Bronze-age Britain traded tin with the Mediterranean, shows new study – settling a two-century debate

By Benjamin Roberts, Associate Professor in Later European Prehistory, Durham University
Alan Williams, Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Archaeology, Durham University

Tin was the critical mineral of the ancient world. It was essential to alloy with copper to make bronze, which for many centuries was the preferred metal for tools and weapons. Yet sources of tin are very scarce – and were especially so for the rapidly growing bronze age towns, cities and states around the eastern Mediterranean.

Though major tin deposits are found in western and central Europe and in central Asia, by far the richest and most accessible tin ores are in Cornwall and Devon in southwest…

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