Tin is an important component of bronze and other alloys, and can be easily shaped or hammered into tinware. In the Bronze Age the demand for tin creates bold new trade networks and routes. Tin is one of the Seven Metals of Antiquity.
Read: Cult of the Fire God - Bronze Age Quest Adventure
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First mined and processed in today's Turkey by 3500 BCE, tin is a chemical element. It can't be broken down into other substances. Bronze is about 88% copper and 12% tin. If tin can't be had, or for a harder bronze, the metalloid arsenic is sometimes used in an alloy with copper.
Read: Cult of the Fire God - Bronze Age Quest Adventure
Pure tin has a bright reflective gleam and is used in early hand mirrors. Tin doesn't occur in native form. It has to be extracted from ores, usually cassiterite. Tin-bearing minerals such as cassiterite are often found in granite, an igneous rock.
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Cassiterite tin-bearing ores are often found in placer deposits. In natural waterways, flakes, grains and nuggets of cassiterite are picked up by a fast-running river or brook as water erodes surface material. It's washed downstream to settle in a slower moving part of the river.
Placer deposits tend to have black sand high in iron ores. Precious stones such as diamonds and metals like gold found in placer deposits are the impetus for the famous gold and diamond rushes of the 19th century.
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Later technology uses dredging, hydraulics and open pit mines to collect cassiterite for tin. Once smelted, the soft metal can be used in various alloys.
In the ancient world the most popular tin alloy is bronze. The Bronze Age (c. 3300 - 1200) is defined by smelting of metals and the manufacture of bronze articles.
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Pewter is 85-99% tin, with the remainder made up of antimony, bismuth, copper and sometimes silver. Tin is often used as an alloy in coins.
Read: Cult of the Fire God - Bronze Age Quest Adventure
During the Bronze Age and later, the Casserides or Tin Islands are mentioned in reference but their location is unknown. The Casserides are presumed to be somewhere in Western Europe, rumored to be a rich source of tin.
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Some people place them off the Iberian peninsula. Wisely, the people of Iberia provide no insight. Today the major tin sources of the world include Malaya, Indonesia, Thailand, China, Siberia, the Congo area and Bolivia.
Tin is subject to such issues as tin pest and tin whiskers. Tin pest is a transformation of the element tin causing degeneration of the metal at low temperatures. It can occur in alloys. Tin pest is also known as tin disease, tin blight or tin leprosy (lèpre d'étain).
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Tin whiskers are a phenomenon in electrical devices. Some metals form long whisker-like projections over time, causing short circuits.
With development of iron and steel, tin plating comes into common use, with the backing material of wrought iron. The coating of tin hinders rusting which occurs with oxidation of steel or iron.
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A person working with tin is a tinner, tinker, tinman, or tinplate worker. Whitesmith is sometimes used interchangeably, though the whitesmith is more associated with iron. A type of applied tin foil is used as decor in ancient structures, much like gold or silver leaf.
Tinsmith is a common occupation in pre-industrial times. Traveling tinkers might take their skills on the road as they don't need a hot forge like the blacksmith. Heating tin to make it more malleable can be done on a regular fire if necessary.
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Terne is a type of tinplate, a thin steel sheet coated with a tin-lead alloy. For terne the alloy ratio is 10-20% tin and the remainder lead. Due to low tin content it's cheaper than other tinplates.
Terne plate is made by tinsmiths as sheet metal goods, such as storage vessels, funnels and pitchers. Terne plate jugs are used particularly in industry for flammable liquids. The vessel is for short-term storage due to the high lead content.
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The Minoans, centered at Crete in the Aegean Sea, commonly use tin, although there's no nearby source. Possible sources are Afghanistan and the Oxus valley. The trade route from the East to the Mediterranean is well documented by ancient traders and scribes.
Extensive sea trade routes for tin are facilitated by the Phoenicians, who settled in the area of coastal Lebanon. Tin is being transported along the Amber Road networks by c. 2500 BCE.
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By the 1st millennium BCE tin routes are in place and business is brisk. New trade routes form by land and sea. Due to its essential purpose in making bronze, tin is one of the most extensively traded items throughout the known world.
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