News from the ancient world
The Bronze Age is the period when people across Europe, western Asia and the Mediterranean made tools and weapons from bronze, an alloy of copper and tin. In the Aegean and the Near East it ran from roughly 3000 to 1100 BC. It was the age of the Mycenaean palaces in Greece, the Hittite kingdom in Anatolia and New Kingdom Egypt. Long-distance trade in metals tied these regions together.
Recent finds add detail to that trade. At Hala Sultan Tekke, a copper port on Cyprus, Swedish archaeologists found buildings from the 17th to 15th centuries BC. These push the city's documented history back by up to two centuries. Two 14th-century BC tombs there held imports from Egypt, the Aegean, Sardinia, India and the Baltic. In Spain, the Las Minillas mine was worked from about 1300 to 800 BC. Its lead signature is compatible with 11 Scandinavian bronzes. At the Hittite capital, a clay fragment of the Kadesh treaty between Hattusili III and Ramesses II was found.
Prehistory · c. 1300–800 BC · Las Minillas, Granja de Torrehermosa, Extremadura, Spain
Radiocarbon dates show Las Minillas in Extremadura was worked from about 1300 to 800 BC, and its lead signature is compatible with 11 Scandinavian bronzes.
Greece · 17th–15th century BC · Hala Sultan Tekke, Larnaca District, Cyprus
The 2026 season at Hala Sultan Tekke found buildings and pottery from the 17th to 15th centuries BC, pushing the city's documented history back by up to two centuries.
Greece · 17th century BC · Hala Sultan Tekke, Larnaca, Cyprus
Swedish archaeologists have found the first buildings at Hala Sultan Tekke from the 17th to the 15th century BC.
Near East · c. 2700–2400 BC · Kekova Island, Antalya, Turkey
Around 30 Early Bronze Age amphorae lie about 30 metres down near Kekova Island, and some still hold a glossy residue that researchers are now analysing.
Near East · Late Bronze Age, c. 1259–1258 BC · Hattusa (Boğazkale), Çorum province, Turkey
The matchbox-sized piece comes from a Hittite copy of the 13th-century BC treaty between Hattusili III and Ramesses II, the oldest peace agreement surviving in writing.
On Screen · Late Bronze Age (Mycenaean) · Ithaca, Ionian Islands, Greece
University of Cincinnati archaeologists Jack Davis and Sharon Stocker point film fans to the Palace of Nestor, Ithaca and a cave the film gives to the Cyclops.
On Screen · Late Bronze Age (legendary setting) · Ithaca, Ionian Islands, Greece
The Greek island traditionally identified as Odysseus' home asked to be included in the production, and its mayor now expects the film's effect on visitor numbers in 2027.
On Screen · c. 1200 BC (Late Bronze Age setting) · Ithaca, Ionian Islands, Greece
Christopher Nolan's R-rated, nearly three-hour adaptation starring Matt Damon as Odysseus had the biggest second weekend of 2026 and has not yet opened in China.
On Screen · Late Bronze Age, c. 12th century BC · Ithaca, Ionian Islands, Greece
Scholars quoted by ARTnews accept the costumes are anachronistic, but two argue that Homer's own poems already mixed objects from different eras in the same way.
On Screen · c. 12th century BC (as set by Homer) · Ithaca, Ionian Islands, Greece
The Homer adaptation, shot entirely on IMAX cameras, took $124.5 million at the domestic box office and $139.6 million abroad, Nolan's largest global opening.
On Screen · Late Bronze Age, c. 1300–1100 BC · Ithaca, Ionian Islands, Greece
Nolan told Time magazine that the king's costume draws on blackened bronze Mycenaean daggers, while admitting the Bronze Age record is fragmentary.
Greece · 13th–10th century BC · Aghios Vasileios, near Xirokambi, Laconia, Greece
Historian Hans Beck says the palace, which has yielded 204 Linear B pieces, housed the Lacedaemonian king, and a nearby hilltop sanctuary later became their place of memory.
Greece · c. 2000–1500 BC · Kolona, Aegina, Attica, Greece
Austrian archaeologists found gold pendants, beads and carnelian from what was probably one necklace beside a Middle Bronze Age wall at Kolona, but no tomb.
Prehistory · c. 1300–800 BC · Esperstedt, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
Most people studied in Central Germany grew up locally, and communities seem to have tried millet for a time before going back to wheat and barley.
Greece · 14th century BC · Hala Sultan Tekke, Larnaca District, Cyprus
Two 14th-century BC tombs at the copper port of Hala Sultan Tekke were reused for generations and held imports from Egypt, the Aegean, Sardinia, India and the Baltic.
Greece · 3200–2000 BC · Rafina, Attica, Greece
The pithos tomb in eastern Attica held two people covered by large stones, and two metres away lay a burnt pit containing a complete equid skeleton.
Prehistory · c. 1000 BC · Turlojiškė, Kalvarija, Marijampolė County, Lithuania
Radiocarbon dates show at least 11 young men died at about the same time around 3,000 years ago at Turlojiškė, several with injuries consistent with weapons.
Prehistory · c. 1200–400 BC · Brusselstown Ring, near Baltinglass, County Wicklow, Ireland
Surveys and test trenches at Brusselstown Ring in County Wicklow point to the largest clustered settlement yet known in prehistoric Britain or Ireland.