Jewels are a whole lot more portable than bulk metals, even very valuable bulk metals. Tin mines in Cornwall, NW Spain and Brittany are very old.
So the legend goes that during much of Jesus’ ‘silent years’, between the ages of 12 and 30, he was with his uncle Joseph of Arimathea. Joseph, according to legend, owned s fleet of trading ships and tin mines in Cornwall and was the leading tin merchant in the Roman Empire.
The legend also declares that Jesus built a house in Glastonbury, where He studied, prayed and meditated. An apparent letter from Augustine to Pope Gregory speaks of a church in Glastonbury that was divinely constructed.
There are many additional legends about Jesus living in England during the ‘silent years’. As there is no mention of this in the Bible, it is really neither here nor there but it makes for interesting reading.
I do agree, and the fact that there were people on Crete means they had seagoing watercraft. Even if the routes weren’t all by sea, and involved a series of different hand to hand commerce, the materials could have come from Britain etc.
That Gavin Menzies book on the Minoans was, uh, a little far out there, and despite his maritime background (British Navy), he seems to think shipping a boatload of copper from Isle Royale and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan down the St Lawrence and across the Atlantic was routine before the modern ‘Soo’ Locks, and didn’t have any little issues at, say, Niagara.