Piotr posted Herodotus' comments about the amber route and the tine
route.
The Tin Islands are usually identified as the Scilly Isles off Great
Britain.
My understanding, from my reading, is that the Iron Age gets it main
impetus from a shortage of tin sometime before 1200 BCE. I get the idea the
Hittites forged iron swords out of necessity rather than any desire to improve
their armament.
What caused the 'shortage' of tin?. Movements of IE peoples? Proto-Celts?
Inter-ethnic chaos on the plains of Hungary? Or was it that the mines were mined
out, and no one had found a replacement.
And what can be said about 'the Tin Road' a la 'the Amber Road' or 'the
Silk Road'. The Tin Road would have been east west, from the Seine to the upper
Danube and thence east and south.