Tel Aviv University Research: Copper mines in the biblical Timna Valley excel
A study from Tel Aviv University dispelled ancient myths about King Solomon’s mines, revealing that ancient copper production in the Timna Valley caused limited and local environmental damage, and did not pose any danger to the region’s inhabitants in the past or today. The research conducted by Professor Erez Ben-Yosef and his team from the Department of Archeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at the Jacob M. Alco, was recently published in the journal Scientific Reports under the title “Pre-Roman Copper Industry Had No Polluting Impact on the Global Environment.”
The research team conducted geochemical studies at copper mining sites in the Timna Valley in the Arava Desert. “Our study was large-scale,” Ben Youssef said, according to Sci.News. “We took hundreds of soil samples from both sites to conduct chemical analyses, and create high-resolution maps of the presence of heavy metals in the area.”
By examining two major copper production sites – one from the Iron Age during the time of King Solomon and another nearby that is about 1,500 years old – the team sought to understand the environmental impact of ancient smelting practices. Ben Youssef explained: “We found that pollution levels in the copper mining sites in Timna are very low and are limited to the sites of old smelting furnaces.” As reported by SciTechDaily.
“The concentration of lead – the main pollutant in metallurgical industries – drops to less than 200 parts per million a few meters away from the furnace,” Ben Youssef noted. According to Phys.org. He compared this to modern safety standards, saying: “By comparison, the US Environmental Protection Agency defines industrial areas as safe for workers at 1,200 ppm and residential areas as safe for children at 200 ppm.”
The study challenges a series of research published since the 1990s suggesting that the ancient copper industry caused environmental pollution. “We have proven that this is not true. The pollution in Timna is very spatially restricted, and it is likely that only those working directly in the kiln experienced inhalation of toxic fumes, while the soil is completely safe a short distance away,” Ben Youssef said. . According to what was reported by Mirage News.
“Furthermore, the correspondence we found between the spatial distribution of copper and lead concentrations in soil also suggests that the metals are ‘trapped’ in slag and other industrial wastes – preventing them from seeping into the soil and affecting plants or humans.” Bin Youssef added.
The results are consistent with recent studies from the Wadi Faynan region in Jordan, which also indicate very low levels of pollution resulting from ancient metal production. In Faynan, a team led by Professor Yigal Erel of the Hebrew University examined 36 skeletons of people who lived at the mining site during the Iron Age. “Only three showed any trace of contamination in their teeth,” Ben Youssef said, according to Phys.org. “The rest were completely clean. We now present a similar picture for Timna.”
“There was a trend in the 1990s, which presented ancient copper production as the first case of industrial pollution,” explained Dr. Omri Yagel, a member of the research team, as reported by SciTechDaily. “Furthermore, the research literature tends to use the term ‘pollution’ to describe any trace of ancient mineral activity, and this has led to the incorrect assumption that mineral industries have been harmful to humans from their very beginnings – which is clearly untrue,” Yagel said.
“Such statements make headlines and attract research grants, but they unnecessarily highlight modern pollution problems over the past,” Yagel said, according to Mirage News. “As contemporary researchers grapple with the consequences of climate change, we have an inherent tendency to look for similar shifts in the past, but we must be careful,” he added.
“A study conducted in the 1990s claimed that traces of copper found in ice cores in Greenland had been transported through the atmosphere from sites like Timna,” Yagel said, according to Sci.News. “However, this claim has not been confirmed by any subsequent study.” He concluded: “We can call some pieces of slag thrown on the ground ‘pollution’, but we must not confuse this local waste with regional or global environmental pollution.”
Ben Youssef explained, “Timna and Finan are ideal locations for this type of research because they have not been affected by modern mining, as happened in Cyprus, for example, and thanks to their dry climate, the minerals in the soil are not washed out.” .
The article was written with the help of the News Analysis System.
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