Bronze Age

Published June 6, 2010

The Bronze Age is the second of the generalised three part division of prehistory into Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages. I say generalised because different parts of the world developed bronze technology at different times^(g), while some moved straight from Stone to Iron, others had a Copper Age before their Bronze Age^(t). There is now clear evidence that tin-bronze was used at a Vinca site in Serbia as early as 4650 BC^(d).

The relatively new Genomic Atlantis^(s) offers “a website dedicated to archaeogenetics and modern population genetics as well as history, archaeology and linguistics. Genetics can help us understand history in a way that was impossible prior to the advance of DNA sequencing.”

There is now evidence that Bronze itself was used as an early form of currency, according to a recent study^(r). by Maikel H. G. Kuijpers and Catalin N. Popa of Leiden University, Netherlands, who concluded that “The euros of Prehistory came in the form of bronze rings, ribs and axes. These Early Bronze Age artefacts were standardized in shape and weight and used as an early form of money.”

However, the Bronze Age was clearly the literary if not the historical backdrop to Plato’s Atlantis narrative. In Greece this is generally accepted as the 2^nd millennium BC. Plato refers to Triremes (developed around 600 BC), Chariots (Mesopotamia around 3000 BC), Horse-racing (first domesticated in Asia around 4500 BC), writing, metallurgy etc., etc. Recently, the date of the end of the Greek Bronze Age has been pushed back by approximately a century to around 1125 BC^(f).

The Bronze Age in the Mediterranean region saw two periods of great political turbulence, the first around 2200 BC and the second a millennium later^(h)and generally known as the Bronze Age Collapse^(q).

However, when Plato twice states that Atlantis was destroyed 9,000 years before Solon’s visit to Egypt, he presents us with a serious problem, as the Bronze Age is incompatible with a 9600 BC date. Which is right or are they both wrong and consequently is the entire story a complete fiction? Alternatively, it is possible that Plato’s story is a combination of more than one story or is Plato’s narrative a combination of fact and fiction.?

In general terms, although there was copper in North America and tin in South America, it seems that they were not brought together in any meaningful way to give America a Bronze Age comparable with Europe or Asia⁽ⁿ⁾.

Frank Joseph, among others, has suggested that the enormous quantities of copper mined in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan were destined for the bronze manufacturers of Europe^(I). He considers this extraction and exportation to have been the work of the Atlanteans. Gavin Menzies attributes the exploitation of the Michigan mines to the Minoans^[⁷⁸⁰^].

In 2018, it was claimed in a new paper^(m) that Plutarch may have referred to Greek visits to Canada in the first century AD. The authors who included Greek archaeologist Ioannis Liritzis, do admit that the claim is speculative.

The America Unearthed TV series, presented by Scott Wolter, also examined the idea of Minoans mining in Michigan (S1 E3). Jason Colavito wrote a highly critical review of the episode^(j⁾, while an even more extensive critique can be found on the archyfantasies.com website^(k⁾.

It is interesting that this mining appears to have ceased around 1200 BC or approximately at the same time that the Bronze Age came to an end in Europe. This idea of the Michigan copper mining being the work of Old World traders is hotly disputed by local archaeologists such as Susan R. Martin⁽^b⁾.

Recent years have seen the discovery of numerous Bronze Age mines in the British Isles and across Europe, including the vast Great Orme Mines in Wales accepted by the Guinness Book of Records as the largest Bronze Age copper mine in the world that were rediscovered again in 1987⁽^a⁾, a view reinforced, more recently, with research, by scientists from the University of Liverpool^(o)(p). When you consider the output of these copper mines and the huge amount of tin produced in Cornwall, it is clear that Britain made a major contribution to the development of the European Bronze Age. These Welsh mines are estimated to have been abandoned around 600 BC.

Such European mines together with those found in the Near East have naturally led to a questioning of Joseph’s thesis. If copper was so widely available to the Europeans at home, what was the incentive for Atlanteans to mine copper in Michigan and ship it to Europe with the relatively primitive vessels and navigation available at that time?

It is interesting to note that the geophysicist Marc-André Gutscher who had supported Collina-Girard’s contention that Spartel Island near the Strait of Gibraltar had been the possible location of Atlantis, withdrew his support^(c) for the idea following the evidence presented at the 2005 Atlantis Conference, which convincingly demonstrated the Bronze Age setting of Plato’s story. Gutscher found this incompatible with the fact that Spartel Island had been submerged about 12,000 years ago.

In spite of Gutscher’s withdrawal of support Collina-Girard continues to promote his theory, having published a book, L’Atlantide retrouvée, in support of it, in 2009.

The other half of bronze production requirements is a supply of tin. In this connection, recent research has show that the eastern Mediterranean is virtually devoid of any sources of tin^(e), contrasting sharply with the western basin which had Cassiterite in Sardinia, Spain and Morocco.

Also See: Factor Ten

^(a) https://www.greatormemines.info/

^(b) See Archive 2547

^(c)https://archaeology.about.com/od/controversies/a/atlantis05_3.htm

^(d) https://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/005197.html

^(e) See: Archive 2100

^(f) https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141009100924.htm

^(g) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Age#Age_sub-divisions

^(h) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1361474/Meteor-clue-to-end-of-Middle-East-civilisations.html

⁽ⁱ⁾ See Archive 3645

^(j) https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/review-of-America-unearthed-s01e03-great-lakes-copper-heist

^(k) https://archyfantasies.com/mysterious-minoan-miners-and-the-missing-michigan-minerals-america-unearthed-s-1-ep-3/