Overview

Bibliography

The Timna valley was a site of copper mining from the Late Neolithic period through the modern era. Both types of copper ore in the valley's rock formations - copper carbonates and copper silicates - were exploited in antiquity. In addition to mining, copper smelting also took place in the valley, primarily during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Egyptian Dynasties (Late Bronze - early Iron I period). The visible architectural remains in the valley date from this period. Copper smelting during the earlier periods took place outside the valley, along the Arabah.

The copper smelting sites were first identified in 1845 by the British explorer J. Petherick. N. Glueck, based on his dating of the pottery, first attributed the mining operations of the valley to King Solomon, but B. Rothenberg and others later dated the mines and smelting camps from the fourth millennium to the Roman period. Rothenberg lead a series of excavations at numerous sites within the Timna valley between 1964 and 1990 on behalf of the Ha'aretz Museum of Tel Aviv. Site 2, a Ramesside era smelting camp and shrine, was excavated in during the period of 1964-1966 and 1981. Site 200, which contained a New Kingdom period shrine to Hathor, was excavated in 1969 and 1974.