To carry on the tin discussion - during the bronze age, tin was one of the
long-distance trade route commodities in the eastern Mediterranean. there
is a tablet from 18th c. Mari (on the upper Euphrates) talking of a newly
arrived caravan of 100 donkeys bearing tin arriving form the east, and
there is also a mention at Ugarit later in time about Keftiu(probably
Minaon) traders waiting there for a shipment of tin. As Penhallurick and
others (myself included) have noted, tin could have come from the eastern
Desert in Egypt, in Yugoslavia, in Tuscany, India. There is still an
unresolved question about Sardinia (although I believe that it is probably
not a source), in addition to the places named by Chris Salter.
Does this Bailey mention who was trading with whom 5000 B.C.?? Chris Salter
said it all regarding such types of quasi-science...
Carole Gillis
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