Kestel

Kestel is an archaeological site in the Taurus Mountains in Turkey. Kestel is a probable site of Bronze Age tin mining in the Taurus Mountains in ancient Anatolia (now Turkey). Tin was as scarce and valuable as petroleum is today in the Bronze Age. It was a vital ingredient of bronze, used with copper to make the alloy. K. Aslihan Yener spent years in archaeometallurgy surveys together with the Turkish Geological Survey (MTA) and found cassiterite (tin ore) crystals in a stream in the Taurus foothills. This ore is purple; previous searches had been looking for black ore because most tin ores are black. Near the site was a deserted valley with a hill called Kestel that proved to hold a tin mine. Additionally, fragments of Bronze Age...