Revisiting Late Bronze Age oxhide ingots: meanings, questions and perspectives

Abstract

The so called oxhide ingots from the Late Bronze Age are an intriguing class of objects from the Mediterranean. Their amazing number, spread, distribution and puzzling characteristics have long attracted scholars’ attention. They provide a glimpse into the extraordinary complexity of the Mediterranean world during the 2nd half of the 2nd millennium BC as they were subjected to practices of production, exchange, transformation and use spreading from the Levantine coast to Sardinia. The Turkish shipwrecks from Uluburun and Cape Gelidonya leave no doubt about their use as means of transportation of copper and tin, but can we consider them to just be ingots? A review of their distribution pattern paired up with critical attention to the chronology of the phenomenon invites a reflection on the meaning of these objects.