The Salcombe metal cargoes: New light on the provenance and circulation of tin and copper in Later Bronze Age Europe provided by trace elements and isotopes

Berger, Daniel; Wang, Q.; Brügmann, Gerhard; Lockhoff, Nicole; Roberts, Benjamin W.; Pernicka, Ernst

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2022.105543

Cited by 25 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…Tellurium enrichment is associated with epithermal mineralization systems (<1-km depth) ( 16 ), consistent with the 0.5- to 3-km depth of Central Tajikistan’s polymetallic tin deposits ( 17 ). The lode and greisen ores of Cornwall formed at greater depths (2.5 to 6 km) ( 18 ); the single Te analysis from the English tin ingots has <1.3 ppm of Te; and the P1 group lacks the correlation between Pb, Bi, Sb, and In observed in the Salcombe tin ingot assemblage ( 19 ). Thus, Central Asia is a more likely origin than Britain for the ingots in question.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3000 to 2000 BCE have been found at Kestel and Hisarcık in south-central Anatolia ( Fig. 6 ) ( 9 , 27 , 28 ), and placer ores were worked across LBA Europe, including Bohemia-Saxony ( 29 ), Serbia ( 30 ), and Cornwall ( 19 ). With the exception of Anatolia, where tin ores lay within the provincial territory of Hatti, the identified tin ores lie within regions with no identified Bronze Age state formation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tin from Uluburun shipwreck shows small-scale commodity exchange fueled continental tin supply across Late Bronze Age Eurasia

et al. 2022

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This paper provides the first comprehensive sourcing analysis of the tin ingots carried by the well-known Late Bronze Age shipwreck found off the Turkish coast at Uluburun (ca. 1320 BCE). Using lead isotope, trace element, and tin isotope analyses, this study demonstrates that ores from Central Asia (Uzbekistan and Tajikistan) were used to produce one-third of the Uluburun tin ingots. The remaining two-thirds were derived from the Taurus Mountains of Turkey, namely, from stream tin and residual low-grade mineralization remaining after extensive exploitation in the Early Bronze Age. The results of our metallurgical analysis, along with archaeological and textual data, illustrate that a culturally diverse, multiregional, and multivector system underpinned Eurasian tin exchange during the Late Bronze Age. The demonstrable scale of this connectivity reveals a vast and disparate network that relied as much on the participation of small regional communities as on supposedly hegemonic institutions of large, centralized states.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tin from Uluburun shipwreck shows small-scale commodity exchange fueled continental tin supply across Late Bronze Age Eurasia

et al. 2022

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“…In an article summarizing the state of research concerning Bronze Age mining and metal production, Simon Timberlake (2017: 716) wrote: ‘There is good circumstantial evidence and a strong narrative tradition which asserts Cornwall (and Devon) to be the European home(s) of prehistoric tin.’ Our results strongly suggest that Cornish tin sources were being processed from as early as c. 2300–2200 cal bc , and that ores from these sources were integrated into the circulation of metals, first across Britain and Ireland and subsequently in the wider Atlantic region and beyond (Berger et al, 2022). This ties in with the goldwork evidence, in terms of the Atlantic distribution of the broadly contemporary lunulae found in Ireland, Cornwall, and Brittany (Taylor, 1980; Needham, 2000), and with respect to geochemical analyses which have identified Cornish gold in other artefact types (Esher et al, 2011; Standish et al, 2015; Krause et al, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 59%

Beaker and Early Bronze Age Tin Exploitation in Cornwall: Cassiterite Processing Identified through Microwear and pXRF Analyses

et al. 2022

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The appearance of Beaker pottery in Britain and Ireland during the twenty-fifth century bc marks a significant archaeological horizon, being synchronous with the first metal artefacts. The adoption of arsenical copper, mostly from Ireland, was followed by that of tin-bronze around 2200 bc. However, whilst the copper mine of Ross Island in Ireland is securely dated to the Early Bronze Age, and further such mines in the UK have been dated to the Early and Middle Bronze Age, the evidence for the exploitation of tin ores, the other key ingredient to make bronze, has remained circumstantial. This article contains the detailed analyses of seven stone artefacts from securely dated contexts, using a combination of surface pXRF and microwear analysis. The results provide strong evidence that the tools were used in cassiterite processing. The combined analysis of these artefacts documents in detail the exploitation of Cornish tin during this early phase of metal use in Britain and Ireland.

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“…Aliquots of the solutions were processed according to the requirements of tin, copper and lead isotope analysis. Details of the preparation and analytical protocols are described in Brügmann et al (2017a) and Berger et al (2022). The copper isotope ratios are given in delta notation as δ 65 Cu (= δ 65 Cu/ 63 Cu) in ‰ relative to NIST SRM 976.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shiny bronze in glassy matter: an inconspicuous piece of slag from the Bronze Age mining site of Mušiston (Tajikistan) and its significance for the development of tin metallurgy in Central Asia

Berger¹,

Brügmann²,

Friedrich³

et al. 2022

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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This paper aims at contributing to a better understanding of the beginnings of tin and bronze metallurgy in Central Asia by investigating a hitherto unique piece of a bronze slag. The object was originally discovered as a stray find only 4 km away from the large copper-tin deposit of Mušiston in Tajikistan. It contains many prills of bronze and copper as well as small charcoal particles. Radiocarbon dating of the charcoal places the slag in a period between 1900 and 1400 BCE and thus in the Late Bronze Age of the region. This date coincides with radiocarbon dates of relics from underground galleries of the Mušiston deposit. Chemical and microscopic examination demonstrated the slag to be a relic of a co-smelting process, in which a natural assemblage of tin and copper minerals was smelted simultaneously. Both the chemical and the tin and copper isotope compositions clearly link the slag to the nearby polymetallic ores from Mušiston, of which an extensive dataset is presented. The artefact’s lead isotope ratios and increased iron concentration in turn indicate intentional fluxing of the original ore charge with iron-dominated ores. These results are the first tangible evidence of a smelting process of tin ores in the entire region and therefore add a new dimension to the findings from previous mining archaeological investigations. At the same time, the results give significant information about the smelting process of secondary polymetallic ores from Mušiston and help in assessing the scientific data of Bronze Age bronze artefacts from Central Asia.

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The Salcombe metal cargoes: New light on the provenance and circulation of tin and copper in Later Bronze Age Europe provided by trace elements and isotopes

Cited by 25 publications

References 94 publications

Tin from Uluburun shipwreck shows small-scale commodity exchange fueled continental tin supply across Late Bronze Age Eurasia

Tin from Uluburun shipwreck shows small-scale commodity exchange fueled continental tin supply across Late Bronze Age Eurasia

Beaker and Early Bronze Age Tin Exploitation in Cornwall: Cassiterite Processing Identified through Microwear and pXRF Analyses

Shiny bronze in glassy matter: an inconspicuous piece of slag from the Bronze Age mining site of Mušiston (Tajikistan) and its significance for the development of tin metallurgy in Central Asia

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