King Solomon’s Mines? A Re-Assessment of Finds in the Arabah

Abstract

My aim in this lecture is to reopen the question of the date of copper-mining operations in the southern Arabah. Until the 1960's it was believed, on the basis of Nelson Glueck's investigations, that mining and smelting camps in the Arabah, at Timna and elsewhere, were worked primarily during the time of Solomon and later, from the 10th century to the 6th century BC. In the 1960's, the Arabah Expedition, led by Beno Rothenberg, produced evidence for a much earlier dating. Dr. Rothenberg's book on the excavations at Timna, published in 1972, exploited the popular biblical associations of the site in its title -Timna: Valley of the Biblical Copper Mines -but it actually refuted that title by redating the supposedly Solomonic mining activity to the 14th-12th centuries BC, and affirming: 'There is no evidence whatsoever of any copper mining or smelting activities in the western Arabah later than the twelfth century BC until the renewal of the industry in the Roman period.' 1 This paper will question the accuracy of this statement, and will urge greater care in dating the finds from the Arabah. It will indicate various lines of evidence which strongly imply occupation and mining activity between the 10th and 6th centuries BC. I A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEBATE The Timna Valley lies 30 km due north of modern Elat, on the west side of the southern Arabah.