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And nearly all of the tin used in Bronze Age tools came from a single mining area in what is now Afghanistan. Recommended: Eric Cline's "1177BC, The Year Civil

And nearly all of the tin used in Bronze Age tools came from a single mining area in what is now Afghanistan. Recommended: Eric Cline's "1177BC, The Year Civilization Collapsed", great read on the state of the economy of the time (and from the title, its rather spectacular collapse).

dpeck 10y ago
Nice video intro/discussion about the book for anyone interested. I haven't had a chance to read it yet but it is fascinating. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyry8mgXiTk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyry8mgXiTk
- eternalban 10y ago
  And 'Prologue' courtesy of Princeton U: http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/p10185.pdf http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/p10185.pdf
SilasX 10y ago
So there was global trade in the 1100's BC?
- hownottowrite 10y ago
  The Bronze Age was an amazing period in history. It's end has many parallels to the current state of international relations.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- ucaetano 10y ago
  EMENA, not global.
  - adrianN 10y ago
    When were the trade lines to China established? Skimming of the Wikipedia article about the silk road suggests that its precursors are from around that time.
    - ucaetano 10y ago
      There were regional networks, where one item would be passed forward and forward, ending far away from its origin. Only with the development of the silk road people would actually start thinking "I'll ship this half way across the globe".
dalke 10y ago
I think you mean the somewhat more limited "... used in eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age tools ..." In the video linked to by dpeck, Cline talks about Afghanistan as a tin source at https://youtu.be/hyry8mgXiTk?t=878 https://youtu.be/hyry8mgXiTk?t=878 . He mentions Cornwall and Turkey as two other sources, with "the vast majority" coming from Afghanistan. Cornwall provided a lot of the tin for Europe. A clue that Cline is talking about a regional supply is that he mentioned Cyprus as the source for copper, when NW Europe had other sources, like Great Orme in Wales.
- yread 10y ago
  Excellent talk, go ahead and watch it if you have time to spare
yread 10y ago
Tin was mined in Ore mountains between Germany and Czech Republic since 2500 BC and spread from there to the rest of Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ore_Mountains#Economic_history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ore_Mountains#Economic_history edit: BTW they also contain Europe's largest reserves of lithium (and world's cheapest to mine), if you look only at hard rock it's actually the biggest. http://miningsee.eu/european-metals-holding-lithium-czech-project/ http://miningsee.eu/european-metals-holding-lithium-czech-pr... http://www.nextminingboom.com/lithium-project-fast-tracked-emh-worlds-biggest-hard-rock-resource/ http://www.nextminingboom.com/lithium-project-fast-tracked-e...

dpeck 10y ago

Nice video intro/discussion about the book for anyone interested. I haven't had a chance to read it yet but it is fascinating. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyry8mgXiTk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyry8mgXiTk

eternalban 10y ago
And 'Prologue' courtesy of Princeton U: http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/p10185.pdf http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/p10185.pdf

SilasX 10y ago

So there was global trade in the 1100's BC?

hownottowrite 10y ago
The Bronze Age was an amazing period in history. It's end has many parallels to the current state of international relations.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
ucaetano 10y ago
EMENA, not global.
- adrianN 10y ago
  When were the trade lines to China established? Skimming of the Wikipedia article about the silk road suggests that its precursors are from around that time.
  - ucaetano 10y ago
    There were regional networks, where one item would be passed forward and forward, ending far away from its origin. Only with the development of the silk road people would actually start thinking "I'll ship this half way across the globe".

dalke 10y ago

I think you mean the somewhat more limited "... used in eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age tools ..." In the video linked to by dpeck, Cline talks about Afghanistan as a tin source at https://youtu.be/hyry8mgXiTk?t=878 https://youtu.be/hyry8mgXiTk?t=878 . He mentions Cornwall and Turkey as two other sources, with "the vast majority" coming from Afghanistan. Cornwall provided a lot of the tin for Europe. A clue that Cline is talking about a regional supply is that he mentioned Cyprus as the source for copper, when NW Europe had other sources, like Great Orme in Wales.

yread 10y ago
Excellent talk, go ahead and watch it if you have time to spare

yread 10y ago

Tin was mined in Ore mountains between Germany and Czech Republic since 2500 BC and spread from there to the rest of Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ore_Mountains#Economic_history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ore_Mountains#Economic_history edit: BTW they also contain Europe's largest reserves of lithium (and world's cheapest to mine), if you look only at hard rock it's actually the biggest. http://miningsee.eu/european-metals-holding-lithium-czech-project/ http://miningsee.eu/european-metals-holding-lithium-czech-pr... http://www.nextminingboom.com/lithium-project-fast-tracked-emh-worlds-biggest-hard-rock-resource/ http://www.nextminingboom.com/lithium-project-fast-tracked-e...