The Archaeometallurgy of Copper at Feinan, Jordan: Field Research and Analytical work of an Ancient ore District

THE ARCHAEOMETALLURGY OF COPPER AT PEINAN, JORDAN: FIELD RESEARCH AND ANALYTICAL WORK OF AN ANCIENT ORE DISTRICT (!) Andreas Hauptmann 1. AIMS AND METHODS OF ARCHAEOMETALLURGY Research work in archaeometallurg is focussed basically on the development and diffusion of ancient extraction and treatment of metáis, and there are two fundamen tal questions which may be traced back even to the beginnings of archaeology itself. The first is addressed to the technology of metal production. The second deals with provenance studies to reconstruct ancient trade ways. The technology of metal production comprises the investigation of mining and smelting techniques, and the further treatment of metáis such as refíning, alloying, and smithing. Studies on these topics were performed as early as the beginning of this century, among others by Gowland [1] or Zschocke and Preuschen [2]. They quickly recognised the benefit of comparing the archaeological with ethnographic evidences of primitive mining and smelting techniques in countries such as Japan, Africa or the Far East. Such observations are as impoitant as experimental work, because it has been shown repeatedly that one of the jeopardises of reconstructing ancient metallurgical processes is an intellectual overload by methods of modem metal technology. Investigations on metal production, based upon research of ancient production cen tres, were neglected in archaeology for a long time. This is due to its research theory which up until today is mainly focussed on art-related archaeology, and, henee, directed by aesthetic aspects. In addition, materials like slag -ancient waste— are hardly to understand by conventional methods of archaeology. To unlock informations from slags and ores, not only the instrumental application of chemical, mineralogical and physical methods is necessary. An interpretation to response archaeological questions in a qualified matter is essentially based upon the dialogue between archaeologists and scientists, which also presupposes a proper "adjustment" of methods and scientific problems to archaeology. In this sense, pioneering work on mining archaeological and archaeometallurgical remains of prehistoric metal production was published [3,4 and 5]. DMT-Deutsches Bergbau-Museum. Hemerstr. 45. D -44791 Bochum. Email: [email protected] I ;ii t ; : •! I at arch'L'Il""! "" ""="•> 'h^'" ^-hí scnous coopcration betwe^n -ARCHAi;c,M,,rRY rosul.cd ,n cnsidcrable scienufic daiinH.? ™ "' ,„ archac<.l.,uv. Hxaniples are Ae chemttr analyses m archaeomclallurL-y and ..ihcr ficlds. DNA analyses »n bio- Univer!!?' í * '""chacomcirv onlv rarclv is fullv csiablished universities in Europe. . . . prodiirr^^ artcfacts wcrc invcsiiuatcd niorc inicnsively ihan ancient h^ T'! ^ bcginning of archa^ frorn Th ^ origin of metáis to sourccs, to fitul the ore thcy wcre sme to oflí Provenance studics wcrc the basis to reconstruet ancient trade ways ^ on oh '"^0"Tiations on the sprcad of metallurgy. The so lar iargesi research proj^t statistical analyses of metal ohjeets v\as earried t)ui in the sixties y isor?'"' ^ Anfangen der Metaiiurgie". Later, lead innct ^ became onc of the most pouerfull tool in provenance studic^' research work was earried out by the Ciales/Oxford and by the Heierg/Mainz research group. During all this work it became obvitnis ihat proven^ce les are intimately connected with questions of the ore deposit. and the technology early metallurgical processcs. t-í""— •"— . . . , . especially on ancient production siles. , ^ ^"'-Aiions OI ine ore uc|ki.sii. ¿mu ine itv,.— —- eariy metallurgical processcs. Henee, there is a considerable deniand on fí eld 'ecially on ancient production sites to investiuate ores, ancient mines, and smelting ;s. ^ III CoNCíRHSü Nacional dl Arqueometría 421 rmineralizations, to a lesser contení, emerge at the Wadis Abu Kusheiba/Abu Qurthe site The copper ore deposit of Peinan is located at the eastern margin of the Wadi Arabah igure I) which is part of a transform strike-slip íault from the Red Sea to the Zagtos-Taurus subduction zone. By a lateral movement of the Arabian and the Afncan iates, the rift divided the originally coherent eoppcr ore districts of Timna and Peinan, ther mineralizati ^iya farther south The outcrops of copper ore in the Peinan district comprise an area of ca. 20 x 25 (figure 2). Fieid work earried out in a joint projcct bctween the Department of AniQUities, Ammán (Jordán) and the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, Bochum (Gena^^y) as revealed that at Peinan early copper production took place on a large indus^al ^^ale. Smelting sites with 150.000 to 200.()()() t of slag and more than 150 coppsf ®xceeded by far any activity at Timna or at the smelter of Bir Nasib, Sinai. Indeed,in ^ is región no other smelting site of similar sizc is known. Peinan, therefore, must have P'ayed an important role in the early copper supply of the southern Levant. the exploitation of the ore deposit Peinan is part of an ore district which is exposed at several local ities along the mar- 8|ns of the Wadi Arabah. It is a strataform, sedimentary deposit of a multistage on- 8in. The ores monotonously consist of secondary copper ores such as atacamite» ^ ^ Mediterranean Sea Nile delta lAín Ghazal Jericho^^^Ghassul Nahal Mishmar^ Shiqmim Abu Matar Arad Bir Safad! I Bab edh - Obra iNumeira i f ▲ Peinan Abu Kusheiba #Beidha Tell Maqass Bir Nasib too km Red Sea Figure 1. Geographic map of the southern Levant and Sinai with copper deposits (-) and archaeological sites (*) mentioned in the text. 422 As'dke^ví Hmjptmann 30 45 40 35 - 30 30 - Wiirbef d-Joriye Khirbot cl-uhuwebe . _'k Wiirbet en-„.h_. Ras " ^ en-Naqob WADI PIDAN Ain el-ridan ¡y. Feino" SA9-15 _ 16 PEINAN SLS!íí!r«., 18.19 Abu Ohubbaneh Barca ol-Hehve Smelting site Mining area JORDAN Umm el-Amad 5 km 35 15 25 30' 35 35 Figure 2. The ancient ore district in the area of Feinan at the foothill.s of the Jordanian Platean. Indicated are smelting sites and mining areas. Each mining symhol represents a locality where .sometimes itp ta fifty individual mines have been discovered. The location of mines on the ntap are primarily associated with outcrops of copper ores. Settlements mentioned in the te.xt are abo shown. chite, and various copper silicates (chrysocolla, dioptas) which are embedded in fíat dipping shales and sandstones [9]. Different to many other prehistoric ore districts which are more or less destroyed by modem mining activities, at Feinan it is possible still today to collect high grade ores with a copper concentration of > 50%. This type of ore deposit is rather rare in the Near East, it has just one parailei in Late Precambrian sediments in the southwest of the Sinai peninsula [10]. Otherwise, and this is of major importance to better understand the development of metallurgy in the Oíd World, sulfídic ore deposits are prevailing. These are mostly of hydrothermal origin, and the iron hut or gossan of such deposits is exposed to the surface. With increasing depth, a zone of oxidized ores is below the outcrop; it covers a secondary enrichment zone and finally the primary ore deposit. This sequence of changing compositions served as a simplified model to explain the stepwise development of metallurgy: III Congreso Nacional de Arqueometría 423 the earliest use of native copper, then the smelting of oxidic copper ores, foliowed by the extractive metallurgy of (complex) sulfídic Cu/Fe-sulfídes. Due to their origin, Feinan and Timna are hardly to distinguish in their mineral content, geochemistry, and in the isotopic composition of their lead [11 and 12]. For instance, the chemical composition of more than 100 samples of ores from Timna, and the same number from Feinan showed that the concentrations of those elements are similar in both deposits which should be more or less enriched during smelting in the metal (Ag, Pb, Zn, As, Sb, Co, Ni). This implicates that also metal objects made from Timna or Feinan copper ores, respectively, are hardly to distinguish. There is a possibility, however, to sepárate at least the copper ores from the two localities. This is due to their different geological setting. At Feinan, the major ore horizon in the Dolomite-Limestone-Shale Unit (DLS) is widely exposed to the surface especially in the Wadi Daña and Khalid (figure 3). The upper part of this formation, in a thickness of ca. 1-1.5 m, provides plentiful greenish copper silicates, malachite, and atacamite, embedded in a series of Cambrian shales which contain considerable concentrations of carbonates, manganese ores and phosphorite (figure 4). The corresponding formation in the west, the Timna-Formation, is buried under a thick sequence of sediments and, with but a few small outcrops [12], was only exploited by modem mining activities. At Feinan, ores from the DLS were easily to exploit in ancient times, because of the friability of the shales. In a stratigraphic higher formation, the Massive Brown Sandstone (MBS) thin vein fillings occur which were formed by a remobi- 400 . Wadi Dona Umi Khalid V Vedi Abad ■< X ' I I Massige braune Sandsteine i-- -'-'1 Bunte Sand-u Tonsteine y///\ Doiomit-Kalk-Tonsteinfolge I- ■ " I Ark ose - Sandstei ne !• • I Granit Cu-Erz GEOLOGIE UNO BERGBAU IM FENAN-GEBIET lUJ X Chalkolithisch (ZU X Rbmisch X Fruhe Bronzezeit I IX Eisenzeit Figure 3. Simplified development of mining activities in the Feinan district. The geological section Wadi Khalid-Wadi Daña .shows tsvo ore-bearing formations (Massive Brown Sandstone, MBS, and Dolomite- Limestone-Shale Unit, DLS). They were e.xploited in different periods by specific techniques. 424 I i! : l ¡' III CoNcíRiiso Nacional dk Arqui-ometría 425 gañese^ ■ "f copper-nmn^onesc ore with Mcnis ofCopper .sili(('te.\. enthetidcd in hlock ^ oxides. The copper contení of ihis samples is 44 wt.'/r.' Seale: 0.2.'^ < "t. ization of copper. Due to their spatial disiribution, this mineralization had to be POited by different mining techniques (figure 3). Howcvcr, it is this formation tbat ®ntains exclusively at Timna cuprified plant relies. Neither at Timna, ñor at Peinan native copper was found. This is worth mention- '"8, because this was perhaps the main reason why metallurgy in the southern Levant started with a chronological delay in comparison with Anatolia and Ira"- the^P copper frequently occurs in ore deposits, and it was utilized even since e re-Pottery Neolithic period for making beads and small tools by hot and cold working. in ^'together, the ancient metallurgists at Peinan had benefit from the ores availabl^ "^any respects: They were smelted by a one-stage process. No roasting was necessary as it i® c case with sulfidic ores, e.g. from those at Rio Tinto or Cyprus. the^ high percentage of fi negrained clay minerals in the host rock especially i*^ ® LS considerably improved the reaction rate of the components. wh'^h assoeiation with manganese-(hydr-)oxide.s provided a "self-fluxing" quickly led to the formation of a liquid slag inside the fumace. In addition, tbe metallurgists had not to control the gas-atmosphere of the fumace in such a severe way as it is necessary during smelting iron-rich composition of ores. 4. THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE USE OF ORES AT FEINAN One of the major goals of the project was to establish a chronological frame of the use of ores and the major activities of copper production in the Peinan district. For several reasons, we almost exclusively collected charcoal samples from inside the mines, and from slag heaps cut by erosión for dating by '^C-measurements. Altogether 51 radiocarbon-measurements were carried out at the University of Heidelberg. As our main field activities were based upon surveys, pottery could be collected just from the surface and, henee, was of ümited valué. In addition, while pottery only rarely is found in ancient mines and slag heaps, they abound in charcoal relies from the use of wood e.g. for light or timbering and from smelting activities. The results obtained are not complete, and they will be completed by further excavations. Ores from the copper deposit of Peinan were utilized for a period of roughly 10.000 years (figure 5). They were used for making beads and cosmetics during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic in the 8"' millennium. The first evidence for smelting dates to the S"" millennium. It does not come from Peinan itself, but from chalcolithic settlements in the Beer Sheva basin, in a distance of 100 km and more, where ores from Peinan were exported to and were smelted inside the villages. During the Early Bronze Age (EBA) II-IV, there is the first evidence of a mass production at Peinan. Little activities were proven from the Middle Bronze Age, but at the Late Bronze and the Iron Age there is evidence for SaftdJ ^2qmtm Nahai Mlstimar Wsdl Fld^n A, 11 T«fl WadI Ponan r Wadl Rdan Aj — ' "i Banja oJ^íotlyo J Ras on^laqati Ponan lb« 4,9 Ctiwair 3 Hamra truan Jartyo Nahas Penan S Barqa el-Hetíya M: Wadl Oana. Khalid B. 9 10000 B C 8000 6000 4000 2000 O A.D 2000 Figure 5. Overview of radiocarhon-data from the Feinan area. It shows that the ore deposit waí utUiz.ed since the Pre-Pottery Neolithic ttp untii the Roman-Byzantine period. Not shown are activities in the Mamluck period. 426 '' ' II A.SDKEAS some echnc^'f^ 'ndustrial scale. Major slag hcaps date to the Román period, some echos of metal production were found at the Mamiuck period. 5. EXTRACTIVE metallurgy of copper and snliHir^ (scientific) studies on ancient slags were focussed on the formation were invp ^ampies that were nol oldcr than the LBA. As a rule, slags don fhp younger smelting sites such as Cyprus, Rio Tinto, Laumateriak Tuscany [13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 191. All these iriAnt .L that they were produced after the inception and develop' iíimo/-> K,, níii A .,* of the mentnfth common that they were produced after the inception and develop' slae h III CoNGRBSo Nacional de Arqueometría 427 e proce.ss - as it was named by Craddock |2()1. Also most of tht aps at Peinan date to the Late Bronze and Iron Ages and to the Román period desVt ^ f especially, however, that the field evidence at Peinan provicopner production of the EBA in the Near East. There are several corres smelting sites with an estimated tonnage of 2800 t of slag which years Th Production of several hundred tons of metal within a period of lOOO toas" M copper production exists exte exception of the island of Kythnos (21 ]. In addition, "sive copper processing was excavated with more than 600 casting moulds and ^^gments of them, over ICO metal objects, numerous crucible fragments, and a cache shaped bar ingots [221. This metal factory was located in a water-bearing Arab^lT^^*^^ the Wadi Pidan opens a natural transit from the Peinan area to the V/adi an and, herewith, an access to the western cities and settlements in Canaan. investigation of slags unlocks most important informations to and smelting processes. By means of mineralogical texture and phase content 35 t:hemical bulk analyses informations on smelting parameters can be obtained sUch ^"lelting temperature (or interval of solidification, from which temperatures in the ^_rnace may be reconstructed), composition of the gasatmosphere (redox-conditions)» scosity, and the composition of the charge. However, the last mentioned point only J"ovides acceptable results if slag analyses were compared with the actual ores which "^®tl for smelting. Otherwise, it is hard to argüe whether self-fluxing ores were imV^^ ^t" fluxes were added to improve the formation of slag. The last point would bab/^^^^ ^ technological development, similar to delibérate alloying processes. tra fluxes was overestimated in archaeometallurgy, as a result of a hasty ns erence to prehistoric metallurgy of modern technologies and prácticos. After my 'tiion, there is no hard evidence yet for the delibérate use of fl uxes before the Late t^ronze Age. ^ T'he chemical bulk compositions of slags produced at Peinan since the Early Bronzc thfs^ MnO, and PeO are the predominan! components (figure 6): con mainly silicate slags very rich in manganese were produced during Qf^^^"^^lting.The phase content comprises tephroite (MujSiOa), various modifications ^"-pyroxenoids, (Bustamit and Rhodonit) and high amounts of glass. Slags of Olivine MnO Figure 6. Chemical composition of copper slags from dijferent periods in the Peinan district. All biit those from the Mamiuck period are extremely rich in manganese. Román slags are surprisingly high in SiO;. / = Early Bronze Age //////. 2 = ¡ron Age. 3 = Román period. 4 = Mamiuck period. such compositions are rather rare in Oíd World archaeometallurgy. They were observed just in ore districts where manganese ores are intergrown with copper ores, e.g. Timna, Cyprus, and Omán. Otherwise, the most common compositions are iron-rich silicate slags with the well known fayalite. The projection of reduced bulk analyses of slags from Peinan into suitable phase diagrams (e.g. into the temary system Ca0-Mn0-Si02) points to liquidus temperatures between 1190 and 1300 °C. Even a large range of CaO- and MnO- concentrations would not affect these rather low temperatures, i.e. the metallurgists had not to take care about varying contents of dolomite or manganese in the charge and in almost every case it was possible to produce a liquid slag. In the Román period smelting was carried out at higher temperatures. We conclude this from higher SÍO2 concentrations which indicate temperatures of > 1400 ®C. These temperatures probably were hardly reached in reality, and it should be considered that, in general, alkali-concentrations would lower the melting range of a silicate liquid. Experimental .Ja. ! ' I i i .lli! 428 Asmi AS nieasurements of fhf» i ■ "ideedshowed that ihey^woul^h^V'^ aiid Iron Aycs slays in thc laboratory iney would be l.qudied hetween 1 1 70 and 1210 °C. •ain much higto'GiO-con^^^^^ Age slags c""' ciation of ores before ch'irp' t This niiulit be due to a poor bene i "•«k in the ore. This a,s morcl.r/hl'pprc'X'''"'",'''"'''"''''' ' '' " •"'"P""'"." aN •nmatively ihe r-in mj., p, "bspously had a sell lluxina composilio"- ""8 i"' wind-driven fumaces ai ^"nng cxpcriniental uork to rcconstruct e "ace construction re-írtpH u/ th tU í>bscrved that the Ca-rieh elay used fot ' "'■c/hcstroek tc, a larL'e extent at temperatures afound resulted from^'^fh^^M h^ '^bow a narrow raniie oí" eompíísitions which pr^" 'haeolo¿arlwel r 'T 'Im is conflrmed by ar- P'' was found niM u/aif '"•'"l '<> an Iroii Age smelling " 'uuna íijjed with manganese ores (24) Itage^or tu ^'^^n^o-physieal properties provide a decisive a<íofnside í. r''"' Tr " ' <-4-' P------ "r 'he CO/CO. «oiue tne fumace and the temner:iíiit-.r. . . . . o;_ ^""•age fr,h ' '-"p T '■'"^'""-PhyMcal pn.pc «'io fnside í. r''"' ""i r " ' 'h'-- 'i III CoNCiRi-sc) Nacional di-: ARQUEOMirmíA 429 <=«es r'i ^"T? "='"P<=''"'"rc, npanganese oxide and ai.so manganese si- «'hichr!, ,,T T®'"' ^■">•■"¡"8 'hnn ¡ron siliSate slags «"osptre ; ' °T ^'■<-'""=7"-""rgy. They are no. alTcCed by a changing ■n>nre wii ? : "'¡'Jiiion of charcoal into the furnace. '"8condiHon?n''T""'r'!! p"°" '"""Sánese, re.speetivcly. under strong reduc- °f oxy " p r 'Silicatos are evcn liquid under a surpl"S '-•OnoxS Ct ^""'d solodily due to the precipitation of and hep,; . ™"'^'d®'-ably affeet thc .scparation of metal from the slag- ' '^"ce, the quality of smelting operations in general. ™'idineation temperatures of slags using plots neous r "P"" material wbich detlnitivcly was formed from a homoge- 'n caseT"'' '■■"m the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. Vervofp undecomposed rehcs of the charged material, the method is useless. '•e fro é 'he incipient stages of extractiva metallurgy- e*hibit 'í'" "I'"®""'"'"- ■''hey often did not reach the fulJy liquid state and oxide o^'ons of the ores charged, and are extremely high in copper or copper* ■ show all features of a short-terminated smelting in small reaction vesseis millennium BC settlement of tViíc • j fhe ^ad" p example, were recovered from the 4'" millennium BC settlement oí easte repre.sentativ for copper smelting slags of this period in the char^ ^^diterranean [25]. A macrograph (figure 7) indicates that only parts of the ®te were liquified. They consist of elinopyroxene, magnetite, and glass, and Large^'^*^^' composition points to a smelting temperature of approximately 1150 "tT. conté consist of mm-sized fragments of sandstone where the original mineral ^tid texture is preservad. There is no evidence for the use of any fluxes. In S®' i Fifiltre 7. Macrograph of a siag from the 4''' millermium BC settlement of Wadi Fidan 4 (Feinan area). The slag did not reach the fidly liquid state and contains large fragments of undecomposed sandstone (white and grey inclusions) and droplets of cuprite and copper (not visible on the foto). Width of the slag: 5,5 cm. ñera!, fayalite, a common phase in slags from later periods, is missing. Instead, Cu- and Cu/Fe-oxides like cuprite, tenorite and delafossite are typical predominant constituents and are reason for major losses of copper in the slag. They indícate a fi ring under lew reducing conditions. This is -typical for smelting processes in small crucibles. We conclude from the texture and the phase content of these early slags that it never was the primary goal of smelting processes to produce a liquid slag. Regarding the high copper content of the ores available it was probably much more the intention, to reduce ore, to liquify the metal and to sepárate it from the hostrock, which by chance might or might not have reached the liquid state [26]. A mechanical separation of copper by crushing and grinding the slag was a common practice for metal recovery. 6. THE COPPER: VARYING QUALITY OF METAL IN DIFFERENT PERIODS Slags use to contain inclusions of copper which we selected out for metallography and chemical analyses (electrón microprobe analysis and ICP-OES) to characteiize the metal produced. We investigated this aspect in order to better distinguish between na tural impurities and deliberately alloying practices in later studies of metal artefacts. Excellent field conditions enabled us to differentiate between smelting sites from different periods, and, therefore, between copper produced e.g. during the EBA and the Iron Age (figure 8). 430 • 1 t ! 10000-^/9 0,01 J 0.001 0.0001 J 0.00001 0^ 'ídO ir] Pb Zn Ni Co Copper 1 Chalcolithic 2 Early Bronze Age 3 Iron Age Ores: BMl Peinan DLS r~] Peinen MBS ^'gure 8. InlerquartHe runfies and medians <>f sevi-ral trace elements in ores and copper prilts froni slogs Jront the Peinan urea (normalized to Cu = 100). Note the varyinfi concentrations of elements in cop- P^ffrom dijferent periods. Basically, copper ores and copper from Peinan are rcmarkably puré in other ores and metáis in the eastem Mediterrancan. Inclusions of cuprita of ^alfides are very low in the metal, but occasionaiiy we observe inclusions of ir®"" Phosphides which are not uncommon in copper produced from sedimentary ore d®' Posits. Looking more into details, we observed varying concentrations of minor- and trace elements in the metal. This is caused by the exploitation of various parts of the deposit, and by the technological development of furnaces. Due to the use of ®res fr om the MBS, the lead concentrations are rather low in EBAI copper; we observe an lacrease up to a few percent of this element (i.e. an enrichment by a factor of lO^O) copper from the 3"^ and P' millennium, when ores from the DLS were minad. the other hand, concentrations in copper of iron and zinc are primarily inflne*^' C6d by technological aspects. Their distribution in slag or metal is a function of th® ^tlox-conditions, i.e. the oxygen concentration in the gas atmosphere of the furnace. ^fíh iron- and zinc-contents in the Iron Age copper, therefore, may be expiained hy ^®ag reducing firing conditions caused by a new construction of smelting furnaces. While EBa i crucibles and natural draught furnaces of the EBA II-IV operated under ®|Tatic, but rather low reducing conditions [27], better controlled strong reducing conthe°"^ ^ere achieved in later periods by the use of bellows and tuyeres. They caused ^ » Precipitation of a few percent of metallic iron. High amounts of iron in copper» cases even iron objects were reported from Iron Age Timna. In contrast to Peinan» III Congreso Nacional de Arqueometría 431 where manganese ore constitutes the prevailing hostrock, iron-(hyd-)oxides are associated with copper ore there. Gale et al. [28] convincingly demonstrated by lead isotope analyses on ores, copper- and iron-artefacts how iron production was developed from the metallurgy of copper. 7. LEAD ISOTOPE ABUNDANCE RATIOS OF COPPER FROM FEINAN To trace the distribution of exported Peinan copper and to reconstruct ancient tradeways, a series of ores and metal inclusions from slags were analyzed for their lead isotope abundance ratios at the Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry at Mainz. Herewith, any problems related to trace element variations in the ore deposit and on the way from ore to metal can be avoided. It was a major advantage to analyze copper prills in slags from well dated smelting sites, because they are better representative than single ore samples. We made two observations which are characteristic. The fi rst is a large range of compositions of lead isotope abundance ratios in copper ores as a result of the multistage origin of the deposit. This variation is identical with Timna, but the "Timna/Peinanfield can easily be separated from other ore district in the eastem Mediterranean (figure 9). Second, and this is a useful tool to distinguish between copper from the two deposits, is a cluster of lead isotopes in all different abundance ratios of ores from the DLS. This is identical with all copper prills analyzed from the EBA and Iron Ages. It fully supports the field evidence: mining activities during these peri ods focussed exclusively on this ore horizon which was widely exposed to the surface in the whole Peinan area. At Timna, the corresponding Timna formation is ex posed to the surface by one very small outcrop at Givat Sasgon [29]. Any compositions of metal objects, therefore, that match the DLS and the copper derived from this formation, with a high degree of probability has its origin in Peinan rather than in Timna. 8. EXPORT OF COPPER ORES AND COPPER The brilliant green and blueish coloured copper ores from Peinan were utilized and traded since the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Period at the S''' millennium BC. At that time a new fashion emerged in the eastem Mediterranean. The coulour red, utilized since the Paleolithic, changed to green, and abundant fí nds of green beads, figures, and cosmetics were made in settlements. Among these "greenstones" were minerals such as amazonite, turquois, Cr-apatite, Cr-calcite, and in the Levant also secondary copper ores. They were identified easily by X-ray diffraction and petrographic analyses. In case of Cu-silicates, their origin from Peinan could be determined with a high degree of probability, because they are widespread exposed to the surface. At other deposits, these minerals are either very rare or do not occur. Beads and other materials made of Cu-silicates were found, for instance, at Basta, Beidha, and at Ain Ghazal, at Jericho (figure 1), and even at Yiftahel in Galilee. They 432 o HAVPnLWi III CoNCRiiso Nacional df. Arqufometría 433 Z14 Z12 Z10 zoe zoe Z04 2°8pb/2oepb Fenan und Timna Vi ' +■44-+7 + .-¿1 O / I y I /• K /' /Q> y Zypem 1 Ergani Maden • \J --r" ^ ^ ^ I A V'' ^ ( Anatoiien und Agáis Zypom2^>'' / ✓'' ' / " ¿-Keban / » * / / ' » ' I i ' * * / * ' ' 3 / m ^ I ^ ✓ * ✓ _ Saudl-Arabian _ * Saudí-Arabien • Sinai 2O7pb/20epb 0.82 0.84 0.86 o.sa a9o Figure 9. Lead isotope abitndance ratios of copper ores from ihe Wadi Araba (aii symhois e.xcept fi lled circles and asterisks). They define the "Feinan-Timna-field" wbieh is diff'erent from all oíber compositions known from Saudi-Arahia and ore deposits in ¡he Near Fast. are evidence that the Peinan district wa.s embeddcd in a far reaching trading network. The tradition of trading ores from Peinan continued until the 5"' and 4'*' millennium BC when the earliest remains of extractive metallurgy appcar in chalcolithic settlements of the Beer Sheva basin. This indicates that the monopol for copper was in this re gión, in a considerable distance to the source, and it points to a domestic mode produetion of copper. On the other hand, the distribution of Peinan copper ores was limited to the southem Levant. As yet, there is no evidence of a further reaching trade of ores from there. Copper from Peinan is probably also among the 400 metíii objects of the famous Jadean Desert Hoard from Nahal Mishmar. It is dated to the first half of the 4"" mil- ^nium BC. The artefacts of this hoard are basicaliy divided in two groups of objects ' u consists of "prestige items" such as crowns, scepters and aceheads; the second consists of "tools" such as axes, adzes and chisels. While the "prestige items" are made of an exotic copper-arsenic-antimony- alloy, the "tools" were cast from puré copper with a low concentration of trace elements. This seems surprising, and one would expect the "tools" to be made of harder alloys instead of relatively soft copper. However, the main reasons to manufacture the "prestige items" probably were the extremely low melting point of the alloys which considerably improved the casting qualities, and aesthetic reasons. We can defínitely exelude that the metal of the prestige items" results from local sources. The analyses of hundreds of ores and cop per prills from slags in Timna, Peinan, and the Sinai peninsula demónstrate that such alloys were not smelted from local ores. However, the chemical signature of the "tools" matches the one of the copper ores from the Wadi Arabah -Timna and Peinan-, and the analyses of lead isotope abundance ratios point to a possible origin from Peinan. This observation is supported by indirect evidence of 5"' millennium BC mining activities and the metal production around 3500 BC at Wadi Pidan 4. The "tools" may principally also result from Timna-ores which, even to a lesser extent, were traded during the 4"' millennium BC to Tell Abu Matar in the Beer Sheba basin, but mainly to Tell Maqass near Aqaba [30]. The evidence of chalcolithic copper smelting at Timna itself, however, is still heavily debated. Copper itself was exported from Peinan not before the Early Bronze Age II at the beginning of the 3*^ millennium BC. During this period, copper was produced in large amounts and reached an "Industrial Stage". It took place in the vicinity of the ore de posits, as evidenced by numerous mines and smelting sites. Tin bronzes were traded. Metallurgy inside habitation sites was, as a rule, limited to manufacturing processes [30]. The market for Peinan-copper again was in the west. Recent excavations by Levy et al. [22] brought to light perhaps the largest EBA copper factory of the Near East at Hamra Ifdan. This site seemed to have been not only the center of copper processing and casting of the entire Peinan area. In addition, it was probably the con trol ling point, a checkpoint for the export of copper to the west. This discovery is most interesting, because it completes the fí eld evidence as mentioned before: The EBA copper mining and smelting activities at Peinan, i.e. the primary production, is the largest known so far in the Near East. We can demónstrate that Peinan copper was exported in large quantities again to settlements and to the EBA II/III cities in the west and in the north. In contrast to problems of provenancing which exist for chalcolithic copper by the variaty of lead isotope abundance ratios, we now are able to follow more comfortable the distribu tion of Peinan copper. The reason is the cluster of isotope compositions of ores from the DLS which was exclusively exploited during this period. I mentioned before arguments of the field evidence. An excellent example are the copper objects from Arad, an EBII city near the southwestem edge of the Dead Sea. We analyzed 21 awls, axes, and chisels. With but a few exceptions, the chemical and lead isotopic composition of these objects were identical with copper smelted during the EBA in the Peinan area (figure 10, [10]). We observe a much better conformity of these data than it was the case with Nahal Mishmar. This í ' ' ■ : i¡ I ■ I I 434 A\mnAS Hauftmasx 208 Pb 206 JO. l^ad 'Soiope abundance fotios of copper ^'"tefacis from Arad ond the Sinai. The lead isotope <^omposition in all but two copper °'^efacts from Arad and the Sinai " "^"^yatible with an from Peinan, ' ^ all copper ores ^^nai analyzed can be ruled out (from [JO]}. 2.140 2.120 2.100 2.080 2.060 2.040 Pb ★ metal • slag • Feinan O ore-MBS 4^ ore-DLS "jír ore-MBS Abu Kusheiba A ore Sinai 4^ Arad artifacts -} ^CD * CD A A O 207 Pb 206 Pb L_ 0.82 0.84 0.86 0.88 l^caused by the exclusive exploitation of the DLS ore formation which is characterized P''onounced homogeneity in its chemical and isotopic composition. We can not exelude that the objects from Arad may have their origin in Timna. This, is unlikely for two reasons. Finst, the ore district of Peinan is closer to Arad, y about 70 km away. Timna, in the southwestern part of the Arabah, is nearly 130 fr om Arad. Second, the ore formation of the dolomite-limestone-shale unit is ex- "^sively exposed to the surface at Peinan; at Timna, in contrast, there are only a 'y small outcrops of this formation. Obviously, copper was produced here only in quantities. Rothenberg and Shaw [291 de.scribed just a small mine, Timna 250, lat ^ ^"^elting site, Timna 149 at Givat Sasgon, which is dated to the EBA IV, i-e. than the fl ourishing period of Arad. In any case it can be excluded that the Arad ^'atrading . .. .... ^y Beith-Arieh [32]. and - iiuuiiMiiii^ w. ,,, any case, II can mai ' trading center of copper from the Sinai peninsula, as suggested by Amiran [31] 1/ * III Congreso Nacional de Arqueometría 9. BIBLIOGRAPHY 435 [1] Gowland, W., 1899, The Early Metallurgy of Copper, Tin and Iron in Europe, as Illustrated by Ancient Remains and the Primitive Processes Survived in Japan. Archaeologia 56, 267-322. [2] Zschocke, K. and Preuschen, E., 1932, Das urzeitliche Bergbaugebiet ven Mühlbach- Bischofshofen. Mat. Urgeschichte Óster., Heft 6. [3] Tylecote, R.F., 1962, Metallurgy in Archaeology. London. [4] Rothenberg, B., 1973, Das Tal der biblischen Kupfermmen. Lübbe, Bergisch-Gladbach. 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