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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arsene Vulpin" data-source="post: 259483" data-attributes="member: 5932">To Moulin_Rouge :What we call bronze is 9 times out of ten an alloy of tin and copper indeed. Tin is relatively sparse in europe. The two main sources being Anatolia and Zagros Mounts (Eastern modern-day Turkia) and the British Isles.And indeed the Greeks did import it. It is even the reason why there was such important greek settlements in (modern-day)France such as marseilles (Phocean colony)....The trade route between Marseilles and the British isles went along the rhone river, and it is such a trade which made such cities as Lugdunum (Lyon-Starting point of the navigable Rhone river) and Lutecia (capital of the Parisis, hence the name Paris (only bridge over the River Seine) so proeminent as to become main cities in the gallo-roman world anduntil today.They also imported from Persia, yet this mine was less known.The tin ore most used in this day is called cassiterite (and I quite remember it is the same word in greek, I'll check)But, other elements have been used to alloy with copper. For example, Bronze Age Egypt used a Copper-Arsenic alloy for weapon and tool bronze, and only used (Priceless, precious) Tin in high-tin alloys for the making of mirrors (the tin content is then so high that bronze becomes a white metal, reflecting light just all right)....To Bmcdaniel : It's heroic age you're speaking of then... Trojan Era, isn't it ? Then what you say seems correct. Tin used on greaves (as opposed as tin in copper-tin alloy aka bronze) is probably meaning that they would coat their base piece with tin (either by dipping it in molten tin (easy to it melts at aboout 250°C) or by directly brushing a tin rod against the hotted base) It would give the piece a silvery finnish)Hey guys,Don't blame me for posting boring technical stuff : someone actually asked !!! ;°)Oh, and when I said some crap like 'W-E over', it's broken english for, 'give me a W-E to go and find the reference.'</blockquote>

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