How did ancient people first figure out metallurgy? Wouldn’t they have had to know to dig up the metals from deep underground in the first place?

Question

Basically what the title says, how did people first figure out that metal would be useful, how to work it, etc, if metal is buried under the ground and requires a substantial effort to extract?

In: 8

Answer 1

I believe the best answers are on /r/history. From my memory, it started with pottery, with bits of copper being found after baking. This led to early copper smelting and eventually to bronze, the iron smelting built upon that.