3 July 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Who will solve the puzzle of Bronze Age tin? Origin of tin ingots from Uluburun shipwreck disputed – the metal may have come from Cornwall

The exact origin of tin in the Bronze Age is the Holy Grail of archaeometallurgists: For 150 years, experts have been discussing the question of which mines the tin for all the swords, helmets, bracelets, plates, or jugs in the Bronze Age came from.

Discovering which mines the tin came from could provide far-reaching insights into early trade relations between Central Asia, Mesopotamia, North Africa, the Levant, and Europe, and thus into an early globalization that changed the world.

The key to solving this puzzle may be the cargo of a merchant ship that sank around 1320 BCE off what is now the west coast of Turkey near Uluburun. The wreck was discovered by divers in 1982 and its cargo recovered by underwater archaeologists. In addition to luxury goods, it contained 10 tons of copper ingots and one ton of tin ingots – much more than had ever been found before from the Bronze Age.

“Even 40 years after the Uluburun discovery, the tin puzzle remains, although we are getting closer to solving it by applying new methods,” says Ernst Pernicka, senior professor at the University of Tübingen and scientific director of the Curt Engelhorn Center for Archaeometry (CEZA) at the Reiss-Engelhorn Museum in Mannheim.

In a recently published study in the journal Frontiers in Earth Science, CEZA researcher Dr. Daniel Berger and his co-authors including Pernicka contradict a research team led by Professor Wayne Powell of Brooklyn College in New York, who claimed in the journal Science Advances in November 2022 that they could clearly determine the origin of the tin from the Uluburun shipwreck.

Tin deposits and tin finds in the eastern Mediterranean, Middle and Late Bronze Age | Copyright: Daniel Berger / CEZA
Tin deposits and tin finds in the eastern Mediterranean, Middle and Late Bronze Age | Copyright: Daniel Berger / CEZA

Powell’s team said most of the tin came from the Mushiston tin deposit in northwestern Tajikistan, as well as from two mines in the Taurus Mountains near the present-day Turkish-Syrian border. For their analysis, the team took samples of 105 tin ingots from the wreck, determining chemical and isotopic signatures of 90 percent of the tin cargo. In particular, they measured the isotope ratios of tin and lead, which, like the chemical composition, provide clues to the origin of the tin. Also, the proportion of the trace element tellurium points to tin deposits in Central Asia. The Powell team claims to be able to infer a clear attribution based on the matching signatures between the ingots from Uluburun and tin ore samples from the abovementioned mines.

Berger and his fellow authors refute this, saying “The data does not support this interpretation; it does not allow a clear conclusion.” For the current study, Berger extensively checked chemical and isotopic analyses also from previous studies and cross-checked them with Powell’s data set. “Due to the isotopic ratios and chemical characteristics, it would be even more likely that at least part of the cargo of tin ingots from the Uluburun shipwreck originated from Cornwall in Britain. In particular, the comparison with Bronze Age tin ingots from Britain and Israel which we have considered in the past on a similar question of origin suggests this conclusion. Ultimately, however, it is also possible that the tin originates from the Saxon-Bohemian Erzgebirge or the Iberian Peninsula,” Berger says. He added that more samples and analyses of ores from European and Asian tin deposits were needed.

Overall, the Bronze Age lasted from the late fourth millennium to the early first millennium BCE – but with different beginnings and ends depending on the region of the world. Bronze, an alloy of copper and tin in a ratio of nine to one, is significantly harder than copper alone. Copper ores are found in many regions of Eurasia and Africa. However, tin ores that were accessible in the Bronze Age can only be found in a few places in Central Asia, Iran and Europe. It is all the more astonishing that some of the earliest bronze artifacts have been found in the Mesopotamian city-states of the Tigris–Euphrates river system. But there are no tin deposits there; the metal had to be obtained via long-distance trade.

“Numerous archaeological finds show that the British Isles and Central Europe formed an economic sphere with the Mediterranean region in the Bronze Age and was connected via the transport routes of the Danube, Rhine and Rhône rivers, or via the ocean,” Pernicka and Berger say. For instance, amber beads likely traded from the Baltic were found in the Uluburun wreck, indicating the existence of north-south trade routes.

The use of standardized weights had already spread in the course of the second millennium BCE, coming from Egypt and Mesopotamia, via Syria, Anatolia and the Aegean, and across the Alps to Central Europe. These standard weights were used to weigh merchandise, including tin ingots. For the time of the Uluburun ship, neither weight systems nor established trade connections to Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean can be documented for Central Asia, which underscores the likelihood that the tin originated from the west.

University of Tübingen

Cover Photo: Tin ingot in the shape of an ox-hide prior to cleaning. Institute of Nautical Archaeology

Related Articles

Advanced imaging techniques reveal secrets of sealed ancient Egyptian animal coffins

21 April 2023

21 April 2023

Researchers from the British Museum have gained valuable insight into the contents of six sealed ancient Egyptian animal coffins using...

An exciting discovery in Hattusa, the capital of the Hittites

11 September 2022

11 September 2022

It is aimed to reach new information about the traditions of the Hittite civilization with 249 new hieroglyphs discovered in...

Doune Pistols: The Spark That Ignited a Revolution Returns Home

5 May 2025

5 May 2025

A remarkable piece of Scottish history has returned to its roots as a collection of ten exquisite 18th-century pistols, crafted...

New Study Reveals That the First English Settlers in North America Ate Dogs to Survive

28 May 2024

28 May 2024

The first English settlers to arrive in North America ate indigenous dogs to survive an extreme period of starvation, according...

Ancient City Cistern Found Near Croatia’s Iconic Fountain

15 February 2024

15 February 2024

An island-speckled coastline and ancient walled towns place Croatia among the world’s best-beauty cities. But there’s even more to this...

A rare 3,300-year-old bronze helmet reaching the present from the Hittite Empire era

17 July 2022

17 July 2022

The 3,300-year-old bronze helmet, which was unearthed during the 2002 excavations in Şapinuva, one of the important cult centers of...

Lead Glass Jewelry was Mass-Produced in Medieval Poland from Local Raw Material

7 April 2025

7 April 2025

Recent archaeological research has unveiled significant insights into the mass production of lead glass jewelry in medieval Poland, confirming that...

British archaeologists unearth the 1200-year-old man-made island

13 February 2022

13 February 2022

A team holding excavations and archaeological surveys on the historic Al Sayah Island in Muharraq, Bahrain found that it’s ‘man-made’,...

Archaeologists Unearth Carolingian Silver Treasure Hoard

6 May 2021

6 May 2021

A silver treasure hoard from the 9th century AD has been discovered in Poland‘s Osa and Drwęca basin. The hoard...

Traces of Pozzolan Dust from Phlegraean Fields Found in a 1st-Century Roman Hydraulic Structure Submerged in Venetian Lagoon

29 November 2024

29 November 2024

In the San Felice Canal, in the northern Venetian Lagoon, a material used as an additive in Roman concrete was...

Unusual construction material may be linked to the Tower of Babel

5 November 2021

5 November 2021

Archaeologists have recently discovered bitumen and mortar plastered onto a brick dating back to the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II. This...

Lost 14th Century Church Discovered under a Tennis Court in Hungary

14 May 2024

14 May 2024

During an archaeological excavation in Visegrád, a fortified medieval castle on a hill overlooking the Danube in northern Hungary, the...

A Baptismal Surprise: Triton Baths in Southeastern Rome Converted into Early Christian Church

7 May 2025

7 May 2025

Recent archaeological excavations within the monumental complex of the Villa di Sette Bassi, situated in the southeastern outskirts of Rome,...

The researchers unearthed the earliest evidence of warfare and organized arming in the Southern Levant

28 November 2023

28 November 2023

Israel Antiquities Authority researchers have unearthed the earliest evidence of warfare and organized arming in the Southern Levant, dating back...

1400-Year-Old Folding Chair Found in a Woman’s Grave in Germany

30 August 2022

30 August 2022

In Steinsfeld, in the German state of Ansbach, archaeologists have unearthed a 1,400-year-old folding chair from an early medieval woman’s...