One of the most important developments in the history of metallurgy was man's discovery of ways of manipulating metals by heating and working them. Recent excavations show îhat the earliest signs of metalwork are to be found in Cayonu at Anatolia, and date back 10.000 years although true manipulation of metal ores by extraction were found at the site of Catalhoyuk, which belongs to that period. Copper was the most wide spread metal ore used in metalwork.As a result of excavations, we know that the technique of annealing applying fire to melt to a workable texture - was first used in Anatolia. Bronze, an alloy obtained by adding tin to copper, was first discovered towards the end of the 4 millenium. Metallurgy really began with the rendering of copper, and so the history of metalwork is, at the same time, the history of copper. The most ancient method used for working metal was hammering, with which it was shaped into a number of artefacts. Gradually a series of different techniques were evolved, and different hammers and anvils shaped for the purpose.Anatolia possesses a number of rich metal deposits. Up to now almost five hundred copper fields alone have been established here, many of which have apparently been in use since pre-historic times. The large number of artefacts which have survived from Roman and Byzantine period in Turkey indicate that metalwork was an important local craft during those periods. During the Seljuk period there were marked developments in Islamic metalwork and immediately after the foundation of the Ottoman state it appears that copper was extensively mined both in Anatolia and in the Balkans which indicates that metalwork in those region was extremely important at the time. The art of copper is still alive today in Anatolia, because of the liveliness the traditional culture has supplied.