TIN DEPOSITS AND MINING IN CENTRAL ASIA: AN OVERVIEW
At around 2500 BC the production of tin bronze artifacts started to become a commonplace in the Near East, particularly in Mesopotamia. Today more and more questions arise about the origins of this metal, since neither copper nor tin deposits are to be found there (Muhly 1973; Crawford 1974). However, there are copper deposits not far away, for example in Anatolia, the Caucasus, Oman, and Iran (see Chapter 29). Nonetheless, the origins of the tin used have yet to be deciphered. Studying the geology is not of much help because the established tin deposits within Europe or in East Asia
(Malaysia and Thailand) either do not have traces of prehistoric mining or have no connections with the Near East during the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC (Penhallurick 1986: 51-54). Analytical provenance methods such as stable lead isotopes do not work on tin, because tin contains either no lead or only insignificant trace amounts (Begemann and Schmitt-Strecker 2009: 2, 22-23). The study of cuneiform texts delivers few hints as to the source of the metals (Lyonnet 2005: 193-195).
Within the former Soviet Union, large tin deposits in the steppes of Central Asia associated with traces of Bronze Age mining dating to the Andronovo and Begazy Dandybaj periods (2nd millennium BC) have long been known (Masson 1930,1935, 1953; Chernikov 1949, 1951, i960; Litvinskij 1950; Margulan 1972: 73; 1979; 2001). However, tin was also being produced here earlier, during the Early Bronze Age, since the first tin bronze artifacts appear within the Sejma-Turbino circle at the end of 3rd millennium BC (Chernykh 1992: 215-226; Parzinger 1997: 223-225; Kuz’mina 2007: 253; Pigott 2018).
An overview of tin sources and their exploitation has been provided by C. Roden (1985) and R.D. Penhallurick (1986). Their reviews begin with Europe, where the best-known sources are the placer deposits of Cornwall (England), which have been considered as a potential tin supplier for the Aegean Bronze Age (Laing 1968; Muhly 1973: 410-412; 1985: 287-288; Piggott 1977; Dayton 2003: 165; Giilgur 2005: 15). However, these European deposits would not have been the focus of the BMAC supply. This is also true for the tin ore sources in the Zagros Mountains in Iran, like Deh Hosein, which are closely associated with the so-called Luristan bronzes (Begemann et al. 2008; Nezafati et al. 2008; Nezafati et al. 2009; but see Chapter 29). These mines date to the Early Iron Age (ca. 1300/1250 to 700/650 BC), and thus are not contemporaneous with the BMAC.7
We will focus here upon Central Asia and nearby areas both geographically and chronologically close to the BMAC.
India
Since the place name “Meluhha” mentioned in Mesopotamian texts as a provider of copper and tin is identified as the Indus valley, the question arises as to whether the source of these metals could lie somewhere there. An inscription from Lagash, for instance, mentions that copper, silver, tin, lapis lazuli, and carnelian were imported from Meluhha (Maddin et al. 1977; Maxwell-Hyslop 1982: 32). Could the BMAC have obtained tin along the same route, since its connections with the Indus valley are well known? (Crawford 1974: 244; Dales 1977: 72-75; Kohl 2005; Lyonnet 2005: 195). In the Indus valley itself, however, there are no known tin sources. The nearest ones lie further east, for example at Nurango in Bihar, Tosham in the Bastar region, and the Chattisgarh or Koraput regions of Orissa. However, nothing there hints at a prehistoric exploitation (Hedge 1978; Babu 2003: 174-175, 179-180). Therefore, Penhallurick suggests that Meluhha acts more as a distribution center, similar to Dilmun (located at the Persian Gulf), and not as a tin source itself (Penhallurick 1986: 21; Helwing 2009: 210).
With regards to a possible tin source for the Harappa culture, N. Kochhar et al. (1999) point to a polymetallic ore deposit that contains cassiterite located within the Tusham region (Bhiwani district of Haryana). However, the concentration of tin in this ore is between 0.05 and 1.5%, which is rather low. Finds of pre-industrial smelting furnaces and slag proves that there was metallurgy in this area, yet the authors do not mention what type of ore was being smelted, and the date of these furnaces is not stated.
Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that the first tin bronzes appeared in the Indus valley during the 3rd millennium BC at Mohenjo-daro, where they made up 6% of the site inventory. During the Harappan period the amount of tin bronze increases to around 23%, but then decreases in post-Harappan times (Stech and Pigott 1986: 43-44). This can be seen as an argument either for the import of tin during the Harappan period or for the rapid exhaustion of a much smaller ore source.
