The Bronze Age

Puffin10032 said:
There's increasing archaeological evidence the widespread use of bronze started in this country and spread to the continent and beyond. That's not to claim that the discovery of how to make bronze occurred here (I believe the evidence point to that not being the case) but, if you think about it, we had good sources of both tin and copper so were ideally placed to expand the production and usage of this new wonder metal.

Tin ingots from Cornwall have been found in Bronze Age shipwrecks all across the Med indicating an extensive trade network. Current thinking is the tin was traded via a series of "hubs".
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I was intrigued by this post, so i looked further and found the Great Orme copper mine! An amazing resource for north wales in the Bronze Age. Mostly operated from 1700bc to 1500bc, apparently. So this particular mine was not especially early in the Bronze Age, but was massively significant while it lasted.

The Mold gold cape is of similar date and might have been financed by copper exports!

A report here.
https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2019/1...ritains-trade-with-europe-3600-years-ago/amp/
 
mjcoon said:
Surely much of the route would have been overland via a bucket-brigade of traders each moving goods a comparatively short distance and getting their cut of the profit. These are not perishable goods, so long as kept out of salty water...

Or are you thinking of onion sellers on push-bikes with a practised French accent?
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Very, very unlikely to be overland. Prior to railways, heavy stuff has always been moved by water. A lot of traded goods were stored in jars which would not survive a long road journey (assuming that you could describe ancient overland routes as roads) and you'd have to pass through a lot of tribal territories controlled by people who might decide to considerably lighten your burden (if you're lucky enough to have your life spared). Much easier and safer to put it all on a boat.
 
Puffin10032 said:
Very, very unlikely to be overland. Prior to railways, heavy stuff has always been moved by water. A lot of traded goods were stored in jars which would not survive a long road journey (assuming that you could describe ancient overland routes as roads) and you'd have to pass through a lot of tribal territories controlled by people who might decide to considerably lighten your burden (if you're lucky enough to have your life spared). Much easier and safer to put it all on a boat.
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Easier sure. Safer only the first and maybe second time you tried it,
Once is luck, Twice is coincidence, Three times is enemy ritual sacrifice to the Sun God action stylee
 
I'm sure there's evidence somewhere that those Foneets.... Phoney.... Fhonitits....... Southern Greeks were trading all around the Med and round Iberia into Western France.

I'm quite sure they'll have headed for Cornwall to get their tin and copper anchors at a BOGOF discount for large jars of dusky wine and, as soon as the woad-painted Pictish barbarians learned how, swop their cheap 'n cheerful bendy bottom-hooks for shiny new bronze ones - with or without roll bars.

I wonder if they 'argued night and day' about whether the Breton Pattern bronze hook was better in the Mediterranean mud and eel-grass or the Kernow Deep Digging design was worth the extra bucket of sistercii....
 
With the right weather and season -🤞- Cornwall to Gib and back would be a swift reaching sail.
And safer for heavy cargos than bands of brigands, bribes, draft animals or humans to feed and rest, muddy paths and hills , so many hills.

I like the strategic ‘Trading Hub’ idea. Would be a buffer against ‘ no sailing today’ seasons.

Greenland , so named by the vikings to make it sound less unattractive, was a do-able sailing route via Iceland.
So, Bronze Age trading across the known world , why not?

It is easy to view the past through todays technology but at the time, a sewn together leather boat, a frightened man with a bucket and a few lumps of metal or seeds for trade , a few fish along the way, why not? They would have loved plywood.
 
10 tonnes of copper ingots from Cyprus, tin from Uzbekistan and Turkey, pots from the Levant, ivory and hippopotamus teeth, gold, silver, semi-precious stones, resin, glass ingots, spices plus other goods in this Bronze Age shipwreck.

That’s a lot to lose.

Looks like the sort of raw materials that a Mycenaean royal palace would want to buy for their craftsmen to turn into display goods.

Uluburun shipwreck - Wikipedia
 
chriss999 said:
10 tonnes of copper ingots from Cyprus, tin from Uzbekistan and Turkey, pots from the Levant, ivory and hippopotamus teeth, gold, silver, semi-precious stones, resin, glass ingots, spices plus other goods in this Bronze Age shipwreck.

Uluburun shipwreck - Wikipedia
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"...The ship carried 24 stone anchors."

I wonder what shape they were...
 
Wansworth said:
The Bronze Age seems an interesting time pity school education sort of flits over it.The other interesting people from that period were the Beakers so named after the drinking cups they made and left all over Europe .
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There is much history that I would have liked to have learned but we were restricted to about 1066 to when I fell comatose in the early Plantagenets. The Bronze Age does seem particularly interesting but much of it appears to have taken place in the eastern Mediterranean, about which I know little.
 
Where I live, from May to September (Holiday visitors season) is known as the Costa Period, just by looking at the Hedgerows

after the drinking cups and left all over Europe . :giggle:
 
johnalison said:
There is much history that I would have liked to have learned but we were restricted to about 1066 to when I fell comatose in the early Plantagenets. The Bronze Age does seem particularly interesting but much of it appears to have taken place in the eastern Mediterranean, about which I know little.
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I think the problem was and my be now is adults don’t realize how much information a child can soak up if they actually have teachers who really are interested in teatching
 
Wansworth said:
I think the problem was and my be now is adults don’t realize how much information a child can soak up if they actually have teachers who really are interested in teatching
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I'm going to differ slightly on that and suggest that children, ie me, learn best from teachers who actually care about their subject.
 
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