The European Bronze Age is characterized by bronze artifacts and the use of bronze implements. The regional Bronze Age succeeds the Neolithic, it starts with the Aegean Bronze Age in 3200 BC, spans the entire 2nd millennium BC in Northern Europe, lasting until c. 600 BC. A study in the journal Antiquity from 2013 reported the discovery of a tin bronze foil from the Pločnik dated to c. 4650 BC as well as 14 other artefacts from Serbia and Bulgaria dated to before 4000 BC showed that early tin bronze was more common than thought, developed independently in Europe 1500 years before the first tin bronze alloys in the Near East. The production of complex tin bronzes lasted for c. 500 years in the Balkans. The authors reported that evidence for the production of such complex bronzes disappears at the end of the 5th millennium coinciding with the "collapse of large cultural complexes in north-eastern Bulgaria and Thracein the late fifth millennium BC". Tin bronzes using cassiterite tin would be reintroduced to the area again some 1500 years later.

The Aegean Bronze Age begins around 3200 BC when civilizations first established a far-ranging trade network. This network imported tin and charcoal to Cyprus, where copper was mined and alloyed with the tin to produce bronze. Bronze objects were exported far and wide and supported the trade. Isotopic analysis of the tin in some Mediterranean bronze objects indicates it came from as far away as Great Britain. Knowledge of navigation was well developed at this time and reached a peak of skill not exceeded until a method was discovered to determine longitude around AD 1750, with the notable exception of the Polynesian sailors; the eruption of Thera, which according to archaeological data occurred 1500 BC, resulted in the decline of the Minoan. This turn of events gave the opportunity to the Mycenaeans to spread their influence throughout the Aegean. Around c. 1450 BC, they were in control of Crete itself and colonized several other Aegean islands, reaching as far as Rhodes. Thus the Mycenaeans became the dominant power of the region, marking the beginning of the Mycenaean'Koine' era, a uniform culture that spread in mainland Greece and the Aegean.

The Mycenaean Greeks introduced several innovations in the fields of engineering and military infrastructure, while trade over vast areas of the Mediterranean was essential for the Mycenaean economy. Their syllabic script, the Linear B, offers the first written records of the Greek language and their religion included several deities that can be found in the Olympic Pantheon. Mycenaean Greece was dominated by a warrior elite society and consisted of a network of palace states that developed rigid hierarchical, political and economic systems. At the head of this societies was the king, known as wanax; the Italian Bronze Age is conditionally divided into four periods: The Early Bronze Age, the Middle Bronze Age, the Recent Bronze Age, the Final Bronze Age. During the second millennium BC, the Nuragic civilization flourished in the island of Sardinia, it was a rather homogeneous culture, more than 7000 imposing stone tower-buildings known as Nuraghe were built by this culture all over the island, along with other types of monuments such as the megaron temples, the monumental Giants' graves and the holy well temples.

Sanctuaries and larger settlements were built starting from the late second millennium BC to host these religious structures along with other structures such ritual pools and tanks, large stone roundhouses with circular benches used for the meeting of the leaders of the chiefdoms and large public areas. Bronze tools and weapons were widespread and their quality increased thanks to the contacts between the Nuragic people and Eastern Mediterranean peoples such as the Cypriots, the lost waxing technique was introduced to create several hundred bronze statuettes and other tools; the Nuragic civilization survived throughout the early iron age when the sanctuaries were still in use, stone statues were crafted and some Nuraghi were reused as temples. The Maykop culture was the major early Bronze Age culture in the North Caucasus; some scholars date arsenical bronze artifacts in the region as far back as the mid-4th millennium BC. The Yamnaya culture was a late copper age/early Bronze Age culture dating to the 36th–23rd centuries BC.

The culture was predominantly nomadic, with some agriculture practiced near rivers and a few hill-forts. The Catacomb culture, covering several related archaeological cultures, was first to introduce corded pottery decorations into the steppes and showed a profuse use of the polished battle ax, providing a link to the West. Parallels with the Afanasevo culture, including provoked cranial deformations, provide a link to the East, it was succeeded by the western Corded Ware culture. The Catacomb culture in the Pontic steppe was succeeded by the Srubna culture from c. the 17th century BC. Important sites include: Biskupin Nebra Zug-Sumpf, Switzerland Vráble, SlovakiaIn Central Europe, the early Bronze Age Unetice culture includes numerous smaller groups like the Straubingen and Hatvan cultures; some rich burials, such as the one located at Leubingen with grave gifts crafted from gold, point to an increase of social stratification present in the Unetice culture. All in all, cemeteries of this period are rare and of small size.

The Unetice culture is followed by the middle Bronze Age Tumulus cul

The whitespot ghost shark is a chimaera species in the family Chimaeridae, which lives in parts of the Galápagos Islands in the southeast Pacific Ocean and is known from four specimens. It grows to a total length of around 40 -- 50 cm; the whitespot ghost shark was first described in 2006 by Kimberly Quaranta, Dominique Didier, Douglas Long, David Ebert in Zootaxa. The specific name, refers to the white spot on its skin; the species is only known from four specimens. Because the species' habitat is too rough for trawls to operate in, the species has only been discovered using submersibles. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, of the two specimens that were caught and examined, one, a female, had a body length of 24.4 centimeters and a total length of 48 cm, the other, a male, had a body length of 24.9 cm and a total length of 41.9 cm. The male examined was an adult, while the female was not grown yet; the chimaera has a single white spot above its pectoral fin about 4–6% the size of its body, after which it is named.

With a tint of blue, its paired fins are lighter on the outside. It is lighter in color in the area behind its second dorsal fin, its width reduces from its body to its narrow tail. The whitespot ghost shark's skin is smooth throughout, without any scales, it has two dorsal fins. The second dorsal fin is long, but is lower. Like all members in its genus, the species lacks an anal fin, its head and eyes are both large, with its eyes being about two-fifths the size of its head and green in color. A groove connects a corner of its mouth to its nostrils, which are located further front than its mouth and are large; the claspers of males small, split halfway from their innermost point and have denticles at the tip. A benthopelagic species, the whitespot ghost shark inhabits waters close to the sea floor, no further than 3 meters from it, lives at depths of 630–907 m, its habitat is in the bathyal zone. In particular, it is found in "areas of high rocky relief containing volcanic boulders and pebbles, interspersed with patches of sand and silt," the same environment as Hydrolagus mccoskeri, the Galápagos ghostshark.

It is carnivorous, feeding on worms, shrimp and mollusks that live in the benthic zone. The whitespot ghost shark lives in the southeast Pacific Ocean, in the waters of the Galapagos Islands, has only been observed or caught in four different areas of the islands. Although unconfirmed, it is probable that the species are endemic to the islands due to the number of fish which are known to be endemic there; the species does not have any major threats, due to its habitat being difficult to fish in and because no fisheries in its range operate in waters as deep as the species lives. Its range is protected due to being a part of the Galápagos Marine Reserve, which covers an area of 133,000 km2 and makes fishing industrially forbidden, although artisanal fishing is still permitted. People who violate these regulations do not receive prosecution, the rules are not enforced, it is listed as data deficient by the IUCN, requiring further information about its population before giving it an assessment

Te Awa-o-Tū / Thompson Sound is a fiord of the South Island of New Zealand. It is one of the fiords; the fiord is connected at its farthest extent with Pendulo Reach, part of Doubtful Sound, between them Thompson and Doubtful Sounds form the non-Tasman Sea coast of Secretary Island. It is 21 kilometres in length. Bradshaw Sound, which extends east from the junction of Doubtful and Thompson Sounds, is geographically and geologically an extension of Thompson Sound. Several small rivers flow into Thompson Sound, among them the Pandora and Namu Rivers. Thompson Sound was named by John Grono, a sealer who worked the Fiordland coast in the early 19th century, after his boat's owner, Andrew Thompson. Grono himself is honoured in the name of the 1196-metre Mount Grono, the highest point on Secretary Island. Surveyor Captain John Stokes incorrectly thought that the sound had been named after Colonial Secretary Edward Deas Thomson, named an indentation in the sound's Secretary Island coast as Deas Cove.

In October 2019, the name of the fiord was altered to Te Awa-o-Tū / Thompson Sound