Metal is essential in our world but how did early humans noticed that that shiny “rock” is usefull
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Like many developments in human history, probably warfare. Back when we just figured out how to sharpen rocks into spear tips, some enterprising young human in his shed hut thought, “I need to find the best rocks to make the best pointy bits”. Multiply that by a thousand and eventually you’ll get one human who thought maybe rocks would do more damage if they’re hot, and thus exposes their stone tips to heat. One day they actually manage to melt one of the rocks, but when it was cool it was actually harder than the rock before. This rock may have been a soft metal, like copper or tin, but thay more or less Jumpstart the arms race: some rocks when melted can be shaped into pointer sticks.
How instead of rock spears, which can still chip and dull quickly, you have copper spears which stay sharper longer. Once you know so.e rocks can melt, you try to melt other rocks and see what rocks melt well together. I bet most ancient metals weren’t pure copper but dirty alloys of materials like zinc and Nickle, and some people noticed this. Indeed, one of our oldest written historic records is about someone selling subpar copper, so at some point people did understand the importance of melting the right rocks.
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