Did local tin kickstart the European Bronze Age?

Research initiated by Dr Ben Roberts and Dr Alan Williams at Durham University is pursuing an interesting theory. Project Ancient Tin is investigating whether the materials and technology essential for the acceleration of the European Bronze Age started in Cornwall and Devon. Why? The tale lies in tin.

As the name suggests, the Bronze Age is the time when people started making and using bronze tools. However, bronze does not occur naturally; you have to make it. And to make it you need copper and tin. Compared to alternative sources of tin in prehistoric Europe, Devon and Cornwall had the largest and richest deposits. Local tin ores were also relatively easier to extract, and their coastal location enabled seaborne trade.

Around 2200 BC there were very few ‘tin-bronze’ objects present in Europe, but then a remarkable change happened in Britain and Ireland. Very quickly all metal items changed from being copper to being fully ‘tin-bronze’, containing 8-15% tin. Over the following centuries this spread from Britain across Europe to the Mediterranean. Project Ancient Tin suggests that the main catalyst for this revolution was the tin produced in Cornwall and Devon.

So, why did using greater quantities of tin matter? Mixing tin with copper makes objects harder. A bronze knife will be far more effective than one made with just copper. Also, mixing these metals together forms an alloy which is more golden in colour and much easier to cast.

What evidence supports the theory that full ‘tin-bronze’ spread from the far South West of Britain? Project Ancient Tin uses advanced scientific techniques to see if local tin can be distinguished from other European sources – and the initial results are very promising. Samples of alluvial tin ores from historic tin workings in the collections here at The Box have been very important in this research.

Some scholars have proposed that references made by Classical writers to the Cassiterides or ‘Tin Islands’ refer to Britain. One text, written in the Iron Age, around 320 BC, describes tin workings at a place called ‘Belerion’ as well as tin trading on the tidal island of ‘Ictis’. Various locations for Ictis have been proposed, including Mount Batten. However, current thinking is that there were probably a number of ‘Ictis-type’ locations serving different tin districts.

Exciting new evidence has also come from radiocarbon dating mining tools directly associated with Cornish tin workings. Recent archaeological excavations on Bronze Age settlement sites, near locations known to have been worked for tin, provide further support. The tin objects discovered at Whitehorse Hill on Dartmoor are direct evidence of the local importance of tin during the Bronze Age as well.

Find out more about Durham University's Project Ancient Tin.

Thanks to Fiona Pitt, Curator of Archaeology and Dr Alan Williams.

Images
Header and second image: Bronze Age tin bead from the Whitehorse Hill burial cist.
Third image: Bronze Age armband or bracelet from the Whitehorse Hill burial cist.
Both images courtesy of the Duchy of Cornwall.