Sources of Tin and the Beginnings of Bronze Metallurgy

Abstract

Recent discoveries of Bronze Age tin ingots and tin artifacts, together with new geological evidence on tin deposits in Europe, the Mediterranean and Western Asia, provide the opportunity to survey the evidence for possible sources of tin and the first use of bronze in the eastern Mediterranean and in Western Asia. Afghanistan now emerges as the most promising eastern source of tin, with western sources most likely located in southern England and Brittany. Central European tin sources still provide serious problems within the context of the nature of Bronze Age mining technology and the type of cassiterite being utilized at that time. During the past ten years there has been an enormous increase in the degree of interest and the quantity of publication on all aspects of ancient metallurgy.' The field has acquired a new name, archaeometallurgy, used by at least one Institute for ArchaeoMetallurgical Studies, with several other programs devoted to research in the field.2 The discipline now has its own journal,3 a sure sign of status in the research climate of today. It is obvious that our understanding of many basic aspects of the field has been transformed and also-an inevitable corollary-that there are at present no up-to-date surveys or works of synthesis.4 Many basic problems remain and, in certain areas, we have yet to see a major breakthrough or significant change in traditional confusion. Foremost in the latter category must be the problem of ancient sources of tin. It is remarkable that, after twenty years of intensive scholarly investigation and fieldwork, we still have no hard evidence regarding the sources of tin being exploited by the numerous and widespread bronze industries of antiquity.5 The main sources of tin exploited by the industrialized countries of the world since at least the sixteenth century are located either on the fringes of the ancient world-in southern England (Cornwall and Devon) and in Burma, Thailand and Malaysia-or in places such as Bolivia, Kazakhstan and China that were far beyond the reaches of a world centered on the Mediterranean.6 What contact there was with countries such as China was only of a most exotic nature and virtually non-existent in any form prior to the time of the Roman Empire (ill. 1).7 * This article is based upon the paper delivered at the Chronologies in Old World Archaeology Seminar, Columbia University, on 9 December 1982, at the kind invitation of Professor Edith Porada. The author would like to take this opportunity to thank his colleagues throughout the world for providing him with copies of their publications. Special thanks are due to Professor Tamara Stech (University of Pennsylvania) and Professor Robert Maddin (Harvard University) for their advice and constructive criticism. 1 The interval is, with no little arrogance and, I hope, some small justification, based upon the publication, in 1973, of my book on Copper and Tin. The Distribution of Mineral Resources and the Nature of the Metals Trade in the Bronze Age (Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences 43; Hamden, Conn. 1973, issued in 2nd ed., with Supplement, in 1976). 2 The Institute for Archaeo-Metallurgical Studies (IAMS) is at the University of London. At the University of Pennsylvania we have established the Program for Ancient Metallurgy, while another program on archaeometallurgy is part of MASCA at the University Museum. For the various groups now conducting research in the field, see the special series of articles in T. Berthoud et al., Production, c also Evidence for Sources of and Trade in Bronze Age Tin, in A.D. Franklin, J.S. Olin and T.A. Wertime eds., The Search for Ancient (Washington, D.C., 1978) 43-48; R. Maddin, T.S. Wheeler and J.D. Muhly, Tin in the Ancient Near East: Old Questions and New Finds, Expedition 19.2 (1977) 35-47. 6 For world tin resources, see World Mineral Statistics (Institute of Geological Sciences, London 1979). Total world production in 1976 was 197,000 tons. Of this Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia produced 107,271, China, 20,000 and Bolivia, 30,355. This accounts for 80% of the world total. See also P.J.H. Rich, Future of as a Tonnage Commodity, Transactions, Institution of Mining and Metallurgy 89A (1980) 8-17 (with correction on p. 106 and discussion on pp. 157-64). Rich estimates that, between 1851 and 1976, Malaysia produced 4,817,500 tons of tin. 7 The discovery of Chinese silk in an early 6th c. B.C. grave near the Heuneburg fort in South Germany is hardly sufficient evidence 275 American Journal of Archaeology 89 (1985) This content downloaded from 207.46.13.128 on Tue, 06 Sep 2016 05:54:46 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 276 JAMES D. MUHLY [AJA 89 PENINSULAA I LAOEAA-LIA TRA~SBAIKAL MA SA C % ERZGEIRGE CHANG NEW RunswC c NAssI CENTRAL-SRI TANS ZTL A SOUTTHERN MARITIME I TS R REITORALR ASA