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Tin is an essential metal in the creation of tin-bronzes, and its acquisition was an important part of ancient cultures from the Bronze Age onward. Its use began in the Middle East and the Balkans around 3000 BC.
Early tin exploitation appears to have been centered on placer deposits of cassiterite. [3] Map of Europe based on Strabo's geography, showing the Cassiterides just off the northwest tip of Iberia where Herodotus believed tin originated in 450 BC. The first evidence of tin use for making bronze appears in the Near East and the Balkans around ...
This network imported tin and charcoal to Cyprus, where copper was mined and alloyed with tin to produce bronze. Bronze objects were then exported far and wide. Isotopic analysis of tin in some Mediterranean bronze artefacts suggests that they may have originated from Bronze Age Britain. [76]
Ancient Egypt is one of the earliest regions in Africa where metallurgy was significantly advanced. Copper was the primary metal used, with evidence of iron production dating back to around 3000–2500 BCE. [4] Egyptian metallurgists mastered various techniques, including casting, forging, and alloying with tin to produce bronze. [5]
The metals of antiquity are the seven metals which humans had identified and found use for in prehistoric times in Africa, Europe and throughout Asia: [1] gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, iron, and mercury. Zinc, arsenic, and antimony were also known during antiquity, but they were not recognised as distinct metals until later.
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids, such as arsenic or silicon.
Tin is a post-transition metal in group 14 of the periodic table of elements. It is obtained chiefly from the mineral cassiterite, which contains stannic oxide, SnO 2. Tin shows a chemical similarity to both of its neighbors in group 14, germanium and lead, and has two main oxidation states, +2 and the slightly more stable
About 85-90% of the metal ore used to produce the bronze originated from old mines in Abakiliki about 100 kilometers from Igbo-Ukwu. [25] [7] [26] This finding is corroborated by recent lead isotope and silver content analysis of fragmented metal objects. [13] [26] A small percentage of ores are thought to have originated from a secondary ...