See Pictures of Shipwreck Discovery Yields Ancient Treasure

The Bronze Age shipwreck's main cargo was hundreds of copper and tin ingots such as these. Shaped into pellets convenient for shipping, copper and tin ingots were the raw material for making the metal which defines the Bronze Age. The Salcombe shipwreck's 259 copper ingots likely came from overseas, possibly from mines in central Europe or what is now Spain, according to the study team. The 27 tin ingots salvaged so far were probably sourced closer to home, however. "One of the few things Britain could produce in prehistory was tin," said team member Dave Parham of Bournemouth University.

A bronze sword is among the newly revealed artifacts from the 900 B.C. shipwreck off Salcombe, U.K. The 18-inch-long (45-centimeter) sword is of a style dated to between 950 and 850 B.C., but researchers don't yet know if the weapon was British-made or imported. Bronze Age expert Ben Roberts said that swords replaced spears as Britain's weapon of choice in about 1200 B.C., after being introduced from mainland Europe. The oldest swords that have been found in Britain match German and French examples and were certainly imported, according to Roberts. But this later sword may well have been produced locally, he said.

A diver searches for sunken treasure off Salcombe, U.K., using an underwater metal detector. The recently discovered Bronze Age treasure was found in the Salcombe region, close to the shore and in just 26 to 33 feet (8 to 10 metres) of water. But excavation team member Dave Parham isn't surprised it lay undiscovered for almost 3,000 years. "These are very small objects in a very big seabed," the marine archaeologist said. "Unless you know what you’re looking for, you're not going to see it." Three golden bracelets found in the most recently identified Salcombe shipwreck site gleamed enough to be noticed. But the large quantity of metal ingots at the site resemble gravel cobbles, making them very hard to distinguish in undersea rock gullies, Parham said.

The latest Salcombe discoveries follow rich finds in the same area from another Bronze Age shipwreck—such as these golden adornments found in 2006. While the newfound wreck yielded several golden bracelets, called torques, the previously discovered site included even rarer treasures. Pictured are an eight-stranded braided-wire torque (top left), two rolled-up ribbon torques (top centre and right) and part of a twisted bar torque, which date to between 1300 and 1100 B.C. Once worn as a bracelet, the braided-wire torque is incredibly rare, with the closest known example coming from France, according to Ben Roberts of the British Museum. "You've got this incredibly sophisticated goldworking technology," Roberts said, "which is evidently international."

Other cargo from prehistoric wreck sites near Salcombe, U.K., include these bronze axe heads, designed to fit into a split in a wooden handle. As with the axes' handles, nothing remains of the sunken Bronze Age vessels, so how they were constructed is a mystery. The few surviving Bronze Age boats from northwest Europe were made of solid wood. But other evidence, such as rock carvings, points to boats made of animal hide stretched over a timber frame, said marine archaeologist Dave Parham. Such vessels would have been more than capable of crossing between France and Britain or transporting the 190-pound (86-kilogram) load recovered at the newfound wreck site, Parham said. "It's a modern concept that you need something big to go to sea," he added.

Bronze sword parts, axes, and other tools were found off Salcombe in 2004, including the intriguing triangular artefact at lower right. The function of three-pointed object is unknown, but similar items have been found in Bronze Age hoards on the Italian island of Sicily —some 1,850 miles (3,000 kilometres) from Salcombe. "This is the most northerly find of this type of artefact", said Ben Roberts of the British Museum. It is, he said, "direct evidence of contact with the Mediterranean." The Salcombe artefacts, Roberts said, are so crucial to expanding knowledge of Britain's prehistoric trade links that the British Museum is planning to add the objects to its permanent collection.