Late Bronze Age lead ingots and Sardinia-Cyprus trade

[Duncan Head]

https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-analysis-of-3200-year-old-lead-ingots-sinks-theories-about-bronze-age-trade/

Lead ingots found off the Palestinian coast, inscribed with Cypriot markings, prove to be of Sardinian lead. This changes our view of the role of Cyprus in LBA trade.

It also (not mentioned in the article) makes the presence of Sherden mercenaries - assuming that Sherden does indeed mean Sardinian - in the Eastern Med look less anomalous, if contacts over such a distance were more frequent than previously thought.

[DBS]

An excellent find.

Personally, I have always believed that if the Sherden did have any link with Sardinia, then it most probably was their original homeland; it just seems far fetched that having come a cropper
in Egypt, they then overran a large island in the western Med.  Plus, I am not aware of any evidence of cultural breaks at that time in Sardinian archaeology.  To my mind one either rejects Sherden/Sardinia or embraces it fully.  A west to east trade in metals before the Iron Age heyday of Ischia et al also seems not unreasonable.