More than 107,000 species are used and traded worldwide, more than double previous estimates, according to new research that suggests the true scale may be far greater due to major gaps in trade and wildlife collection data.
Copper is essential for making bronze, which shaped tools, weapons and ornaments across Bronze Age Europe. While many Bronze Age mines have been identified throughout Europe, researchers are still trying to pin down which of them were most active at different times and how far their copper traveled. New research, published in the journal Antiquity, suggests that a series of mines in modern-day Spain and Portugal may have been an important source of copper in the Late Bronze Age, with some of that copper ending up as far away as Scandinavia.
