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?

Abstract

The origin of the tin used for the production of bronze in the Eurasian Bronze Age is still one of the mysteries in prehistoric archaeology. In the past, numerous studies were carried out on archaeological bronze and tin objects with the aim of determining the sources of tin, but all failed to find suitable fingerprints. In this paper we investigate a set of 27 tin ingots from well-known sites in the eastern Mediterranean Sea (Mochlos, Uluburun, Hishuley Carmel, Kfar Samir south, Haifa) that had been the subject of previous archaeological and archaeometallurgical research. By using a combined approach of tin and lead isotopes together with trace elements it is possible to narrow down the potential sources of tin for the first time. The strongly radiogenic composition of lead in the tin ingots from Israel allows the calculation of a geological model age of the parental tin ores of 291 ± 17 Ma. This theoretical formation age excludes Anatolian, central Asian and Egyptian tin deposits as tin sources since they formed either much earlier or later. On the other hand, European tin deposits of the Variscan orogeny agree well with this time span so that an origin from European deposits is suggested. With the help of the tin isotope composition and the trace elements of the objects it is further possible to exclude many tin resources from the European continent and, considering the current state of knowledge and the available data, to conclude that Cornish tin mines are the most likely suppliers for the 13 th –12 th centuries tin ingots from Israel. Even though a different provenance seems to be suggested for the tin from Mochlos and Uluburun by the actual data, these findings are of great importance for the archaeological interpretation of the trade routes and the circulation of tin during the Late Bronze Age. They demonstrate that the trade networks between the eastern Mediterranean and some place in the east that are assumed for the first half of the 2 nd millennium BCE (as indicated by textual evidence from Kültepe/Kaneš and Mari) did not exist in the same way towards the last quarter of the millennium.

The Early Iron Age collective tomb LCG-1 at Dibbā al-Bayah, Oman: long-distance exchange and cross-cultural interaction

“…As there is no direct information concerning the socio-economic and political organisation of the Oman Peninsula in any known textual source after the Ur III period to the very end of the time span covered by LCG-1 (Yule 2014: 17-18), a detailed study of material culture from the tomb is essential for reconstructing the extensive network of Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age cross-cultural interactions involving South-eastern Arabia. During this period, the major long-distance exchange networks developed across Western Asia were mainly based on the movement of unalloyed tin ingots and tin-bronze objects (Weeks 1999;Berger et al 2019). Due to its relative isolation during the Wadi Suq period, in the Middle Bronze Age, metal objects in the Oman Peninsula were almost always made from pure, local copper, while tin-bronze artefacts began appearing in larger quantities in the region only from the Late Bronze Age (Begemann et al 2010: 140-41).…”

Palatial Crete: recent discoveries & research, 2014–2019

“…Pieces of a tin ingot were stored in a vase. This is the second such example of the LM period to be found on Crete; the other being from Mochlos (Berger et. al 2019).…”

Bronze Age Lives

“…Almost as astonishing was another recent cargo find, off the town of Salcombe on the coast of southwest England:acache of copper and tin ingots, along with gold and bronze artefacts including axes and swords (Needham et al 2013;further finds from adifferent areao ft he coast off Salcombe are not yetf ullyp ublished; Wang et al 2016;B erger et al forthcoming). There has been speculation about the tin sources usedinthe Bronze Age, as at other periods; and while this find does not rule out other sources, it provides strongconfirmatory evidence that the tin of Devon and Cornwall wasbeing shipped across the Channel to France and beyond (Berger et al 2019). Another cargo find, at Langdon Bayoff Dover,includes ar angeo fa rtefacts, both local and continental (Needham et al 2013,2 3-56;58 -84) (Fig.…”