Complex supply chains may have appeared more than 3,000 years ago
Evidence hints miners in Central Asia provided a crucial metal to Mediterranean rulers
![An underwater photo of a replica sunken merchant ship with a scuba diver swimming above.](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/121222_bb_uluburun-supply-chains_feat.jpg?fit=874%2C580&ssl=1)
Analyses of tin ingots found aboard a merchant ship that sank off Turkey’s coast around 3,300 years ago suggest that sophisticated supply chains of the metal ran from Central Asia and part of Turkey to the Mediterranean. A replica of the vessel is shown.
WaterFrame/Alamy Stock Photo