Evidence of prehistoric hard-rock mining of cassiterite is rare – we should expect that most of the Bronze Age tin was won from alluvial deposits, which are worked over time and again.  How much evidence of prehistoric tin mining is there from Cornwall?  The problem is the same as with alluvial gold – we know that much of the gold used in Al-Andalus and the Islamic Maghreb came from the region between the headwaters of the Niger and Senegal Rivers, but not a single prehistoric gold mine has yet been found in this region – these alluvial deposits have been repeatedly worked.  So I do think that compiling lists of known occurrences of tin mineralization, however insignificant by modern standards, is a useful exercise.

Proof that a given alluvial deposit was actually used in prehistory is going to have to come from recovery of cassiterite or stannite in other types of archaeological sites – workshops, habitations, etc. - or from finds of smelting slag. Unfortunately there has been very little work on tin smelting slags – there is the work of McDonnell and Malham on Cornwall, and of myself, Shadreck Chirikure and Robert Heimann in South Africa.  In South Africa we found (JAS 37(2010):1656-1669) that we could distinguish between tin ore won by hard-rock mining  and tin  ore from alluvial contexts. Tthe slag produced by smelting the alluvial ores had much higher zirconium and titanium contents (from other heavy minerals like zircon and ilmenite that were concentrated in rivers along with the cassiterite).  Some tin slags from Cornwall also have elevated levels of these elements. 


From: Arch-Metals Group <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of "W. Sheppard Baird" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Arch-Metals Group <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Monday, September 4, 2017 at 10:54 AM
To: Arch-Metals Group <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [Updated Version] Tuscan Bronze Age Tin with Lead Isotopes Analysis Publication

Dear Andrea,

Thank you very much for your questions. This entirely depends on your definition of "hard evidence". If you think the well-documented accounts from the 19th and 20th centuries as presented by Pampaloni is "hard evidence" that proves the existence of Bronze Age tin mining in Tuscany beyond any reasonable doubt then this should be sufficient. If you have objectively developed evidence that invalidates Pampaloni's documentation as either fabricated or non-existent I would be very interested in objectively evaluating it. Do you?

To exclude any possibility of prehistoric tin mining at Cento Camerelle in Tuscany simply because it doesn't now exist due to the highly destructive mining practices of modern times is for me totally invalid and meaningless. I hope this is helpful.

Very Kindly,

W. Sheppard Baird

On Mon, Sep 4, 2017 at 5:02 AM, Andrea Dolfini <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Dear Sheppard,

 

As a specialist in early central Med metallurgy I have always been a little sceptical as to the long-standing claims for Sardinian and (especially) Tuscan tin ore exploitation in prehistory, and quite possibly in ancient times in general. I wonder if you (or someone else) have come across any hard evidence of ancient cassiterite/stannite exploitation (or tin usage) from either region, and if so to what period it dates?

 

Best wishes,

 

Andrea Dolfini

Newcastle University

 

From: Arch-Metals Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]AC.UK] On Behalf Of W. Sheppard Baird
Sent: 29 August 2017 22:16
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [Updated Version] Tuscan Bronze Age Tin with Lead Isotopes Analysis Publication

 

Dear All,


Some of you may know of my interest in the availability of tin during the Bronze Age from the GIS publication "The Distribution of Tin (Cassiterite): Mediterranean Bronze Age" I published online in 2013 based extensively on the world's largest public mineralogical database - Mindat.org. From my research on the Nuraghic Sardinians, I've been looking for deposits of Cassiterite or Stannite for some years now that could explain their abundant production of Bronze objects in the 2nd Millenium BC. Given there are ten locations in Sardinia with mineralizations of Cassiterite I suspected, at least, one of these was possibly a useful source of Bronze Age tin that had been thoroughly exhausted and then later destroyed leaving little or no evidence. This still may be true.

But, after finding nothing beyond mineralizations on Sardinia I recently widened my search following the trail of Cassiterite to Tuscany on the Italian mainland. As my investigation took me on the road to the mines of Monte Valerio I discovered the following works of the Italian scholar Auro Pampaloni:

Pampaloni, 2017, Lo stagno del Campigliese: 40 secoli di uso (Original Italian)

Pampaloni, 2017, The tin of Campigliese: 40 centuries of usage (English Translation)

 

The following images comprise a Google Earth "slideshow" for mining sites and geographical features mentioned in the above publication:

 

Animated Slideshow Tour for Google Earth users:
Cento Camerelle - Google Earth KMZ file

 

Note: with Google Earth Pro (it's free!) installed on your computer all you need to do is simply open this file and the slideshow will automatically begin playing.

 

The following publication on Lead Isotopes Analysis is tightly coupled with the above paper on Campigliese tin.

 


I think anyone interested in a much clearer picture of the supply of tin in the greater Mediterranean during the Bronze Age will find this of great interest and I would love to hear any comments anyone may have.

Best Wishes,
W. Sheppard Baird