http://www.newser.com/story/192889/this ... story.html
Normally 4,500 BC is the start of the Chalcolithic period in the ANE but perhaps of greater significance is the apparent existence of long-distance commerce at such a remote period.A small copper awl found in a woman's ancient grave in Israel is rewriting history. It's the oldest metal object ever found in the Middle East, and was probably owned by the apparently important 40-year-old woman buried with it in an extravagant Tel Tsaf grave, LiveScience reports. The awl's date has pushed back metal use in the region centuries earlier than thought, to about 5100 BC.