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King Solomon's Mines

rynner2

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Jordan copper mines from biblical times could be King Solomon’s
Mark Henderson, Science Editor

An ancient copper works in Jordan may have been the location of the fabled King Solomon’s mines, new archaeological investigations suggest.

The dig at Khirbat al-Nahas, once a thriving copper production centre in the Faynan district, about 30 miles (50km) south of the Dead Sea, has found evidence that it dates back to the 10th century BC, making it at least two centuries older than was thought. The new date means that the mine was almost certainly active during the time of the biblical Jewish kings David and Solomon.

Scientists who conducted the excavations are now working to establish whether the kings controlled the copper mine at this time. “Given the unambiguous dating evidence presented here for industrial-scale metal production at Khirbat al-Nahas during the 10th and 9th century BC in ancient Edom, the question of whether King Solomon’s copper mines have been discovered in Faynan returns to scholarly discourse,” the researchers said.

King Solomon’s mines were made famous by the 19th century novel of the same name by H. Rider Haggard. Biblical scholars and archaeologists have long speculated about whether the legend was founded on real mines, and an American archaeologist named Nelson Glueck claimed in the 1930s to have discovered their site in Faynan, though this was dismissed in the 1980s. The new dig, led by Thomas Levy, of the University of California, San Diego, and Mohammed Najjar, of Jordan’s Friends of Archaeology, suggests that Glueck might have been on to something after all.

In 2006, the team began to dig through more than 20 feet of slag and industrial debris at Khirbat al-Nahas, meaning “ruins of copper” in Arabic. The lowest layers have yielded fresh radiocarbon dating evidence of its age.

Date seeds and sticks of tamarisk and other woods used for charcoal for smelting have produced dates in the 9th and 10th centuries BC, which are consistent with the likely dates of the reigns of David and Solomon, his son. Details of the research are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

What remains less certain for now is whether the Khirbat al-Nahas mine was actually controlled by the kingdom of Israel at this time. It lies in a region associated with the biblical kingdom of Edom, which was an enemy of ancient Israel.

Even if the mine was not controlled by the Jewish kings, the fresh date is important to biblical scholarship. It indicates firmly that the kingdom of Edom was sufficiently organised to have been a rival to Israel, a point that has been disputed by some historians.

Dr Levy said: “Now, with data from the first large-scale stratified and systematic excavation of a site in the southern Levant to focus specifically on the role of metallurgy in Edom, we have evidence that complex societies were indeed active in the 10th and 9th centuries BC and that brings us back to the debate about the historicity of the Hebrew Bible narratives related to this period.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/commen ... 026509.ece
 
More on the mines. Full text at link.

ScienceDaily (Oct. 28, 2008) — Did the Bible's King David and his son Solomon control the copper industry in present-day southern Jordan? Though that remains an open question, the possibility is raised once again by research reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Led by Thomas Levy of UC San Diego and Mohammad Najjar of Jordan's Friends of Archaeology, an international team of archaeologists has excavated an ancient copper-production center at Khirbat en-Nahas down to virgin soil, through more than 20 feet of industrial smelting debris, or slag. The 2006 dig has brought up new artifacts and with them a new suite of radiocarbon dates placing the bulk of industrial-scale production at Khirbat en-Nahas in the 10th century BCE – in line with biblical narrative on the legendary rule of David and Solomon. The new data pushes back the archaeological chronology some three centuries earlier than the current scholarly consensus.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 174545.htm
 
A new article proposes the idea that King Solomon's mines were in Spain. Mainstream scholars are skeptical of his claims.
King Solomon's mines in Spain? Not likely, experts say.

A maritime archaeologist has put forward a bold theory — that King Solomon, a king of Israel who controlled a vast amount of wealth according to the Hebrew Bible, financed Phoenician mining expeditions to Spain. However, archaeologists and historians not involved with the researcher's work are skeptical.

Sean Kingsley, director of the Wreck Watch consultancy company, published his theory recently in Wreckwatch Magazine, a publication that he edits, putting forward several arguments to support this idea. His arguments range from Phoenician mining operations along rivers, to biblical names at areas associated with mining, to passages in the Hebrew Bible that seem to link Solomon to both the seafaring Phoenicians and a potential Spanish city known for its mineral wealth in the Hebrew Bible. ...

Archaeological excavations over the past century have unearthed the remains of Phoenician mining operations near the Rio Tinto river in southwestern Spain, he said. A number of modern-day locations along that Spanish river have biblical names — such as "Solomon's Hill," Kingsley said. Furthermore, he claims that silver artifacts found in Israel have patterns of lead isotopes (versions of the same element with a different number of neutrons) that indicate the silver came from Spain. ...

Several archaeologists and historians not affiliated with Kingsley's work told Live Science they were skeptical about his claims. While no one doubted that the Phoenicians had a presence in Spain, the scholars noted that there is no direct evidence that links King Solomon to the region.

"It is still not even clear that there was a Solomonic kingdom," said Steven Weitzman, director of the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. ...

Additionally, "the Bible never mentions anything about mines or mining. That is something later readers inferred or projected onto the story," Weitzman said. ...

Kingsley is writing a book on his research and plans to publish a journal article in the future, he said.
FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/king-solomon-mining-expedition-claim.html

Kingsley's article is in the Spring 2021 issue of WreckWatch online magazine:

https://www.wreckwatchmag.com

Access to the magazine is free, but registration is required to access the articles.
 
A new article proposes the idea that King Solomon's mines were in Spain. Mainstream scholars are skeptical of his claims.

Interesting. It isn't impossible, the Phoenicians did get around!

It's in the same vein as Joseph of Arimathea bringing his nephew to southern England :twothumbs:
 
It is believed that King Solomon traded with lands far distant...India and even Central America.

This could explain the Iberian silver found in Israel.
 
... This could explain the Iberian silver found in Israel.
As noted in the Live Science article, a researcher who's examined isotopic analyses of silver trade goods claims Iberian silver didn't arrive in Israel until after the time of Solomon. Here's the published report:

Lead isotopes in silver reveal earliest Phoenician quest for metals in the west Mediterranean
Tzilla Eshel, Yigal Erel, Naama Yahalom-Mack, Ofir Tirosh, Ayelet Gilboa
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Mar 2019, 116 (13) 6007-6012
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1817951116

FULL REPORT: https://www.pnas.org/content/116/13/6007
 
As noted in the Live Science article, a researcher who's examined isotopic analyses of silver trade goods claims Iberian silver didn't arrive in Israel until after the time of Solomon.


The report dates the earliest known Iberian silver in Israel to 70 or so years after Solomon's reign.

I keep an open mind....there may be more silver yet to find.

Or maybe not.
 
For me, archaeologically, that is close enough to suggest very reasonably that it could be happening 70 years earlier.

So... what you're saying is, Queen Victoria could potentially have landed on the moon?

Oh dear - I'm recklessly extrapolating again, aren't I?
 
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