The Bronze Age is named after a copper alloy. Many thousands of years ago, metal was as important for the development of wealth and power as energy supply and information are today. The discovery of bronze – an alloy of copper and tin – revolutionized the technology of the world. Bronze was sharp-edged, strong and durable. The texture and strength of this material makes it ideal for creating effective weapons and astoundingly flexible tools. This precious metal totally transformed the world. It was essential to advancing technology and crucial to the development of civilisation. It gave man a modern material – an alloy – that could be moulded and beaten into any shape.
Egypt had no tin and only limited copper in ancient times – her mines only produced around 5 tons of copper a year. Egypt could not possibly have made the huge numbers of bronze saws required to build the pyramids unless either the raw materials or the completed bronze saws were imported.
Copper was to be found around the Mediterranean, but tin was the strategic prize. Generally the metal was only found far, far away from Crete. So, what if a sailing nation had taken the helm of the new Bronze revolution? Gavin’s research heads towards one conclusion: that the Bronze Age couldn’t have happened without the existence of world trade. Were the Minoans the driving force behind this maritime trade movement? They certainly had the ships, but did they have the know-how?
Further reading:
The Thera Foundation] [1] Heaton 1910; 1911; Forbes 1955, 241–242; Cameron, Jones and Philippakis 1977; Hood 1978, 83; Immerwahr 1990a, 14– 15
Bernard Knapp, ‘Thalassocracies in Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean Trade’:
http://www.jstor.org/pss/124712
The Pyramid of Khufu: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pyramids/khufu.html
Copper:
http://www.webelements.com/copper/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper
Bronze: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze
Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age: Minoan trade:
http://cco.cambridge.org/extract?id=ccol9780521814447_CCOL9780521814447A010
