A study carried out by geneticists in 2009 discovered that 30% of the 500 people who volunteered to provide a DNA sample on the Isle of Anglesey, in north east Wales, carried a gene segment common in the eastern Mediterranean but rare in the rest of the UK, where it is present in just 1% of the population. The Sheffield University team who carried out the study, led by Andy Grierson and Robert Johnston, concluded that this was the legacy of Bronze Age migrants who came to this part of Wales 4,000 years ago through the connections built up by the copper trade. There are mines of the period at both Parys Mountain on Anglesey, and on Great Orme, Llandudno, site of one of the biggest mining enterprises in Europe during the period from c. 1600 to 1400 BC (CWA 100).
Evidence has now emerged of long-distance metal trading at the other end of the chain. In a paper published in June 2019 in the scientific journal PLOS One, the authors reported on their analysis of 27 tin ingots from prehistoric sites bordering the eastern Mediterranean. The specific ratios of tin and lead isotopes and trace elements enabled the authors to identify mines in Devon and Cornwall as the source, particularly the Carnmenellis area between Redruth and Helston.
The ingots came from shipwreck sites off the coasts of Mochlos, Crete, and Uluburun, Turkey, and from three locations off Haifa, Israel, including the drowned village located about 200m from the coast of Kfar Samir that has yielded ancient evidence of olive oil production and some of the oldest wooden artefacts in the world.
Roman towns and cities: Colchester – Excavating the CA archive