Industrial-scale copper production at Faynan (Khirbat en-Nahas)
Producción industrial de cobre en Faynan (Khirbat en-Nahas)
- Date
- c. 950 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Khirbat en-Nahas, Wadi Faynan, Jordan
- Credited to
- Communities of ancient Edom (Faynan)
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Smelting complex with tens of thousands of tons of slag in Wadi Faynan, with a fortress and a mining population. Its tenth-century BC radiocarbon dates show industrial-scale copper mining earlier than previously thought.
The dates (Levy et al., 2008) triggered a strong low-versus-high chronology debate tied to the historicity of the kingdom of David and Solomon; the industrial scale of production is accepted, its political interpretation is not.
What it led to
- a copper industry able to supply the eastern Mediterranean in the early Iron Age
- debate over the existence of complex society in 10th-century BC Edom
- a reference for Levantine archaeometallurgy