 The abundance of 10 in the British Isles and the trading of the resource for over 4,000 years gives us a good foundation to trace trade from the island to the rest of the world and the impact they may have had. Through the wealth and abundance of this trade, we later see the Romans and Vikings arrive on the island. When we consider these people who came to the British Isles, we consider that they came in search of wealth and treasure. Our thoughts immediately go to personal possessions like gold and silver, but consider that the treasure that they sought was in fact the tin that is still being recovered to this day. Over 2,000 years before the birth of Christ, mining in Cornwall and Devon in the southwest of England began in the early Bronze Age, a lucrative period of trade that attracted the nations of the Mediterranean. It is noteworthy that tin objects that have been recovered from some of the great civilizations of this period before the great eruption at Santorini. Tin is one of the earliest metals to have been exploited in Britain. Early metal workers discovered that by putting a small portion of tin in molten copper, the alloy bronze was produced. The alloy is harder than copper. The oldest production of tin's bronze is in Turkey about 3,500 BC, but exploitation of the tin resources in Britain is believed to have started well before 2000 BC, with the thriving tin trade developing with the civilizations of the Mediterranean. The strategic importance of tin in forging bronze weapons brought the southwest of Britain into the Mediterranean economy at an early date. The Nebraska Skydisk, for example, is said to contain the raw materials for production in the form of tin from Cornwall. A number of spectacular finds elsewhere in Europe have provided extraordinary insights into the character of bronze age cosmologies. Chief among these is the Skydisk, found by metal detector experts in 1999 on a hilltop just southwest of Halle in Germany. This bronze disk is decorated with sheet gold depictions of a crescent moon, stars, and the sun or full moon. It was deposited around 1600 BC in a hoard alongside a selection of other high status objects. The inlaid gold sheet on the disk is of three different compositions, suggesting that the object as we see it today is the result of several phases of reworking and addition. The Skydisk provides evidence for an interest in the movement of celestial bodies. A cluster of seven stars depicts the Pleiades, whose disappearance in March and reappearance in October mark the beginning and end of the agricultural cycle. Two gold arcs attached to either the edge of the disk mark the positions of the rising and setting of the sun at the solstice as observed from the Middle Burg. At the bottom of the disk a ship, the celestial vessel in which the sun is thought to have traveled to its diurnal cycle in bronze age mythology and therefore bringing us interpretations of the prehistory of civilization as we know it. Some researchers have pointed to the presence of the Pleiades star cluster on the disk as further evidence of bronze age astronomical knowledge. Although nowadays there are only six stars in the Pleiades visible to the neck and eye. In the bronze age one of the group stars may have been much brighter, thus accounting not only for the depiction of seven stars on the disk, but also for the ancient Greek name for the cluster the Seven Sisters. Researchers from Hedelberg University have uncovered new information regarding British tin trade during this period and their findings have been published online and we will of course be linking this below. The origin of the tin used in the bronze age has long been one of the greatest enigmas in archaeological research. Using methods of the natural sciences the researchers examined the tin from the second millennium BC which was found at archaeological sites in Israel, Turkey and Greece. They were able to prove that this tin in the form of ingots does not come from Central Asia as previously assumed, but from tin deposits in Britain. The findings are proof that even in the bronze age complex and far reaching trade routes must have existed between Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. Highly appreciated raw materials like tin as well as amber, glass and copper were the driving force of this early international trade network according to the findings. Control of the tin trade seems to have been in Phoenician hands and they kept their sources secret. The Greeks understood that tin came from the Casiderides, the tin islands. Another discovery from the era of the bronze age in Britain has been made and according to Devin online it rewrote bronze age history. A box of bones found half buried in a hill unlocked a hidden chapter of the bronze age. In 2011 archaeologists on Dartmoor decided to excavate a stone built box that had been found eroding in the side of a mound of peat. The White Horse Hill's cyst was discovered in the 1990s in a mound around 6000 meters high. The cyst, a precursor to the coffins of today had been placed in a burial ground built in prehistoric times. Facing destruction from erosion an excavation was undertaken in 2011 to understand the cyst before it took its full toll. Expectations were not high because the site had been partially exposed to the elements for more than a decade but rarely an archaeology has an assessment been more wrong and what was found inside rewrote the history of the bronze age moor. The grave contained the ceremonial remains of a young adult, probably a female who had been placed here in the early bronze age period. Among the grave goods was an animal pelt containing a delicate bracelet studded with tin beads a textile fragment with detailed leather fringings and a woven bag. The beads of the necklace show that far from being isolated the local population had contacts with a wider world and were able to acquire materials from as far away as the Baltic in the form of amber providing that our understanding of what was taking place during this time is vastly unknown. Remember a cataclysm occurred to end the bronze age. As excavation proceeded it quickly became clear that the Whitehorse Hill cyst was more than simply unusual. It was incredibly significant. What was constructed has exceptional preservation qualities. The water logging and lack of oxygen inhibit the action of the bacteria which caused decay and so artifacts which would have long since rotted away and most other environments survived. A spokesman speaking on behalf of the researchers explains the textiles leather and basketry show us the range of organic resources that were being exploited and the consummate skill with which objects were crafted. The wooden libretts hint at some of the ways in which bronze age people use their appearance to express themselves and their identities while the bear pelt may be telling us that the wider environment of the early bronze age was a very difficult one to that of today. In summary the Whitehorse Hill cyst was designed of international importance which will inform the way we think about the early bronze age for many years to come but perhaps just as importantly it gives us some idea of what else might still await discovery out there on the moor. The burial is being considered a royal burial possibly of a queen but no identifications have yet been made. She was buried in a gut manner and wrapped in a bear skin the species of which has been extinct in Britain for 1500 years. There is also other theories that the bear skin was for warmth and she may have traveled from a kingdom of the Mediterranean but much more research is needed in the follow up to the major discovery. Jane Marchand who was the chief archeologist at the Dartmoor National Park Authority at the time of the fine had said Gravegoods was back in the days of the Victorian gentlemen Aquatarians. This is the first scientifically excavated burial on the moor and the most significant ever. She had added when we levered off the lid much to our surprise we actually found an intact cremation deposit human bones which is actually a burial alongside a number of gravegoods. What was so unusual was the survival of so many organic objects that they usually get in a grave of this period. They've long since rotted away. The whole thing was actually wrapped up in an animal pelt of fur as we lifted it up very carefully a bead fell out and the thrill of releasing that actually this is a proper burial. This is a bead which belonged to a burial. That's what's so exciting you wouldn't expect to find any archeology somewhere like this stuck out in this peak hag would never be able to top this ever. So there you have it guys possible connections can be made from surviving raw materials and linked to other regions of the world seriously suggesting that before the Bronze Age collapsed the world was connected more than we realize today. What do you guys think about this anyway? Comments below and as always thank you for watching.