[Sherman Logan]

Elsewhere, we also found a tin ingot, the closest known source of which is Afghanistan

What is up with this nonsense? This is the third time I've seen this repeated in the last week or so.

Most of the Bronze Age tin came from Iberia, with some from the Sudeten, Cornwall and other places.

Have any of the people proposing this ever looked at a map? Spain and Cornwall were infinitely more accessible in the Bronze Age than Afghanistan.

[SunkenCiv]

It’s a problem with the conventional pseudochronology, in part; also the lapis lazuli trade and bead trade is quite old.

[SunkenCiv]

BTW, there’s a bunch of other nice pics at the article.

[mad_as_he$$]

X-ray defraction or mass spec would tell us exactly where it came from.

Interesting post:

Nikolaus Boroffka · Deutsches Archäologisches Institut

I joined ResearchGate much later, so I have seen your question only now, and it may be out of date.
I have been part of a research group which studied the tin question for several years (some of us are continuing still). One major result of our excavations and analyses was the discovery of the (at present) oldest known tin-mines in Tajikistan (Central Asia), which date to the late 3rd or early 2nd Millennium BC. Tin was already in use at that time in Mesopotamia, but we did not excavate all mines, so that possibly we missed the oldest ones. In any case, for the time we could prove close trade contacts are indeed documented between that region and Mesopotamia.
It is also interesting that the mine in Tajikistan (the site is called Mushiston) actually contains an extremely rare geological situation. The ore there is a mix of copper and tin - a unique case of a “bronze” ore, as our experiments with smelting also confirmed!
If the question is still acute, let me know and I can give publication references - much is available on my site at academia.edu.
http://www.researchgate.net/post/At_what_place_the_Copper-Tin_alloy_Bronze_may_be_invented

[D Rider]

Have any of the people proposing this ever looked at a map? Spain and Cornwall were infinitely more accessible in the Bronze Age than Afghanistan

That would only be true if the Minoans were a seafaring people... oh wait.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

I wonder if they have analyzed the metal as that would tell them where it came from.

[JimSEA]

Absolutely correct but Afghanistan sounds more exotic. Wasn’t Sudetenland the oldest currently known site? Tin is rare but not rare enough to require trade routes to Central Asia. Arsenic is also used in bronze but the life span of the smelters wasn’t too good.

[Boogieman]

“Most of the Bronze Age tin came from Iberia, with some from the Sudeten, Cornwall and other places.”

Not necessarily in the Early Bronze Age. It’s not until around 2500-2000 BC that we see those sources of tin being exploited, so they may be talking about the period before that.

[BenLurkin]

I guess this is a dumb question, but how was Cornwall more accessible than Afghanistan?