While it is true that bronze age mesopotamia and egypt did not have a long bow, I am curious as to why you left it out, since it is little more than a longer than average short bow. I tend to think the reason it was not present was more due to oversight than lack of ability to craft / use one. Another reason may have to do with the number and types of trees present. Perhaps - just as bronze is too soft for great swords, etc - the type of wood present in those areas was not condusive to longer bows.
Incidentally, there are quite a few axes, etc from the bronze age. Their greater width made them less likely to break or dent (as much) when used, so a great axe (at least in the sense of a large axe head) is entirely possible. As for swords, the short sword is probably most common, although I think there were a few swords that were somewhat longer. Not sure if they were long enough to count as longswords, but they seem to have been longer than the typical short sword.
Another consideration is that shields, armor, and weapons often needed a bit of touch up at the local forge after extended use. Dents, etc tended to accumulate rather readily - if not actual breakage. Between minor quests - and at various times during major quests - the PCs will likely need to have their armor and weapons 'repaired'. Not sure how to emulate this in d20. If you were using 'armor as DR' then I would say the points of damage the armor prevents accumulate until they reach a certain level - at which point the armor is less useful and in need of repair. If still used the points could accumulate until the item broke due to the lack of hp or whatever.
It is thought by many that the Bronze Age was - scientifically - a simpler age. To a large extent that was true, but many (by renaissance standards) advanced works were created during that age. What seems to be missing is creative utilization of these devises beyond the (probably) minor / simple effect for which they were created. Or, to perhaps state it better, the ancients never seemed to abstract from their original creations into more diverse (and useful) forms.
Hero's Machine - the
Aeolipile - was a type of primative steam engine. It was used primarily as a small toy. They never seemed to realize the potential it could have if made larger. Even if they lacked the materials needed to make steam engins large enough to power - say - paddle boats, they almost certainly had the materials necessary to create, perhaps, a device that might pump bellows with a steam engine - which could have allowed them more useful forges due to the hotter flames. Other ideas also occur to me: mill wheels run by steam instead of water, although I admit the steam may be less efficient at such. Hammers pounding based on steam might have been useful, although the need to precisely place the items to be hammered might limit its utility to flattening metal.
The
Baghdad Battery, it seems was used to electroplate tiny tokens and perhaps to give metal statues of their deities a seeming of 'presense' when touched (via the small charge / static shock felt upon touching it). Granted, these primative batteries produced only about one or two volts of power, but they could be linked together to provide as much as four volts (still not much, I admit).
The
Antikythera Mechanism is an example of ancient clockworks that in effect was an analog clock for determining the ascention / descention of various signs, stars, etc by the turning dials to the desired date. If it had been combined with a few simple changes a clock, based on gravity - such as existed in the 1500s in Europe - could have been possible in ancient times. But, again, they never abstracted from their original purpose to more diverse and useful purposes. Okay, I admit that to
them the astrology could have been quite useful and desireable, but so much more could have been accomplished had they just diversified a bit from what they had . . . .
Now, granted, the first and last of my examples come from the Iron Age, but in the case of the Antikythera Mechanism it was made of bronze, suggesting it could have been made earlier. Also, despite its name, Bronze was still commonly in use for some items and purposes during the Iron Age.
I also suggest the following link:
http://www.larp.com/hoplite/bronze.html
Recreated bronze age items for LARPs. Interesting stuff, particularly the belt pouch, IMO. a simple clasp with stiff alternating leather loops on the lips of the pouch and you get something like a zipper, albeit with leather instead of metal teeth and needing a rod to go through the teeth. Also some nice pics of armor, items, etc - both museum pieces and recreations.
