According to a research team, the environmental pollution from the mining activity was spotty and minimal, and did not pose a danger to the residents of the area then or now
A new study by Tel Aviv University refutes the accepted scientific concepts according to which not only did the King Solomon mines harm the health of the workers in the ancient copper industry - but they continue to harm the health of the residents of the area. In the new study conducted at the copper mining sites in the Timna Valley, which date back to the 10th century BC and the days of Kings David and Solomon, the team of researchers carried out geochemical surveys, and found that the environmental pollution as a result of copper mining is spotty and minimal. In addition, the archaeologists from Tel Aviv reviewed previous studies , and found no evidence that the ancient copper industry polluted the earth.
The contamination of the ancient copper industry was preventable - much less than we thought
The research was conducted under the leadership of Prof. Erez Ben-Yosef, Dr. Omri Yigal, Willy Ondrachik and Dr. Aaron Griner From the Department of Archeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures by Jacob M. Alkov, in the Lester and Sally Antin Faculty of Humanities, and his results were published in the prestigious journal Scientific Reports from Nature.
"We are talking about two large copper mining sites in the Timna Valley, one from the Iron Age and King Solomon, and a nearby site that predates it by about 1,500 years," says Prof. Erez Ben-Yosef. "The research we conducted was unusual in its scope. We sampled hundreds of soil samples at both sites for chemical analyses, and created maps of the distribution of heavy metals in the area at a very high resolution. We found that the pollution levels at the copper mining sites in Timana are very low and limited to the location of the ancient furnaces. For example, the concentration of lead, which is the main pollutant in metal industries, Drops to less than 200 parts per million just a few meters away From the furnace. For comparison, the American Environmental Protection Agency defines a safe working environment at industrial sites as 1,200 parts per million, and 200 parts per million in an environment where children grow up."
The aforementioned new study contradicts a series of studies published since the 90s, which emphasize the contamination of the ancient copper industry. "We show that this is not true. The contamination is a point prevention, and probably only those who worked in the furnace itself suffered from inhaling toxic fumes. But not far from there the ground is completely safe," says Prof. Ben Yosef. According to him, the match that the team found between the distribution of copper and lead concentrations in the soil also indicates that the metals are 'trapped' in slag and other industrial waste in a way that makes it difficult for them to reach the soil and from there to plants and humans.
"Our research joins several new studies from the Wadi Pinan area in Jordan, which also indicate very low contamination. Timna and Pinan are ideal sites for this type of research because they have not been destroyed by modern mining, as in Cyprus for example, and because they are very dry and the leaching of the metals into the soil is minimal. In Pinan, a team Led by Prof. Yigal Aral from the Hebrew University, he examined skeletons of people who lived at the mining site during the Iron Age, and only three of The 36 that were tested showed some kind of contamination in the teeth.
at the excavation site
copper? Blame the lead industry
In addition to the chemical survey they carried out, the archaeologists from Tel Aviv University conducted a comprehensive literature review and pointed out that claims of global pollution in the pre-Roman period have nothing to rely on.
"In the 90s there was such a trend, to point to copper extraction as the first industrial pollution," says Dr. Omri Yegal, one of the leaders of the current study. . In addition, there is a tendency in the research literature to use the term 'pollution' to describe any remnant of ancient metallurgical activity, which has led to the false assumption that metal industries were destructive to man from their inception, which of course is not true. In times when metal production took place on a large scale and became an integral part of human civilization, it was the toxic lead industry that created global pollution, and not necessarily other metals. In a study from the 90s, it was claimed that copper remains were found in ice cores in Greenland, which allegedly flew in the atmosphere all the way there from sites like Timna, but this claim has not been confirmed in any other study since then. We as modern researchers living with the consequences of climate change have a built-in tendency to look for similar changes in the past as well, but we must not throw the baby out with the bathwater: we call some slag lying on the ground 'pollution', but we must not confuse point waste with regional or global environmental pollution." .
More of the topic in Hayadan:
- A historical discovery for researchers from Tel Aviv University: The King's Mines in Timna Park - from the days of King Solomon
- Not environmentally friendly back in the time of the Bible
- The metal workers in the mines of Timna lived like kings
- About 3,000 years ago, the Midianite ceramics were intended for ritual purposes in the thriving copper industry in Timna
