The Iron Age copper industrial complex: A preliminary study of the role of ground stone tools at Khirbat en-Nahas, Jordan
Abstract
The first industrial revolution in the southern Levant crystallized during the Iron Age when copper production reached scales never before seen in this part of the Middle East. Ever since copper ore was first smelted during the Chalcolithic period, the Arabah valley, and its widespread distribution of copper mineralization, was the main source for copper ore in the region. The main ore deposits are located in Timna (Israel) in the southern part of the valley, and some 105 km to the north, in the Faynan region (Jordan). Faynan is the largest copper ore resource zone in the southern Levant. Excavations at the Iron Age Faynan site of Khirbat en-Nahas and the recent final publication of that project have revealed peaks in industrial-scale production during the 10th and 9th centuries BCE. However, the role of ground stone tools in the Iron Age copper industry in Faynan has not been systematically presented. This paper presents a preliminary study of the ground stone assemblage from one excavation season at Khirbat en-Nahas, thereby highlighting the great potential for ground stone tools research at the site. Using the chaîne opératoire method of technological study, this paper takes a quantitative approach to the typological, material, and spatial distribution of ground stone artefacts at Khirbat en-Nahas to understand their role in copper production. Ethnoarchaeological study of hereditary bronze casting workshops in southern India provides a compelling model of how ground stone tools played a critical role in one of the most important dimensions of metal production in all periods - recycling - in an Iron Age copper factory.
References
Anfinset, N. 2011, Social and technological aspects of mining, smelting and casting copper: an ethnoarchaeological study from Nepal., Deutschen Bergbau-Museum, Bochum, 143p.
De Beaune, S. 2004, The invention of technology: Prehistory and cognition. Current Anthropology, 45(2): 139-162. doi:10.1086/381045
Buonasera, T. 2005, Fatty acid analysis of prehistoric burned rocks: A case study from central California. Journal of Archaeological Science, 32(6): 957-965. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2005.01.012
Daviau, P.M.M. 2002, Excavations at Tall Jawa, Jordan: The Iron Age Artefacts. Culture and History of the Ancient Near East Vol. 2., Brill, Leiden, 369p.
Ebeling, J.R. 2002, Why are ground stone tools found in Middle and Late Bronze Age burials? Near Eastern Archaeology, 65(2): 149-51. doi:10.2307/3210876
Ebeling, J.R., & Rowan, Y.M. 2004, The archaeology of the daily grind: Ground stone tool and food production in the southern Levant. Near Eastern Archaeology, 67(2):108-117. doi:10.2307/4132366
Fritz, V.1996, Ergebnisseeiner Sondage in Hirbet en-Nahas, Wadi el-'Araba (Jordanien). Zeitschrift des Deutschen Pälestina Vereins, 112: 1-9. (in German) (“Results of a test trench in Khirbat en-Nahas (Jordan)”)
Goren-Inbar, N., Sharon, G., Melamed, Y., & Kislev, M. 2002, Nuts, nut cracking, and pitted stones at Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov, Israel. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 99(4): 2455-2460. doi:10.1073/pnas.032570499
Hauptmann, A. 2007, The Archaeo-metallurgy of Copper - Evidence from Faynan, Jordan. Springer, New York, 388 p.
Higham, T., Plicht, J.V.D., Ramsey, C.B., Bruins, H.J., Robinson, M., & Levy, T.E. 2005, Radiocarbon dating of the Khirbet en-Nahas Site (Jordan) and Bayesian modeling of the results. In: The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating: Archaeology, Text and Science, (Levy, T.E., & Higham, T., Eds.), Equinox Publishing Ltd., London & Oakville: p. 164-178.
Levy, T.E., Adams, R.B., Najjar, M., Hauptmann, A., Anderson, J.D., Brandl, B., Robinson, M.A., & Higham, T. 2004, Reassessing the chronology of Biblical Edom: New excavations and 14C dates from Khirbat en-Nahas (Jordan). Antiquity, 78(302): 865-879. doi:10.1017/S0003598X0011350X
Levy, T. E., Ben-Yosef, E. & Najjar, M. 2012, New Perspectives on Iron Age Copper Production and Society in the Faynan Region, Jordan. In: Eastern Mediterranean Metallurgy and Metalwork in the 2nd Millennium BC (Kassianidou, V. & Papasavvas, G., Eds.), Oxbow Books, Oxford: p. 197-214.
Levy, T.E., Higham, T., Bronk-Ramsey, C., Smith, N.G., Ben-Yosef, E., Robinson, M., Münger, S., Knabb, K., Schulze, J.P., & Najjar, M. 2008a, High-precision radiocarbon dating and historical biblical archaeology in southern Jordan. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(43): 16460-16465. doi:10.1073/pnas.0804950105
Levy, T.E., Levy, A., Radhakrishna Sthapathy, D., Srikanda Sthapathy, D., & Swaminatha Sthapathy, D. 2008b, Masters of Fire: Hereditary Bronze Casters of South India. Veröffentlichungen aus dem Deutschen Bergbau-Museum Bochum Number 162, Deutschen Bergbau-Museum. Bochum, 144 p.
Levy, T.E., & Najjar, M. 2006, Edom and Copper: The emergence of Israel's rival. Biblical Archaeology Review, 32: 24-35, 70.
Levy, T.E., Najjar, M., & Ben-Yosef, E. 2014a, New Insights into the Iron Age Archaeology of Edom, Southern Jordan. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, Los Angeles, 1034 p.
Levy, T. E., Najjar, M., Higham, T., Arbel, Y., Muniz, A., Ben-Yosef, E., Smith, N.G., Beherec, M., Gidding, A.D., & Jones, I.W.N. 2014b, Excavations at Khirbat en-Nahas 2002-2009: Unearthing an Iron Age copper production center in the lowlands of Edom (southern Jordan). In: New Insights into the Iron Age Archaeology of Edom, Southern Jordan - Surveys, Excavations and Research from the Edom Lowlands Regional Archaeology Project (ELRAP). (Levy, T.E., Najjar, M., & Ben-Yosef, E., Eds.), Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, Los Angeles: p. 89-159.
Peterson, J.D. 2000, Ground stone as an inferential tool: An example from Tor al-Tareeq, Jordan. In: The Archaeology of the Wadi al-Hasa, Vol. 2. (Coinman, N.R., Ed.), Arizona State University, Arizona: p. 327-343.
Petit, L.P. 1999, Grinding implements and material found at Tall Dayr 'Alla, Jordan: Their place and role in archaeological research. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, 43:145-167.
Rabb'a, I. 1994, The geology of the Al Qurayqira (Jabal Hamrat Fidan). The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Natural Resources Authority Bulletin 28. 60p.
Rabb'a, I., Al-Tarawneh, K., Abu-Jassar, W., & Moumani, K.A. 1996, Atlas of granitic and associated rocks of the basement complexes of Southwest Jordan. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Natural Resources Authority Bulletin 32. 92p.
Vardi, J., Shilstein, S., Shalev, S., & Yekutieli, Y. 2008, The Early Bronze Age IV chipped and ground stone assemblage of ‘EnYahav and its relation to copper smelting activities. Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society, 38: 1-20. URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23386445
Webb, J. 2015, Identifying stone tools used in mining, smelting, and casting in Middle Bronze Age Cyprus. Journal of Field Archaeology, 40(1): 22-36. doi:10.1179/0093469014Z.000000000108
Wright, K. 1991, The origins and development of ground stone assemblages in Late Pleistocene Southwest Asia. Paléorient, 17(1): 19-45. doi:10.3406/paleo.1991.4537
Wright, K. 1992, Classification system for ground stone tools from the prehistoric Levant. Paléorient, 18(2):53-81. doi: 10.3406/paleo.1992.4573
Wright, K.I. 1994, Ground-stone tools and hunter-gatherer subsistence in southwest Asia: implications for the transition to farming. American Antiquity, 59(2): 238-263. doi:10.2307/281929
This is an Open Access journal. All material is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence, unless otherwise stated.
Please read our Open Access, Copyright and Permissions policies for more information.
