1.1c TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY IN THE BRONZE AGES

• Among the preconditions of technology are geographic considerations such as the availability of natural resources.
• The technological character of irrigation works ­- the dikes, reservoirs, irrigation canals, and ditches ­- in turn affected the social and political development of lands.  
• Technology was one of a number of factors which combined to certain political conditions.
• The presence of absence of certain raw materials also had a profound effect upon the development of technologies  in  both Egypt  and Mesopotamia. As men learned to make and use items of metal, the absence, in  certain  areas,  of  tin ores for  making  alloys  of  bronze required  the  development  of trading techniques, just as the development  of  metallurgy  itself  required  the  evolution  of mining,  smelting,  and working techniques. 
• Trade and  commerce were dependent in great measure upon the evolving technology.
• Another important factor affecting the development of technology ­- and one which we can see at various times throughout history ­- was religion. 
• Both technology and science were related to religion, but in quite different ways.  Science and religion were the property of a highly educated caste which had little to do with the work of the craftsman.