3600-Year-old Swedish Axes Were Made With Copper From Cyprus

Mediterranean-style rock art depictions of bulls and ships, dating to 1600-1400 BCE, from western Sweden. SHFA: ​Gerhard Milstreu

Ancient rock carvings in Sweden evidently aren't of local boats but show ships bringing the metal from the Levant.

Bronze tools found in Sweden dating from 3,600 years ago were made using copper from the Mediterranean, archaeologists have shown. They now also believe that rock carvings of ships found in Bohuslän, Sweden were visual documentation of trade between ancient Scandinavia and the Mediterranean.

Most of the copper circulating in Bronze Age Europe apparently originated from Sicily, Sardinia, the Iberian peninsula - and Cyprus, going by isotope analysis. (Although there seems to have been some exploitation of the copper mines in Timna, ancient Israel during the Bronze Age, it was small in scope and not involved in this trade.)

The precious copper was exchanged for Nordic amber, which was as cherished as gold in Mycenaean Greece and in the prehistoric Middle East.  And, it seems, cultural and religious influences joined on the ride. [...] Haaretz


Actualización: Encuentran en Suecia herramientas de la Edad del Bronce hechas con cobre procedente de Chipre / Link 2
... Así lo demuestra el reciente hallazgo en Bohuslän (Suecia) de herramientas fabricadas con cobre procedente de la isla de Chipre, según indican los análisis de isótopos practicados. Es lo que podría ser la muestra más antigua que se conoce de intercambio comercial entre ambas regiones, habida cuenta que la datación de las piezas se remonta a la Edad del Bronce, hace unos tres mil seiscientos años. Recordemos que el cobre es uno de los metales necesarios para alear con estaño y producir bronce...