Tainted ores and the rise of tin bronzes in Eurasia, c. 6500 years ago

New studies of bronzes from the balkans show that tin bronzes have a much older history than previously thought

The earliest tin bronze artefacts in Eurasia are generally believed to have appeared in the Near East in the early third millennium BC. Here we present tin bronze artefacts that occur far from the Near East, and in a significantly earlier period. Excavations at Pločnik, a Vinča culture site in Serbia, recovered a piece of tin bronze foil from an occupation layer dated to the mid fifth millennium BC. The discovery prompted a reassessment of 14 insufficiently contextualised early tin bronze artefacts from the Balkans. They too were found to derive from the smelting of copper-tin ores. These tin bronzes extend the record of bronze making by c. 1500 years, and challenge the conventional narrative of Eurasian metallurgical development.

antiquity.ac.uk...

Here's the link for supplementary materials

antiquity.ac.uk...

reply to post by punkinworks10


Great find and thanks for bringing it up.

I'm not surprised at all, these metals deteriorate much faster than iron.....that said what could be made with pot metals? A hell of a lot more than most folks think.

Just because a metal was weaker doesn't mean the folks were at all, most of the brass and Bronze Age metals were tight....machinery in various form did exist.

Brass and bronze are quite strong and have a better wear ratio against each other than iron.....iron just sticks around longer lol...and it rusts.

I can image machinery that's last two life times un cared for vs a machine that outlast it with constant maintenance but will fail and rust in years if not cared for. I dunno the metals that don't deteriorate seem better in the long run.....strength vs duration is a funny thing in practice.

Of course things are faster with iron in the mix though.

Cheers, great think.

This is further evidence to something I theorized about several years ago in a thread here. The peoples of this region were far more technologically advanced than other parts of the world at the time. I theorized that they were making copper or bronze scale armour that, when oxidized, turned green. This made their warriors look like reptile-men, or fish-men. Hence, we have myths and historical references about these intelligent fishmen or reptilians that taught the rest of the world advanced techs, like metal smelting, after they were dispersed by a Great Flood.

Unfortunately, the image links have been broken, but In case anyone is interested: www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by TheComte


That's actually a pretty interesting hypothesis you have there. It's certainly worth further research into to see how much evidentiary support turns up.

reply to post by TheComte


The only problem with that theory is the fact that the earliest European farmers led a rather egalitarian existence, and showed little signs of militarism or even a social hierarchy. It wasn't until the arrival of the very warlike indo europen horsemen that you start to find a warrior class.

One thing I find very interesting, is that several areas that show substantial advancement, were also areas where Neanderthals persisted the longest.
Areas like the balkans, shanidar in Iran, Iberia and the Levant.
Shanidar cave provided the earliest example of
working native copper and also had one of the latest HSN occupations.
Likewise in the balkans you have late HSN occupations and you have one of the earliest metal working traditions.
Hmmmm

reply to post by punkinworks10


Recent evidence suggests Neanderthal and Cro-magnon interbred.. What happens when two closely related species interbreed? You often get a hybrid possessing hybrid vigour. This would occur with the first generation only.

So, what you get is a generation of hybrid humans that possess above-average stature, constitution, intelligence. These guys might have invented agriculture, metal smelting, animal husbandry, etc, thousands of years before we traditionally think it was done. We are consistently finding new evidence that pushes back the dates, such as the case with this thread.

reply to post by TheComte


Not to say I necessarily agree.... but the field lacks out of the box thinking right now. We need more of these postulations to voiced by graduate students.

punkinworks10
One thing I find very interesting, is that several areas that show substantial advancement, were also areas where Neanderthals persisted the longest.
Areas like the balkans, shanidar in Iran, Iberia and the Levant.
Shanidar cave provided the earliest example of
working native copper and also had one of the latest HSN occupations.
Likewise in the balkans you have late HSN occupations and you have one of the earliest metal working traditions.
Hmmmm

That would make for one hell of a paper. I can see the interactive map in my head now haha. I wonder how many of those sites had levels of cohabitation between AMH and HNS like some of the Levantine sites. That would lend some credence to the hybrid vigor postulation by The Comte.

reply to post by peter vlar


Hi there Peter,
This past summer I read a paper making an argument that the aurignatian complex is actually late Neanderthal and not HSS.
I'm certain that HSN taught us how to make leather, how to survive in the arctic, which implies making waterproof and insulative clothing.
HSN made boats, as they settled Gibraltar and other islands of the med.

reply to post by punkinworks10


To me, it's not a huge leap of faith to associate Aurignacian with Neanderthals with the similarities exhibited in earlier Châtelperronian culture which is clearly Neanderthal. The overlap of the 2 cultures as well as Aurignacian overlapping with the tail end of Neanderthals time in Europe is also an interesting correlation that should be looked into a little further as well. I remember reading something on Hawks blog a couple of years ago that detailed a few sites that were able to be associated, at least tangentially, with both Aurignacian culture and Neanderthal remains and there were several other articles going back to the late 90's with the same inference. Anytime someone tries to Involve HSN my eyes get big and my ears perk up because they still get a bad rap as being less than AMH in terms of culture and sophistication which always bums me out.