Archaeologists overturn ancient beliefs about King Solomon’s mines

Copper production associated with mines Biblical King Solomon They probably did not harm the workers involved – and pose no threat to local residents today.

That’s the conclusion of a new study that upends a decades-old hypothesis about the harms of ancient smelting practices.

“We have proven that this is not true,” said paper author and archaeologist Professor Erez Ben-Yosef of Tel Aviv University, adding that the contamination is very local.

“It is likely that only those working directly in the kiln experienced inhalation of toxic fumes, while the soil is perfectly safe a short distance away.”

in He studiesthe researchers analyzed two main ones copper Production sites in the Timna Valley in Israel, one of which is Iron Age– And the era of King Solomon – and the second adjacent one, which is about 1,500 years old.

At both sites, the team collected hundreds of soil samples for chemical analysis, the results of which allowed them to create high-resolution maps of the presence of local heavy metals.

They found that pollution levels around copper mining sites in the Timna Valley were very low, and were concentrated only in places where ancient smelting furnaces were located.

“For example, the concentration of lead – the main pollutant in metallurgical industries – drops to less than 200 parts per million a few meters from the furnace,” Ben Youssef said.

“By comparison, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines industrial areas as safe for workers at 1,200 ppm and residential areas as safe for children at 200 ppm.”

According to Ben Youssef, the heavy metals are effectively trapped in the form of slag – stone waste from kilns – and other industrial waste, meaning they are unable to cause harm by leaking into the local environment.

The results match those previously recorded from the Wadi Faynan region in Jordan. In that study — which was led by Hebrew University — the team studied the skeletons of 36 Iron Age individuals who lived at the mining site of Feynan. The team found that only three of the skeletons showed signs of contamination.

Together, the studies challenge the long-held belief that the ancient copper industry caused widespread copper pollution, which the team says lacks strong supporting evidence.

“There was a trend in the 1990s presenting ancient copper production as the first case of industrial pollution,” said study co-author and archaeologist at Tel Aviv University Omri Yagel.

“Such statements grab headlines and attract research grants, but they unnecessarily highlight modern pollution problems over the past.”

Furthermore, Yagel points out, previous research has tended to use the word “pollution” to describe any trace at all of ancient metallurgy, leading to confusion about the extent of the impact of such activities.

In fact, the archaeologist explains, even when metal production became widespread and integral to civilization, it was only toxic lead — and not many other metals — that led to widespread pollution.

“As researchers confronting the extreme environmental challenges of our time, such as climate change, we often tend to look for similar problems in the past, or assume that environmental damage was an inevitable consequence of human activity since the agricultural revolution,” Jagel added. .

However, he concluded: “We must be careful. While we may call some bits of slag on the ground ‘pollution’, we must not confuse this local waste with regional or global environmental pollution.”

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reference

Yagiel, O., Greiner, A., Ondriček, W., and Ben-Yosef, E. (2024). The copper industry before the Roman era had no polluting effect on the global environment. Scientific reports, 14(1), 29675. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-80939-5