Ingots of tin, etched with Cypro-Minoan symbols and found off the coast of Israel, are over 3,000 years old and of Cornish origin, archaeologists say.

The 23 ingots, which date from the 12th or 13th century BC and were found in shipwrecks near Haifa, are the earliest evidence of the trading of the metal between Bronze Age settlements on the island that became Britain and Europe and the Middle East.

The metal was vital in the production of bronze, which was used to make weapons and armour.

The ingots likely found their way to “Israel” — around the time of the first recorded written mention, by the ancient Egyptians, of the word — on ships via Greece. Greek and Phoenician traders would have been sailing in that part of the Mediterranean.

Analysis of the composition of the 10-15kg ingots indicates that the metal came from Cornwall or Devon rather than central Asia as previously thought.

In their paper, researchers wrote that it was “no accident” that the tin trade shifted from East to West, as the change corresponds to the demise of the Minoans and the rise of the Mycenaeens.

“Unlike the Minoans, the Mycenaeans sailed west and established trading ports in southern Italy, Sicily, Sardinia and south Iberia, which served as gateways to new trading routes to Britain and the European interior.”

But the researchers do not commit to saying that there was definitely direct contact between Bronze Age Britain and the Middle East, as the trade of the ingots could have happened through a number of routes.

Speaking to The Times, lead researcher Daniel Berger said: “That there could have been long-distance trade or exchange systems between the British Isles and the eastern Mediterranean is not a new idea.

“However, [this is] the first concrete evidence that tin was one of the driving forces of these trade networks.

“We have analysed only 23 tin ingots from Israel, but we have to assume that the amount of tin traded in the Late Bronze Age must have been enormous.”