Back when it originated, the stone-copper-bronze-iron idea was an attempt to create a dating system, as no radiometric methods yet existed (sez here the originator died in 1865). The whole, when did the bronze age end / what led to the end of the bronze age, is a bogus debate and complete waste of time, as there wasn’t any such clear-cut division or abandonment of one for another. Stone continues to be used in a good many places, by small groups, and they’ve never used anything else, not even a Coke bottle dropped from an airliner. During the obsidian trade, which goes back thousands of years BC, the sophistication of its uses included attractive (and still usable) hand mirrors, as well as more familiar things like arrow- and spearheads.
Another thing that got dropped out is the use of ceramics. The use of fired ceramic implements (pots, jars, various decorative doodads, but no weapons that come to mind) really caught on in the eastern Med around 7000 years ago; in what is now China fired pottery goes back as far as 20,000 years ago; in Europe at Dolní Vestonice, fired pottery figurines (most of which appear to have been ritually smashed, perhaps some kind of hunting magic) date as far back as 29,000 years. That’s quite a range.
Preceramic sites are recognized by their complete lack of fired ceramics. Khirokitia in Cyprus is an example of a preceramic settlement; the settlers came from the mainland, as discerned by the animal remains in their rubbish, these include species they imported from there and which are not known from any other site on Cyprus.
They made that sea crossing 9,000 years ago. It used to be thought (not sure now) that their old neighbors on the mainland had started to fire their ceramics, and they wanted no more contact with them, a probably silly explanation. More likely they kept getting their asses handed to them by violent jackoffs and just fled.
Okay, thank you for the lesson. I learn so much from your posts.