Timna Valley

The Timna Valley (תִּמְנָע, timˈna(ʕ)) is located in southern Israel in the southwestern Arava/Arabah, approximately north of the Gulf of Aqaba and the city of Eilat. The area is rich in copper ore and has been mined since the 5th millennium BCE. During early antiquity, the area would have been part of the Kingdom of Edom. A large section of the valley, containing ancient remnants of copper mining and ancient worship, is encompassed in a recreation park. Ramon Airport is located near the entrance to the Timna Valley. Copper has been mined in the area since the 6th or 5th millennium BCE. Archaeological excavation indicates that the copper mines in Timna Valley were probably part of the Kingdom of Edom and worked by the Edomites, described as biblical foes of the Israelites, during the 10th century BCE, the hypothesized period of biblical King Solomon. The current dating came into being with a new understanding regarding nomads and their ability for an advanced polity and advanced technologies, shrugging off years of architectural bias among archeologists. Mining continued by the Israelites and Nabataeans through to the 1st and 2nd centuries CE during the Roman period, and then, after the 7th-century Arab conquest, by the Umayyad Caliphate, until the copper ore became scarce. The copper was used for ornaments, but more importantly for stone cutting, as saws, in conjunction with sand. The recent excavations dating copper mining to the 10th century BCE also discovered what may be the earliest camel bones with signs of domestication found in Israel or even outside the Arabian peninsula, dating to around 930 BCE. This is seen as evidence by the excavators that the stories of Abraham, Joseph, Jacob and Esau were written or rewritten after this time, seeing that the Biblical books frequently reference travelling with caravans of domesticated camels. Scientific attention and public interest was aroused in the 1930s, when Nelson Glueck attributed the copper mining at Timna to King Solomon (10th century BCE) and named the site "King Solomon's Mines".