John Colby wrote:
>
> If this has cross posted, apologies.
>
> I was told by Justin Brooke (the Cornish mining Historian) that work had
> been performed on trace metal analysis of Mediterranean bronze artefacts
> of various ages with regard to trace metals or significant impurities
> which would lead to provenancing the tin (and copper?) used.
>
> Can anyone point me in the direction of any work on this subject? Or to
> any work which has more detail on the trade in Cornish Tin in antiquity
>
John,
You may care to look at a 1998 publication from British Museum Press:
'The Circulation of Metal in the British Bronze Age: the application of
Lead Isotope Analysis' by B.Rohl & S.Needham (BM Occasional Paper no.
102, 234pp ISBN 086159102X. Rather technical but useful in some of its
conclusions. Still a bit of a minefield this one! This of course is
looking at lead impurities in the bronze rather than the tin, but does
include analyses of both copper ores and bronze artifacts from SW
England. The field of correlation is really between British BA artefacts
and British ore sources rather than exotic ones, so I don't think it
will spread much light on the sources of copper or tin used in
Mediterranean bronze.
You will probably already be aware of R.D. Penhallurick's 'Tin in
Antiquity' (Institute of Metals Publication 1986 ISBN 0904357813).
Evidence or lack of it for tin trade to Mediterranean region both from
Cornwall and elsewhere covered in some detail, with evidence of wealth
of evidence (mostly circumstantial) for prehistoric tin exploitation in
SW England. Not a lot of new evidence from the SW since.
There are currently many theories on the sources of tin used in
Mediterranean and particularly Aegean bronzes, and this has prompted
recent research and fieldwork in Turkey (NB the Kestel tin mine in
Southern Anatolia), the Middle East, and even Central Asian republics
such as Uzbekistan and Tadjikistan. I could dig out references but don't
have them to hand at the moment.
Good luck!
Simon
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