AMMAN — At the beginning of the 10th century BC, there was a sudden change, with an exponential increase in the scale and technological sophistication of copper production.
The intensity and industrial scale of this production is marked by the three metres of metallurgical debris in Layer M3 of the Khirbat an-Nahas slag mound, noted Argentinian archaeologist Juan Tebes from the Catholic University of Argentina.
"That industrial change of M3 is clearly dated to the early 10th century BC, in both calibrated and re-calibrated radiocarbon date," the archaeologist said.
"Across Faynan, large-scale installations were embedded into a complex organisation of copper production involving mining at several locations, ore and charcoal production, transportation to production centres, ore and flux processing, furnace construction and operation using tuyères and bellow pipes which were further developed during the 10th century BC, secondary processing such as refining impure copper, and slag processing and recycling," Tebes elaborated.
This was accompanied by a sudden and marked improvement in the control of the copper-production technology. A key measure of this is the copper content in slag –the more copper, the less efficient the technology.
The highest copper content in slag was found in Khirbat an-Nahas Layers M4 and M5, dating between the 13th and 11th centuries BC, when production was simple and small-scale.
According to Tebes, there is a marked drop in copper content from Layer M3, dating to the early 10th century BC, reflecting much improved technology, and the control of the technology and copper content continued to be improved in the second half of the 10th century.
Furthermore, "Several monumental buildings were constructed at Khirbat an-Nahas in the 10th century BC: A fortress with a four-chamber gatehouse, building R [with five rooms, stairwell and second floor], and Building T [a five-room structure with a tower and central courtyard].
These have been interpreted as elite residences for those controlling copper production, with the fortress “an expression of power and concern for defence of the copper industry”, according to the American archaeologist Professor Thomas Levy.
"Also built were the Area W residential/storage building, and structures concerned mostly with metal production rather than administration: Area F, a building inside the Khirbat an-Nahas fortress devoted to the re-melting and casting of copper, and Area S, a specialised ground-stone processing complex and copper-production area," Tebes underlined.
The archaeologist added that apart from Area S, all the new buildings were constructed in areas not utilised previously.
The construction was carefully planned- in Areas A, R, S and T, layers of crushed slag were levelled to provide foundations for the buildings. This crushed slag was not the remains of localised copper-production activities, but material brought in specifically for use as a foundation, Tebes said.
At the same time, at Khirbat al-Jariya, the largest stone building at the site, Building 2, was constructed, with between four and seven rooms, interpreted as either for slag-processing or supervision of operations, perhaps similar to Area S at Nahas, the archaeologist noted.
"Pottery suddenly appears in vast quantities at the beginning of the 10th century BC, reflecting a very different and more extensive type of occupation, and different cultural approaches to storage, cooking and dining: Virtually all of the c. 2500 diagnostic sherds from Khirbat an-Nahas come from the 10th and 9th century BC levels, including all 216 examples of painted pottery," Tebes explained.
The archaeologist noted that imported pottery appears only in 10th and 9th century BC contexts – imports from the western Negev, Cypriot juglets, and Qurayyah ware – demonstrating a wider international outlook, beyond the local of the previous period," Tebes underscored.
