Known ancient sources, major deposits of tin.

"Achaemenid imperial art shows at least extensive iconographic borrowing from the ancient Near East, for example, the wingèd Ahura Mazdā icon borrowed from nearly identical Assur figures (Root, 1975; Jacobs, 1991)." http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zoroastrianism-i-historical-review

Bruno Jacobs “Der Sonnengott im Pantheon der Achämeniden,” in J. Kellens, ed.,La religion iranienne à l’époque achéménide, Gent, 1991, pp. 58-80.

Margaret C. Root, The King and Kingship in Achaemenid Art, Leiden, 1975, pp. 169-176.

[quote]Aššur became a great commercial center and founded trading settlements, the best known of which were those in Asia Minor.
Under the king Šamši-Adad I in the late 19th-early 18th centuries, Assyria became a powerful state and conducted an active policy of conquest. Soon after, however, the Babylonian king Hammurabi (1792-1750) subjugated Assyria. In the eighteenth century Assyria also lost the monopoly of caravan trade. Toward the middle of the second millennium B.C. hegemony in northern Mesopotamia was gained by the Mitanni, an eastern neighbor of Assyria. About 1360 B.C. the Hittite king Suppiluliumaš vanquished the Mitanni, to whom Assyria was at the time subjected, and the Assyrian king Aššur-uballiṭ I seized part of the Mitanni territory and also brought Babylonia into subjection.

Map of tin and gold deposits and occurrences in Afghanistan

In the 14th-13th centuries the Assyrians conquered the whole of northern Mesopotamia. At the end of the twelfth century under Tiglath-pileser I, the Assyrians waged war in Babylonia, Syria, and Phoenicia, but toward the end of his reign their power began to decline, owing to the infiltration into northern Mesopotamia of Aramaic tribes inhabiting the Syrian desert west of the Euphrates...This first flurry of metallurgical activity is attested on the Iranian plateau earlier than in Mesopotamia. Nevertheless, the first indications of bronze appear simultaneously on the plateau and in the lowlands in the 4th millennium. A bronze flat axe was excavated from the necropolis at Susa I(A) (Berthoud, p. 13 no. 974) and a bronze needle from Sialk III-5 (Ghirshman, 1938, p. 206). From Godin unpublished analyses indicate that bronze is present in period V, which dates to the second half of the 4th millennium into the early 3rd millennium B.C. (Godin Project Archives). These random initial occurrences of bronze may have resulted from trade with the east. Afghanistan, where abundant copper and tin deposits are juxtaposed, is a likely locus for the technological innovation of bronze...Only at Susa is there evidence of bronze technology from the mid-3rd millennium: the “vase à la cachette” containing four bronzes, sixteen arsenical coppers, and three artifacts containing both tin and arsenic (Amiet et al.; Berthoud, p. 14). Analyses suggest that tin was being alloyed with arsenical copper (Stech and Pigott, p. 43). In the final centuries of the 3rd millennium, a period during which Susa had strong cultural ties with Mesopotamia (Amiet, p. 197), bronze was found with some frequency there; by that time many plateau settlements, including those at Tepe Sialk, Tall-i Malyan (Tall-e Malīān), and Tepe Yahya had been abandoned...The Sumerians were active in trade and the acqui­sition of exotic luxury materials. The rarity of tin may have enhanced its status in Mesopotamia, whereas the peoples of the Iranian plateau remained uninfluenced by such pressures (Stech and Pigott, p. 48). At any rate, tin “bypassed” the plateau en route to Mesopotamia (Beale, p. 144; Moorey, 1982, p. 88). Iranian metallurgi­cal traditions can thus be characterized as technologi­cally conservative, for, though copper artifacts were manufactured in quantity and in a variety of forms, simple smelted or melted arsenical copper was the main material used. At Tepe Hissar, for example, the quan­tities of slag, fragments of furnace lining, and molds suggest large-scale production of arsenical copper: tools, weapons, and elaborate ornaments (Schmidt, 1937; Pigott et al.). There is also evidence of lead and silver production. Bronze, however, was found only very rarely in the analysis of metal artifacts from the site (Pigott et al., p. 230; Berthoud et al., 1982, p. 50 n. 66; Reisch and Horton apud Schmidt, 1937, p. 359). Assemblages from Shahr-i Sokhta to the southeast, Tepe Yahya to the south (Heskel and Lamberg-Karlovsky, 1980; 1986; Heskel, 1982, pp. 73-97; Tylecote and McKerrell, 1971; 1986), and probably Shahdad, also to the south (Vatandoost-Haghighi; Moorey, 1982, pp. 83, 90-91; Salvatori; Salvatori and Vidale), consist primarily of arsenical copper artifacts, with rare bronzes (Heskel 1982, pp. 97-120; Hauptmann; see also Tosi, 1993). An arsenical-copper shaft-hole axe from a burial at Khurab (Ḵᵛorāb; Stein, 1937, p. 121) in Baluchistan has been the subject of several studies (Maxwell-Hyslop; Zeuner; During Caspers), including a detailed metallurgical analysis of its composition and manufacture (Lamberg-Karlovsky, 1969; Lechtman). Farther west at Tall-i Malyan in Fārs province artifacts from the late 4th- and early 3rd-millennium Banesh (Baneš) phase (Nicholas, 1980; forthcoming) are exclu­sively of arsenical copper, but preliminary analyses of finds from the subsequent Kaftari phase (early 2nd millennium) indicate that several are of bronze (Pigott, 1980, pp. 107; unpublished analyses of the Museum of Applied Science, Center for Archaeology/MASCA). Slags with entrapped metal prills from Malyan have been shown by analysis to be derived from copper/bronze production (Carriveau, pp. 63-66). Unpublished analyses from the site of Godin indicate that a number of bronze artifacts occur in period III contexts, about early 3rd to early 2nd millennium B.C. (Godin Project Archives). Thus the Godin III and Kaftari Malyan contexts may be the earliest on the plateau to contain bronze with some frequency, probably reflect­ing the geographical and cultural proximity of these sites to the lowlands of Mesopotamia and Ḵūzestān.
The suggestion of Afghanistan as an early locus of bronze metallurgy, though attractive, cannot yet be fully substantiated archeologically. The only well-­documented artifacts in bronze from the region were excavated at Mundigak (Mondīgak), in levels dating from the mid-4th through the 3rd millennium (Shaffer, p. 144; Jarrige, p. 291; see also Lamberg-Karlovsky, 1967, pp. 146-48). A few were of bronze, principally axes and a single adze, and their occurrence over a long span of time may indicate regular use of the alloy (Stech and Pigott, p. 47). Unfortunately, the bronze artifacts from Ghar-i Mar (Ḡār-e Mār “snake cave”) in northern Afghanistan cannot be firmly dated (Caley, 1971, 1972, 1980; Shaffer, p. 89; cf. Moorey, 1982, p. 99 n. 62)... ...The most comprehensive typological studies of a large corpus of Iranian copper-base artifacts from the region between the Indus and the Danube have been published by Deshayes (1958; 1960; 1963; 1965; De­shayes and Christophe). They include extensive dis­cussions of techniques of fabrication and evolution of forms, as well as of the general development of metal­lurgy in various culture areas of southwestern Asia and adjacent regions.[unquote] http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/assyria-

J. Deshayes, “Marteaux de bronze iraniens,” Syria 35, 1958, pp. 284-93.

Idem, Les outils de bronze de l’Indus au Danube (IVᵉ au IIᵉ millénaire), Bibliothèque archéologique et historique 71, 2 vols., Paris, 1960.

Idem, “Haches-herminettes iraniennes,” Syria 40, 1963, pp. 273-76.

Idem, “Nouveaux outils iraniens,” Syria 42, 1965, pp. 91-108.

Idem and J. Christophe, Index de l’outillage. Outils de métal de l’âge du bronze des Balkans à l’Indus II: Commen­taires, Paris, 1964.

http://www.turkishhan.org/trade.htm



Haifa tin ingots

ranku 'liquid measure'; ranku 'antelope' Rebus: ranku 'tin' (Santali)

Or. ḍagara ʻ footstep, road ʼ; Mth. ḍagar ʻ road ʼ, H. ḍagar f., ḍagrā m., G. ḍagar f. 2. P. ḍĩgh f. ʻ foot, step ʼ; N. ḍeg, ḍek ʻ pace ʼ; Mth. ḍeg ʻ footstep ʼ; H. ḍig, ḍeg f. ʻ pace ʼ. 3. L. dagg m. ʻ road ʼ, daggaṛ rāh m. ʻ wide road ʼ (mult. ḍaggar rāh < daggaṛ?); P. dagaṛ m. ʻ road ʼ, H. dagṛā m.(CDIAL 5523). Rebus: damgar 'merchant' (Akkadian) 

Tin-copper alloy called tin-bronze or zinc-copper alloy called brass, were innovations that allowed for the much more complex shapes cast in closed moulds of the Bronze Age. Arsenical bronze objects appear first in the Near East where arsenic is commonly found in association with copper ore, but the health risks were quickly realized and the quest for sources of the much less hazardous tin ores began early in the Bronze Age. (Charles, J.A. (1979). "The development of the usage of tin and tin-bronze: some problems". In Franklin, A.D.; Olin, J.S.; Wertime, T.A. The Search for Ancient Tin. Washington D.C.: A seminar organized by Theodore A. Wertime and held at the Smithsonian Institution and the National Bureau of Standards, Washington D.C. March 14–15, 1977. pp. 25–32.)

Thus was created the demand for tin metal. This demand led to a trade network which linked distant sources of tin to the markets of Bronze Age.

Zinc added to copper produces a bright gold-like appearance to the alloy called brass. Brass has been used from prehistoric times. ( Thornton, C. P. (2007) "Of brass and bronze in prehistoric southwest Asia" in La Niece, S. Hook, D. and Craddock, P.T. (eds.) Metals and mines: Studies in archaeometallurgy London: Archetype Publications) The earliest brasses may have been natural alloys made by smelting zinc-rich copper ores. (Craddock, P.T. and Eckstein, K (2003) "Production of Brass in Antiquity by Direct Reduction" in Craddock, P.T. and Lang, J. (eds) Mining and Metal Production Through the Ages London: British Museum pp. 226–7.)

Zinc is a metallic chemical element; the most common zinc ore is sphalerite (zinc blende), a zinc sulfide mineral. Brass, which is an alloy of copper and zinc has been used for vessels. The mines of Rajasthan have given definite evidence of zinc production going back to 6th Century BCE.
http://www.infinityfoundation.com/mandala/t_es/t_es_agraw_zinc_frameset.htm Ornaments made of alloys that contain 80–90% zinc with lead, iron, antimony, and other metals making up the remainder, have been found that are 2500 years old.  (Lehto, R. S. (1968). "Zinc". In Clifford A. Hampel. The Encyclopedia of the Chemical Elements. New York: Reinhold Book Corporation. pp. 822–830.) An estimated million tonnes of metallic zinc and zinc oxide from the 12th to 16th centuries were produced from Zawar mines. (Emsley, John (2001). "Zinc". Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements. Oxford, England, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 499–505.)

The addition of a second metal to copper increases its hardness, lowers the melting temperature, and improves the casting process by producing a more fluid melt that cools to a denser, less spongy metal. ( Penhallurick, R.D. (1986). Tin in Antiquity: its Mining and Trade Throughout the Ancient World with Particular Reference to Cornwall. London: The Institute of Metals.)

Tin extraction and use can be dated to the beginnings of the Bronze Age around 3000 BC, when it was observed that copper objects formed of polymetallic ores with different metal contents had different physical properties. (Cierny, J.; Weisgerber, G. (2003). "The "Bronze Age tin mines in Central Asia". In Giumlia-Mair, A.; Lo Schiavo, F. The Problem of Early Tin. Oxford: Archaeopress. pp. 23–31.)
Tin is obtained chiefly from the mineral cassiterite, where it occurs as tin dioxide, SnO2.The first alloy, used in large scale since 3000 BC, was bronze, an alloy of tin and copper.  Cassiterite often accumulates in alluvial channels as placer deposits due to the fact that it is harder, heavier, and more chemically resistant than the granite in which it typically forms. Early Bronze Age prospectors could easily identify the purple or dark stones of cassiterite from alluvial sources and could be obtained the same way gold was obtained by panning in placer deposits.

Pewter, which is an alloy of 85–90% tin with the remainder commonly consisting of copper, antimony and lead, was used for flatware.

Here is a pictorial gallery:



Panning for cassiterite using bamboo pans in a pond in Orissa. The ore is carried to the water pond or stream for washing in bamboo baskets.
People panning for cassiterite mineral in the remote jungles of central India.


The ore is washed to concentrate the cassiterite mineral using bamboo pans. Base of small brick and mud furnace for smelting tin.



The tin is refined by remelting the pieces recovered from the furnace in an iron pan. The molten tin is poured into stone-carved moulds to make square- or rectangular-ingots.

As the pictorial gallery demonstrates, the entire tin processing industry is a family-based or extended-family-based industry. The historical traditions point to the formation of artisan guilds to exchange surplus cassiterite in trade transactions of the type evidenced by the seals and tablets, tokens and bullae found in the civilization-interaction area of the Bronze Age.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/08/ancient-near-east-bronze-age-heralded.html