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Copper Mines in the Time of Solomon

1 Chronicles 18:8: “From Tebah and Cun, towns that belonged to Hadadezer, David took a large quantity of bronze. Solomon used it to make the Bronze Sea, the pillars and all the bronze articles.”

1 Kings 7:13-47: “King Solomon sent to Tyre and brought Huram, whose mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali and whose father was a man of Tyre skilled in bronze work… He cast two bronze pillars… He also made the Sea of cast metal… It rested on twelve oxen… He made ten stands of bronze; ten bronze basins… pots, shovels and sprinkling bowls. All these objects that Huram made for King Solomon for the temple of the Lord were of burnished bronze… All these things were so numerous that Solomon did not weigh the bronze, for it was beyond measure.”

According to current archaeological findings, there were numerous copper mines in Mesopotamia during Solomon’s time. The amount of copper used by Solomon in building the Temple was immeasurable. Besides the large quantities of copper David acquired during his reign, the abundant copper resources in the surrounding regions during Solomon’s time also provided ample raw materials for the Temple’s construction.

Above: Industrial copper slag mounds excavated in 2006 at Khirbat en-Nahas in Jordan by an international team of archaeologists led by Thomas Levy of the University of California, San Diego. The buildings and layers on top date to the mid-9th century BC, while the more than 20 feet of slag buried beneath the buildings dates to the 10th century BC. These artifacts prove that this was a large copper production site in the 10th century BC, consistent with the reigns of David and Solomon. Khirbat en-Nahas is located in a desolate, arid lowland region south of the Dead Sea, an area that historically belonged to Edom.
Above: Copper ore from Khirbat en-Nahas.
Above: A copper mine in Timna Valley, 35 kilometers north of Eilat. There are thousands of copper mines and dozens of smelting sites here. Prior to this, most archaeologists believed the site was built and operated by ancient Egyptians.
Above: The Slave’s Hill copper mine site in Timna Valley. In 2013, an archaeological team led by Dr. Erez Ben-Yosef of Tel Aviv University excavated furnaces, fragments of clothing, fabrics, and ropes, as well as food remains. Radiocarbon dating of date pits and olive pits proved that many Edomites worked here during Solomon’s reign in the 10th century BC. In 2016, Erez Ben-Yosef also discovered 10th-century BC donkey and other livestock droppings. Fecal samples included intact seeds and pollen spores, allowing them to determine that these animals’ fodder came from an area 160 kilometers to the north, near the Mediterranean, proving that copper was transported long distances from here to the Judean region. From here to Jerusalem is 300 kilometers, a two-week journey for donkeys.
Above: Artistic reconstruction of the Slave’s Hill copper mine.

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