1. Why did the Bronze Age come before the Iron Age ?

(Think in terms of
Chemistry)
With ancient technology, bronze was far easier to make than iron. In order to
make iron, you need to make furnaces that can reach temperatures of more than
1200 oC (the temperature where iron oxide can be reduced by carbon), while for
bronze, only 1083 oC is needed (the melting point of copper).

It's not just a case of 'add more fuel, furnace burns hotter', in order to reach that
higher temperature you need to have a proper furnace whereas copper and tin only
need something like a kiln. Iron requires more advanced technologies in order to
even be properly melted.

In addition, cast iron is actually weaker than bronze, which also doesn't rust as
easily. The major difference is that copper and tin deposits are not always found
together and it can be tremendously expensive to produce in bulk.

For example, Cyprus was blessed with enormous copper deposits but no tin and
this had to be imported; until it started developing proper trade links to the rest of the
Mediterranean, bronze was actually treated as a prestige metal like gold and silver
on Cyprus. In addition, with iron you can produce steel and wrought iron,
which are stronger and more durable than bronze.

Steel technology seems to have been quite patchwork, however, and it's not helped
by the fact that 'steel' has been used to refer to wrought iron as well.

Bronze was important because it revolutionized warfare and, to a lesser extent,

agriculture. The harder the metal, the deadlier the weapons created from it and the
more effective the tools. Agriculturally, bronze plows allowed greater crop yields.
Militarily, bronze weapons completely shifted the balance of power in warfare; an
army equipped with bronze spear and arrowheads and bronze armor was much
more effective than one wielding wooden, copper, or obsidian implements.