On Early Bronze Age Copper Bar Ingots from the Southern Levant

Abstract

We report on late Early Bronze Age (crescent-shaped) copper bar ingots from Khirbat Hamra Ifdan, Faynan, Jordan, from Har Yeruham in the central Negev, and from a stray find hoard from the Hebron Hills. All these ingots are composed of pure copper, with remarkably constant phase content and texture as well as concentrations of trace elements and lead isotope abundance ratios. We suggest the origin of these ingots to be the copper district of Faynan, Jordan. There are two reasons for the almost identical composition of the ingots. First, the Dolomite-Limestone-Shale Unit (Burj) that was mined during this time period in Faynan is characterized by a homogeneously composed copper mineralization. Second, copper lumps and prills, as well as copper-rich slags delivered from various smelting sites in this area to the central copper workshop of Khirbat Hamra Ifdan, were commonly remelted and recycled. This resulted in a characteristic cluster-fingerprint of Early Bronze Age Faynan copper, which was also identified in numerous bar ingots found elsewhere in the southern Levant.

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