Up the Wadi: Development of an Iron Age Industrial Landscape in Faynan, Jordan

Abstract

In 2014, the Edom Lowlands Regional Archaeology Project renewed excavations at Khirbat al-Jariya (KAJ), an Iron Age copper smelting site in Faynan, Jordan. Located roughly 3 km from the prominent smelting center Khirbat en-Nahas (KEN), KAJ was an integral component of Early Iron Age (ca. 1200-800 B.C.) copper production in Faynan, one of the largest copper ore deposits in the southern Levant. To date, the site had only been investigated by surveys and limited excavation; the 2014 excavations opened two areas (the largest extant building and a slag mound sounding) to explore the social dynamics and temporal intricacies of copper production. The excavation results, detailed site remapping, paleobotanical analysis, and new radiocarbon dates suggest KAJ more rapidly developed into a large-scale copper production center than previously believed, likely as a strategic expansion to the industry at KEN. This reinterpretation sheds new light on the development of the Iron Age industrial landscape in Faynan.

Fuel exploitation and environmental degradation at the Iron Age copper industry of the Timna Valley, southern Israel

“…the salt tree and Mediterranean saltwort) in the salinas (salt marshes), while closer to oases other varieties of larger trees (including tamarisks, jujube, and Sodom’s apple) and date palms grew. A similar phenomenon was observed in the charcoal studies conducted at the Wadi Faynan copper smelting sites, where it was generally observed that the ancient smelters gathered their fuels from the immediate vicinity of the smelting sites 69 – 74 , though, unlike Timna, Faynan benefits from a greater abundance of water and vegetation due to its location at the base of the Edomite Plateau (Fig. 1 ).…”

“…Moreover, even if roots are left out of the equation, repeated cuttings of plants above the root line, such as in the case of excessive cropping, will severely reduce a plants vitality and ability to produce fresh growth 116 :171 . Pruning for the sake of sustainability, as has been suggested at Faynan 73 , 74 , may have been an option for the relatively fast-growing white broom; however, in the case of acacia, the slow growing nature of this taxon makes this an unlikely scenario. In the case of most members of the Amaranthaceae family, pruning or coppicing would likewise not be an advantageous means of wood sourcing for industrial charcoal production, as many of their branches do not achieve a tremendous volume on their own and the tedium of selecting those branches would produce very little payoff.…”

“…During the Iron Age, date palms were certainly relied upon for their fruits, as numerous date seeds were found during recent excavations 6 , 53 . The pruned portions of the plants, which were probably cultivated within the oases, may have been selected for fuel, as was suggested for the Iron Age sites in Faynan 74 ; however, at Faynan, with its greater access and proximity to water and vegetation, such agricultural practices would have been possible much closer to the smelting sites than at Timna. It is also worth raising the possibility that the palms, which are often used as support beams and roofs for tents when other sources of straight beams are unavailable 122 , derived from the abandoned smelting and mining camps that would have been found throughout the valley when only Site 30 was active.…”

The Desert’s Role in the Formation of Early Israel and the Origin of Yhwh

“…Qain (Qeni) was not only the name of a desert tribe, but also the name of a town in Judah (Joshua 15:57). "'Ir Naḥash" ("City of Serpent/Copper") and "Gay' Ḥarashim" ("Valley of Smiths") are identified as the two largest copper smelting camps at the Punon/Feinan area (e.g., Glueck 1970, 98;Aharoni 1979, 36;Levy, Najjar, and Ben-Yosef 2014;Liss et al 2020) but are also the names of clans in Judah (1Chronicles 4:12, 14). "Mount 'Amaleq," in the land of Ephraim (Judges 15:15), is obviously named after the desert tribe from which the tribe of Ephraim actually stemmed (see above).…”

Integrating Digital Datasets into Public Engagement through ArcGIS StoryMaps

“…The current version of The Kingdom of Copper StoryMap is aimed at telling the story of how copper production in Faynan was able to lead to the development of complex society in the region during the Iron Age and of the archaeological methods used to interpret the region's archaeological record (e.g., Liss et al 2020). The first part of the StoryMap introduces readers to the Faynan region with an emphasis on its geographic location.…”