Copper-producing tech was likely a closely guarded secret

A new study by Tel Aviv University and the Israel Antiquities Authority indicates that a workshop for smelting copper ore once operated in the Neveh Noy neighborhood of Beer Sheva, the capital of the Negev Desert. The study, conducted over several years, began in 2017 in Beer Sheva when the workshop was first uncovered during an Israel Antiquities Authority emergency archeological excavation to safeguard threatened antiquities.

The new study also shows that the site may have made the first use in the world of a revolutionary apparatus: the furnace.

Dana Ackerfeld, Yael Abadi-Reiss, Omri Yagel, Yehudit Harlavan, Talia Abulafia, Dmitry Yegorov, Erez Ben-Yosef. Firing up the furnace: New insights on metallurgical practices in the Chalcolithic Southern Levant from a recently discovered copper-smelting workshop at Horvat Beter (Israel). Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2020; 33: 102578 DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102578

Recent discoveries at Horvat Beter (Beersheva, Israel) shed new light on the earliest phase of Southern Levantine metallurgy (second half of the 5th millennium BCE). Multiple fragments of furnaces, crucibles and slag were excavated, and found to represent an extensive copper smelting workshop located within a distinct quarter of a settlement. Typological and chemical analyses revealed a two-stage technology (furnace-based primary smelting followed by melting/refining in crucibles), and lead isotope analysis indicated that the ore originated exclusively from Wadi Faynan (MBS Formation), more than 100 km away. These observations strengthen previous suggestions that metallurgy in this region started with furnace-based technology (possibly not locally invented). Furthermore, the absence of any artifact related to the contemporary industry of copper-based alloys indicates a high degree of craft specialization, and together with other regional observations testifies to the important role of metallurgy in the society of the Beer-sheba Valley during this formative time.

Keywords: Archaeometallurgy, Copper smelting, Wadi Faynan, Ghassulian culture, Chalcolithic Southern Levant, Technological advancement, Metallurgical crucibles

Excavation location, Neveh Noy, Beer Sheva
Excavation location, Neveh Noy, Beer Sheva © Talia Abulafia, Israel Antiquities Authority

Highlingts

  • Chalcolithic (late 5th millennium BCE) copper smelting workshop was recently excavated in southern Israel.
  • Two-stage technological practice, primary smelting based on furnaces.
  • Exclusive usage of Faynan ores, located greater than 100 km away from the site.
  • Highly specialized technology, distinct and separate from the one based on alloys.
  • Technological diffusion into a society in which metal had a symbolic/cultic role.