These Ancient Mines Transformed Prehistoric Europe

There are many Bronze Age mines in the Old World that collectively produced thousands of tons of copper, enough to make millions of tools, weapons, and decorations for Europe and the Near East.

This is the story of the origins of copper mining and its development through the Bronze Age.

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*My Books*

*My Links*

*Video Sources*

Prehistoric Copper Mining in Europe - William O'Brian ➜

Arsenical Copper in Minoan Crete - Alessandra Giumlia-Mair and Fulvia Lo Schiavo
Bronze Age Beginnings: a Scalar View from the Global Outskirts - H. Vandkilde (2019)
Bronze Age Metallurgy in the Peloponnese - Maria Kayafa (1999)
Chrysokamino in the History of Early Metallurgy - James D. Muhly (2006)
Early Bronze Age Copper Smelting on Seriphos (Cyclades, Greece) - O. Philaniotou, Y. Bassiakos, and M. Georgakopoulou (2011)
Early bronze age metal trade in the eastern Mediterranean. New compositional and lead isotope evidence from Cyprus - JM. Webb, D. Frankel, ZA Stos And N. Gale (2006)
Further Evidence for Bronze Age Production of Copper From Ores in the Lavrion Ore District, Attica, Greece - Noel H Gale (2009)
Shifting networks and mixing metals: Changing metal trade routes to Scandinavia correlate with Neolithic and Bronze Age transformations - HW Nørgaard, E. Pernicka, H Vandkilde (2021)
Ösenringbarren and the Classical Ösenring Copper M. Junk, R. Krause and E. Pernicka (2001)
(And many more)

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*Relevant Videos on the Old Copper Culture of North America*

*Music*

Muddy Banjo - Humans Win
Western Renegade - Humans Win
Deep Mind - Atlantis Music & Sound
Float - Geographer
Singularity - Michael Vignola
Bulgarian Spirit - Psystein
Tuvan Throat Singers - Psystein
Falling Sun - Atlantis Music & Sound
Electra to the Baltic Sea - Guiseppe Rizzo
Mystica - Atlantis Music & Sound

*Video Chapters*

00:00 Neolithic Copper Mines
02:31 Ancient Copper Mining on Cyprus
04:25 Lead Isotope Analysis
05:27 Copper Trade in the Amarna letters
06:09 Oxhide Ingots
06:31 Mycenaean Copper Use
07:04 Copper mining on the Cycladic islands
07:36 Early Metalworking on Crete
07:57 Early Balkan mining and metallurgy
09:44 Yamnaya culture steppe miners of the Volga
11:18 Middle and Late Bronze Age European Mining
11:47 Unetice culture miners
13:33 Nordic Bronze Age Copper Imports
15:37 Mining in Bronze Age Britain and Ireland
16:28 Bronze Age Copper Mines of Europe

[DanDavisHistory]

If you enjoyed the video please hit "like", it really helps.

[MrAwsomenoob]

"Bye honey I'm gonna make a trans Atlantic crossing in a dugout canoe with a ton of heavy metal."

[bryanguzik]

I appreciate this not being a 20min "proof" against the obvious. Get it out of the way, then onto something worthwhile. Really cool stuff as usual.

[itsapittie]

I think the real mystery is why widespread use of metals never took hold in the Americas. The people of North America used copper to some extent for a while and then apparently stopped using it. In South America, they apparently even smelted a limited amount of copper alloys but AFAIK it never got significant use for weapons or tools. I would think copper and bronze would confer the same advantages in the Americas as it did in Europe but apparently for some reason the Native Americans didn't think so.

[pectenmaximus]

If there was copper being hauled across the ocean (deeply uneconomical since copper was all over Europe and Near East and plenty of evidence of its mining etc) then 1) it would have generated plenty of material evidence such as pottery shards, settlements, metal tools, stone tablets, and; 2) there would be evidence of agricultural and livestock transfer, as well as other species such as rats or seeds having been inadvertently carried. There’d also be genetic evidence from these transatlantic traders mixing with local populations.

[rachel_Cochran]

"They would've taken great care of their tools, just as we do now, "
Omg you have definitely not met my husband lol

[laktho]

1. Thank you for this awesome video! I simply love ancient history very much.

2. Fun facts about Cyprus from German documentary "Das Bronzekartell":

- One mine in Cyprus ist active for about 7000 years until today

- It's estimated that Cyprus produced about 200.000 tons of copper within the last 7000 years - mostly without any machinery

- The cooper of the Uluburu shipwreck has been matched to a cypriotic cooper mine via radioisotopes (see Das Bronzekartell)

- My fav one: Cyprus mines melted the cooper directly on the Cyprus, burning EVERY available tree on the island - at least 13!!! times

[michiganscythian]

Being from Michigan, I’m glad that you did this video. A series of (barely researched) books called Mystic Michigan is available at most souvenir shops and even gas stations in northern Michigan. More than one of these books talks about how Bronze Age cultures obtained their copper from Michigan. To add to that, they aren’t even edited with many such mistakes as the “Colossus of Rhoads” or Phenicians. I have a BA in history and this angers me to no end. Ok, yeah, these books also talk about haunted houses, Sasquatch sightings, etc but I hate that they’re trying to present this as historical fact when the theory is wrong but they also can’t be bothered to check how Rhodes is supposed to be spelled. Especially since there’s a small town in central Michigan called Rhodes

[legiran]

If the theory went like "Tin had to be imported from America" it would have been more believable because Tin always was in relative short supply during the Bronze age.
Copper was basically mined by every major Bronze Age Empire in their own back yard.
So this theory is outright silly 🤣

[QalOrt]

The local history museum in the city I was born in has some of the copper that was mined in Lake Superior region. It was transported down from Michigan to Florida hundreds of years ago.

[AncientAmericas]

Very well done! Loved all the details you packed in.

[MARKSTRINGFELLOW]

One of the biggest prehistoric copper mines in Europe is at the Great Orme in North Wales It was only discovered in the 80, s

[waltonsmith]

This idea seems ridiculous on the face of it. It seems like Occam's Razor is heavily weighted against it, too. Why does it make sense that european copper was hauled across a big giant ocean, as opposed to more local sources? That just seems silly.

[k.schmidt]

How nice to hear something as clear and decisive as, "But that is not true." For those statements alone it was worth watching the rest of the video! Thanks for the good work.

[Original]

The academic theory is that the majority of the copper in the Bronze Age was produced in Cyprus; named Kipris, because of the copper. It's postulated that the demise of the Eastern Mediterranean civilisations also involved the collapse of the Cypriot civilisation.

[perceivedvelocity]

This was very interesting. I don't know why anyone would jump to the conclusion that copper was being shipped to Europe? IMO a better question is why didn't the majority of native Americans use metal weapons and tools? Some groups had access to metal and continued to use stone tools. Were there any social taboos that would prevent it?

[disenchantedwanderer]

Another excellent video, and I like how you went straight for the debunk straight away, and then the depth of research to show the European copper mines.
You bring the bronze age to life.

[Michelle-Eden]

Did the ancient Egyptians invent Tic Toc?
Did space aliens write the scripts for Alfred Hitchcock's movies?
Can dirt be used to run your car?
Did Bronze Age Europe get its Copper from America?
No, they got it from Uranus.

[randomcontent]

Getting so good at crafting videos now, music and images were on-point. Thanks.

[LudosErgoSum]

AMERICA: How much copper do you want?

EUROPE: No.