(ORDO NEWS) — Archaeologists partially restored the metal trade in the late Bronze Age. Researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem studied lead ingots found at an anchorage in Caesarea, Israel.
The four ingots were part of the cargo of a ship that sank over three thousand years ago. They had Cypriot-Minoan characters used by the Cypriots in the 13th and 12th centuries BC.
Naama Yahalom-Mak and his colleagues conducted a radioisotope analysis of these ingots. Different metal deposits are characterized by different isotopic signatures, which makes it possible to calculate the place of ore mining.
It turned out that the metal of the ingots comes from Sardinia, which means that the Cypriots bought them for resale.
This refutes the earlier theories, according to which Cyprus was a passive exporter of metals, primarily copper, which is rich in the island. The found ingots prove that Cyprus traded over distances of about 2,500 kilometers.
Now scientists believe that the Cypriots not only produced copper, but also actively traded metals throughout the Mediterranean.
In the future, the researchers plan to find out exactly how this happened, and which specific people transported the goods.
—
Online:
Contact us: [email protected]
Our Standards, Terms of Use: Standard Terms And Conditions.