Metal nail and rivet

What it is

Metal shaft with a head for joining timber or metal sheets; the rivet, hammered at both ends, joins plates and weapon blades to the hilt. They replaced pegs, cord and glue in joints that had to withstand stress.

The clay cones of Uruk (c. 3400 BCE) are decorative, not structural; structural metal nails became widespread in the 3rd millennium.

What it led to

• Fast assembly of furniture, doors, carts and ship hulls
• Reliable composite weapons (daggers and swords hafted with rivets)
• Sheet-metal work: riveted copper vessels and plate armour

Built on

• Cold-hammered native copperc. 8000 BCE
• Hammer and anvil
• Uruk decorative clay cone nails

Made possible

• Swordc. 3300 BCE
• Hinge and door pivotc. 2500 BCE
• Metal helmet and scale armourc. 1700 BCE
• Riveted jeans by Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis1873
• Plank-built ship

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