Shipwreck Yields Bronze-Age GoldGleaming where it sank almost 3,000 years ago, a golden bracelet from the Bronze Age marks the site of one of the world's oldest shipwrecks, recently discovered off the coast of the United Kingdom. At the time of the wreck, Rome had yet to be built, pharaohs still ruled Egypt, and Jesus Christ's birth was still centuries away.The treasure was part of a 900 B.C. cargo discovered in May 2009 near the town of Salcombe (map) by divers from the South West Maritime Archaeological Group.Announced this month at the International Shipwreck Conference in Plymouth, U.K., the Salcombe finds include hundreds of copper and tin ingots—the raw material for making bronze—and reveal sophisticated trade links between prehistoric Britain and the rest of Europe, archaeologists say."It shows how linked in communities on the south coast [of Britain] were to a very broader world," said Ben Roberts, European Bronze Age curator at the British Museum in London. 

(Also see pictures of the largest Anglo-Saxon treasure yet found.)

—James Owen in London
Photograph courtesy South West Maritime Archaeological Group

Pictures: Shipwreck Discovery Yields Ancient Treasure

The discovery of a 3,000-year-old shipwreck—complete with gold jewelry and raw materials to make bronze—suggests prehistoric Britain had international trade links.

Published February 25, 2010