. They have been identified as meteoric iron shaped by careful hammering.
Meteoric iron, a characteristic iron–nickel alloy, was used by various ancient peoples thousands of years before the Iron Age. Such iron, being in its native metallic state, required no smelting of ores.
From this chronology of events, we can safely conclude that the answer to this question is d) Copper.

NOTE: While it is very difficult to remember the entire chronology of these events, a handy trick is to try and remember when each of the given options’ eponymous took place in history i.e. Chalcolithic Age for Copper, Bronze Age for Bronze, Iron Age for Iron etc.