Early Bronze Age Tin and the Taurus

The sources of tin being exploited by the metalworkers of Early Bronze Age Anatolia remain to be identified. While K. A. Yener and P. J. Vandiver ("Tin Processing at Göltepe, and Early Bronze Age Site in Anatolia," supra pp. 207-38) present very impressive evidence for some sort of mining and metalworking activity at Kestel and Göltepe, they fail to demonstrate that tin must have been the metal being sought after in these operations. Nor can it be shown that the general area of southeastern Anatolia was a significant center of bronze metallurgy during the third millennium. Even Egypt, with well-documented sources of tin, seems to have made little use of bronze before ca. 2000 B. C.