where is tin found? Also copper?

Question

If at the start of the bronze age; 2000-3000 BC, up until then humans used stone and wood.  How did these same humans process tin from the rock in which it is found?  Did they crush the stones with the rocks or the wood?  And why would they even want to get the different colors (tin) from a rock buried deep in the ground. Who told them in order to make bronze they needed 90 % copper and 10% tin to mix together to produce bronze?  Copper is fairly common through the world, but tin is only found...Where?

lunchtime_browser · Accepted Answer

Our Bronze age ancestors were a lot cleverer and more sophisticated than we sometimes give them credit for.  Copper and tin ores are sometimes found close to each other and were exploited ruthlessly when they were.

In the UK,  Wales and Cornwall were predominant sites.  (See the link below.  I've been round the mine and it's amazing what they were able to achieve with what we would think of as primitive tools.

There's been a suggestion that the Arthurian legend of the sword-in-the-stone was actually a reference to the ability of these "magicians" to extract metal from rocks.

http://www.walesdirectory.co.uk/tourist-attractions/Historic_Sites_and_Archaeological_Sites/Wales4280.htm

Anonymous · Answer

Trial and error. They got that combination after thousands of years. And it's found in the Earth, in tin and copper rich areas. Look it up if you want more information.

where is tin found? Also copper?

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