Ajai wrote:hvered wrote:Maybe the evidence of copper-smelting is harder to find than mines because the transport of ores was easier by sea than overland. Mining operations near the coast such as the Great Orme and Anglesey suggest this. Plenty of tin mining in Cornwall but the tin ore was shipped from the coast or offshore islands such as Michael's Mount and Burgh Island.
The physical evidence of prehistoric tin mining is thin on the ground, most of what we 'know' comes from written sources which are not terribly informative; still, even orthodox historians agree that tin was the real deal and 'must' have been responsible for the presence of the Phoenicians.
Tinners need flowing water in order to carry out 'streaming' (cleaning the ore and washing away the debris). The Tamar is said to mean 'dark water' and Tam may be etymologically connected to tin [cf. the Thames or Tamesis]. There are probably many 'Tin' rivers and streams, I wonder if anyone has looked into this?
P.S.
Ictis mentioned by Diodorus Siculus is often assumed to refer to Michael's Mount; according to Wiki Ictis can (or should) be spelt 'Iktin'.
Yes, any river that is being used for streaming will be flushing huge amounts of sediment downstream. There's clear historical evidence for that in many rivers in Devon and Cornwall that have been heavily silted up. As a result, the ports and docks had to move downstream closer to the sea.
Even so, shipping the tin
ore would be a "brute force" solution for our megalithic traders because (despite the value of the end product) the ore itself is a high volume, low value material. As I've said before, the common sense megalithic manufacturer or trade would move the
high-volume low-value material the
minimum distance to where it could be converted into
low-volume high-value material. That distance depends on the nearest power sources. Wood, coal, or perhaps the solar furnaces of henges with mirrors that concentrated energy enough to melt metals?
I can only see it making economic sense to our Veneti shipping magnates (to ship raw ores) if there were huge amounts of wood/charcoal in Gaul/Brittany. Or more solar henges?