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When the Bronze Age hit ancient Israel, the copper-rich region was easily able to produce Timna and other mines. But where tin – another one – eighth of the metal 's recipe – has been a lingering mystery for scholars. A new paper from an international team of researchers at a surprisingly source faraway – Cornwall.
In a paper published in June on the open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal PLOS One, the authors analyzes 27 tin ingots, or blocks, from five sites bordering the eastern Mediterranean Sea. For decades, researchers have been studying the use of chemicals throughout the world during the eponymous era, from the late fourth and third millennia BCE. Hypotheses have been swung from Turkey, central Asia, or far-flung France and Britain.
In their paper, "Isotope systematics and chemical composition of tin ingots from Mochlos (Crete) and other Late Bronze Age sites in the eastern Mediterranean Sea: An ultimate key to tin provenance?" A team of interdisciplinary scientists from Mannheim, Germany; Greensboro, North Carolina; Merano, Italy; and Haifa have what they call strong proof of where – and where not – the precious tin was likely mined.
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"Bronze was used to make weapons, jewelry, and all types of daily objects, justifiably bequeathing its name to an entire epoch. The origin of tin has long been an enigma in archaeological research, "said Prof. Dr. Ernst Pernicka in a press release this week. Study co-author Pernicka, now retired, worked at both the Institute for Earth Sciences of Heidelberg University and the Curt Engelhorn Center for Archaeometry.
Illustrative: Drop of tin (CC-BY, via wikipedia)
The scholars used an earth-shattering approach to figure out the mine's locus. "They are writing with the help of a lead and it is possible to get to the source of the first time," they write.
The most logical source? According to the authors, the most likely suppliers of the 13th-12th century BCE tin ingots from Israel are tin mines from Cornwall and Devon.
Dr. Daniel Berger, researcher at the Curt Engelhorn Center for Archaeometry in Mannheim, said: "These results specifically identify the origin of the world for the first time and give rise to new insights and questions for archaeological research.
All in the timing
The studied studies were discovered in Mochlos, Crete, and Uluburun, Turkey, and Haifa, Israel. The ingots discovered in the three sites off the coast of Israel set the "geological model age of the parental tines" at circa 291 million years ago (with an error margin of 17 million years).
Tin deposits on the Eurasian continent and distribution of tin finds in the area studied dating from 2500-1000 BCE. The arrow does not indicate the actual trade route but does not indicate the origin of the Israeli tin based on the data. (Credit: Berger et al., 2019, Prepared by Daniel Berger)
The "age" of the tin is important for the former leading mine contenders – tin deposits in Anatolia, central Asia and Egypt – "since they form or much earlier," write the authors.
Tin is moderately rare essential metal that is found sporadically in sites spread out around the globe. They are also known to have a role in the study of the subject, and the authors state that they are also able to exclude several European sources of origin for the Israeli ingots. Interestingly, the tin ingots from coastal Crete and Turkey appear to have a different source.
Archeologists have found evidence of mining in Cornwall and Devon as early as 2000 BCE and the last tin mine in Cornwall, South Crofty, was only closed in 1998. Other ancient methods of mining the metal, such as sifting river water, leave few gold no artifacts, meaning the metal may have been harvested from these areas even earlier.
Dr. Ehud Galili of University of Haifa taking the lead from Neolithic well in Kfar Samir (Dr. Jonathan Benjamin courtesy of Dr. Ehud Galili, University of Haifa and Israel Antiquities Authority)
The story behind each of the Israeli ingot samples is as astounding as the new study's results.
In 2014, a team of archaeologists including the study co-author, Haifa University's Ehud Galili, discovered what media sensationally called a Neolithic "Atlantis" off the coast of Haifa in Kfar Samir. There, they found the remains of a 7,700-year-old sunken village. The village, located about 200 meters (218 yards) offshore under some 5 meters (16 feet) of seawater, yielded ancient evidence of olive oil production, some of the oldest wooden artifacts in the world, according to a 2014 Times of Israel article, and ancient tin.
An earlier find of a 13th-century ECB shipwreck at Hishuley Carmel in 2012 also was a source of the study's tin ingots. That shipwreck, wrote Galili in a 2012 article in the International Journal of Nautical Archeology, "provides direct evidence for the navy's transportation along the Israeli coast and may indicate inland and maritime trade-routes of metals in the Mediterranean." point, however, author Galili had not yet determined the source of the tin.
The precious
Knowing the origin of the Israeli tin ingots to a complicated and far-reaching ancient trade route.
"Tin objects and deposits are rare in Europe and Asia," said Pernicka. "The Eastern Mediterranean region, where some of the objects we studied originated, had practically none of its own deposits. So the raw material in this region must have been imported. "
Coffin containing an embalmed ibis
Egypt | Ptolemaic Period, 3rd century BCE Bronze, wood, ibis bones and skull, remains of a linen textile, and amulets | Gift of Anwar el-Sadat, President of Egypt, Yigael Yadin
(Courtesy Israel Museum, Jerusalem)
Heidelberg University and the Curt Engelhorn Center for Archaeo- logy in Mannheim about the study, other "highly appreciated raw materials" that would have passed along the trade include amber, glass, and copper.
Originally, bronze was created by mixing copper with arsenic. The poisonous element, however, created toxic fumes that led to metallurgists' early deaths. Tin was found to be more stable – and less lethal – but somewhat elusive.
Tin once held a value and strategic importance in the field of oil, according to the paper "Tin Deposits and the Early History of Bronze" by geologist R. J. Cathro. "Judging by how much effort went into finding it, the price of an extremely high," writes Cathro.
"It has become an indispensable commodity, worthy of the world for and going to war over, and it occupies a special place in the history of mining, economic geology, agriculture, warfare, art, and human development," writes Cathro. "Gold and silver could finance a war, but bronze could win it."
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