From Land’s End to the Levant: did Britain’s tin sources transform the Bronze Age in Europe and the Mediterranean?

Williams, R Alan; Montesanto, Mariacarmela; Badreshany, Kamal; Berger, Daniel; Jones, Andy M; Aragón, Enrique; Brügmann, Gerhard; Ponting, Matthew; Roberts, Benjamin W

Abstract

Bronze Age–Early Iron Age tin ingots recovered from four Mediterranean shipwrecks off the coasts of Israel and southern France can now be provenanced to tin ores in south-west Britain. These exceptionally rich and accessible ores played a fundamental role in the transition from copper to full tin-bronze metallurgy across Europe and the Mediterranean during the second millennium BC. The authors’ application of a novel combination of three independent analyses (trace element, lead and tin isotopes) to tin ores and artefacts from Western and Central Europe also provides the foundation for future analyses of the pan-continental tin trade in later periods.

Citation

Williams, R. A., Montesanto, M., Badreshany, K., Berger, D., Jones, A. M., Aragón, E., Brügmann, G., Ponting, M., & Roberts, B. W. (online). From Land’s End to the Levant: did Britain’s tin sources transform the Bronze Age in Europe and the Mediterranean?. Antiquity, https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2025.41

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 9, 2024
• Online Publication Date: May 7, 2025
• Deposit Date: Jan 31, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: May 14, 2025
• Journal: Antiquity
• Print ISSN: 0003-598X
• Electronic ISSN: 1745-1744
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2025.41
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3352969