Talenti e lingotti : riflessioni sulla circolazione dei metalli nel Mediterraneo orientale durante il Bronzo Tardo

The discovery of the Uluburun and Cape Gelidonya shipwrecks in southern Turkey with their well preserved cargos has given a wealth of archaeological materials related with the interregional exchange of base metals and precious items in the Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age. Copper and tin circulation was part of the wide web of economic interactions between the political entities of the Levantine coast, Cyprus, Anatolia, Egypt and the Aegeum. Therefore the reconstruction of the metals exchange, which was strongly embedded in the social, ideological and political framework, represents a first and necessary step contributing to the historical understanding of the cultural interrelations of the period. Epigraphic sources give some information on the administrative operation linked to the long-distance exchange of metals that can be usefully compared with the archaeological evidence. The copper and tin ingots found in primary contexts are analyzed taking into account shapes, fractioning methods, incised and impressed marks, masses and metrological occurrences. Possible relations among these parameters are highlighted in order to combine all the information that could be significant to understand the ‘actions’ performed to prepare the cargos and the procedures and practical operations linked to the manufacture, transport and exchange of the ingots.