c. 2000–1700 BC to AD 800 Copper before there was historyMeď skôr, než boli dejiny

The story of this city starts underground, and it starts very early. In the valley of Špania Dolina, ten kilometres north of the modern centre, people were digging and working copper in the older Bronze Age, around 2000–1700 BC; the stone hammers they broke the ore with have been found there in quantity. Later the Celtic Cotini and then the Germanic Quadi lived along this stretch of the river Hron. Slavs settled the place where a fast stream called the Bystrica runs into the Hron. Nobody founded Banská Bystrica in the way a king founds a town: the copper was here, and one people after another came to it.Príbeh tohto mesta sa začína pod zemou a začína sa veľmi skoro. V Španej Doline, desať kilometrov na sever od dnešného centra, ľudia ťažili a spracúvali meď už v staršej dobe bronzovej, okolo rokov 2000 – 1700 pred n. l.; kamenné mlaty, ktorými rudu rozbíjali, sa tam našli vo veľkom množstve. Neskôr v tomto úseku Pohronia žili keltskí Kotíni a po nich germánski Kvádi. Slovania sa usadili tam, kde sa bystrý potok Bystrica vlieva do Hrona. Banskú Bystricu nikto nezaložil tak, ako kráľ zakladá mesto: meď tu jednoducho bola a jeden ľud za druhým si po ňu prišiel.