The Bronze Age was the time when men learned how to mine and smelt copper and tin to make bronze weapons and tools. The era of the Shang and the Zhou dynasties is generally known as the Bronze Age of China, because bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, used to fashion weapons, parts of chariots, and ritual vessels, played an important role in the material culture of the time. Iron appeared in China toward the end of the period, during the Eastern Zhou dynasty. The Shang Dynasty of China uses bronze regularly. They even set up bronze-working communities.