4 ms·

It'll be interesting to find what follows. 3k ybp is a relatively unique timestamp for tin. This is during or shortly after the bronze age collapse, where many

by netcan 7y ago

It'll be interesting to find what follows. 3k ybp is a relatively unique timestamp for tin. This is during or shortly after the bronze age collapse, where many mediterranean civilisations (greece, egypt, assyria, hatti..) receded, and bronze (inc tin) trade receded with them. Bronze presumably became scarce, and ironworking developed as the eventual alternative. The centuries of the last bronze dark age is the mythical period of iron age cultures (eg the hero achilles, king david, Rome's founders Romulus & Remus)... In any case, it was a period of change... changing politics politics, migrations, trade patterns & metallurgy/metal-trade. Does anyone know if these are new methods for identifying origin? Should we expect more artefacts? If so, we might find be able to identify all sorts of new trade patterns, and see if they relate to political/population chronologies... mythical characters may find themselves in a slightly more historical context.

chrisco255 7y ago
Climate change, too. The Minoan Warm Period ended around this time, and temps would not return to their optimum until the Roman Warm Period almost 1000 years later. Had to have an effect on agriculture and trade.
- netcan 7y ago
  There's evidence for climate changes, earthquakes, revolutions, invasions, war, economic crisis, political crisis, ethnogenesis (both historiographical like accounts of sea peoples & mythical like exodus)... all seemingly substantial and concurrent. ..that's kinda why it's such an interesting and mysterious period. There's tons of room for theories on causes, effects and incidentals.
  - pfdietz 7y ago
    I've wondered if there could have been origin and spread of new plant pathogens.
boomboomsubban 7y ago
>This is during or shortly after the bronze age collapse, where many mediterranean civilisations All the tin in this study is from the centuries before the collapse, 1530-~1200 >Does anyone know if these are new methods for identifying origin? Most of this tin was taken from shipwrecks, and the dating method is derived from there. I believe trace elements have been able to tie metal to a mining location for a while.
mcguire 7y ago
"This is during or shortly after the bronze age collapse..." Shortly before (13-12th century BCE) the "collapse" (12-11th century BCE). From the PLOS One conclusions: "Although many questions remain unanswered and new ones arose, the integrated approach of using trace elements, tin and lead isotopes turns out to be a promising tool for provenancing and fingerprinting ancient tin objects. It should be followed up by future archaeometallurgical research in order to unravel the enigma of BA tin. In this form, our study should stimulate new discussions on the provenance of tin of the Eurasian BA rather than postulating an origin from a specific deposit." https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0218326 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...
golemiprague 7y ago
King David is not necessarily mythical, some historians and archeologists think he existed especially after the discovery of the Tel Dan Stele in 1993 which mention the house of David.

by netcan 7y ago

chrisco255 7y ago

Climate change, too. The Minoan Warm Period ended around this time, and temps would not return to their optimum until the Roman Warm Period almost 1000 years later. Had to have an effect on agriculture and trade.

netcan 7y ago
There's evidence for climate changes, earthquakes, revolutions, invasions, war, economic crisis, political crisis, ethnogenesis (both historiographical like accounts of sea peoples & mythical like exodus)... all seemingly substantial and concurrent. ..that's kinda why it's such an interesting and mysterious period. There's tons of room for theories on causes, effects and incidentals.
- pfdietz 7y ago
  I've wondered if there could have been origin and spread of new plant pathogens.

boomboomsubban 7y ago

>This is during or shortly after the bronze age collapse, where many mediterranean civilisations All the tin in this study is from the centuries before the collapse, 1530-~1200 >Does anyone know if these are new methods for identifying origin? Most of this tin was taken from shipwrecks, and the dating method is derived from there. I believe trace elements have been able to tie metal to a mining location for a while.

mcguire 7y ago

"This is during or shortly after the bronze age collapse..." Shortly before (13-12th century BCE) the "collapse" (12-11th century BCE). From the PLOS One conclusions: "Although many questions remain unanswered and new ones arose, the integrated approach of using trace elements, tin and lead isotopes turns out to be a promising tool for provenancing and fingerprinting ancient tin objects. It should be followed up by future archaeometallurgical research in order to unravel the enigma of BA tin. In this form, our study should stimulate new discussions on the provenance of tin of the Eurasian BA rather than postulating an origin from a specific deposit." https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0218326 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...

golemiprague 7y ago

King David is not necessarily mythical, some historians and archeologists think he existed especially after the discovery of the Tel Dan Stele in 1993 which mention the house of David.