Which metal was discovered earlier: iron, copper, nickel, silver or lead?

It is not known exactly what kind of metal people discovered first, because no mention of this has been left. But the very first metal that people began to use in large quantities was copper. After all, it was this metal that was easily processed and did not require forging at high temperatures. So even in ancient Egypt, they began to make swords, axes, spears, arrows, copper jewelry. Later, people learned to combine copper into an alloy with tin and make bronze, which was not inferior in properties to steel.