The Religious Dimension of Copper Metallurgy in the Southern Levant (original) (raw)
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Copper metallurgy: a hidden fundament of the theology of ancient Israel?
The celestial universe and the mode of action of YHWH are sometimes depicted by metallurgy. This figuration is generally understood as a picturesque representation devoid of theological significance, introduced only for describing the infinite powers of the god of Israel using the extreme physical conditions characterizing metallurgy. This explanation is however contested by: (i) the many allusions to metallurgy encountered in Biblical theology, (ii) the detailed mention, in the divine context, of all the stages of metal production: mining, ore roasting, smelting, metal purification and even of furnace re-melting, (iii) the representation of the firmament and the earth as two giant pieces of metal, (iv) the vision of the holy domain of YHWH as a giant celestial furnace. These features attest the existence of a substantial metallurgical component in Biblical theology. Furthermore, the strong bias towards copper metallurgy suggests that these representations were anchored in Bronze Age metallurgical traditions. It is concluded that Israelite theology encompasses an important metallurgical component inherited from the pre-Israelite cult of YHWH.
Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 2021
The causes of the disappearance of Late Chalcolithic society (Ghassulian) in the early fourth millennium BC remain obscure. This study identifies the collapse as the consequence of a change in the approach to metallurgy from cosmological fundament (Late Chalcolithic) to a practical craft (EB1). This endogenous transition accounts for the cultural recession characterizing the transitional period (EB1A) and the discontinuity in ritual practices. The new practical approach in metallurgy is firstly observed in the southern margin of the Ghassulian culture, which produced copper for distribution in the Nile valley rather than the southern Levant. Nevertheless, the Ghassulian cultural markers visible in the newly emerging areas of copper working (southern coastal plain, Nile valley) denote the survival of the old cosmological traditions among metalworkers of the EB1 culture. Their religious expression unveils the extension of the Ghassulian beliefs attached to metallurgy and their metamorphosis into the esoteric fundaments of the Bronze Age religions.
Asia Anteriore Antica, 2023
The archaeological discourse on the development of metallurgy in Anatolia, the Levant and, more generally, the Eastern Mediterranean region has extensively focused on crucial aspects such as procurement routes, technological developments, manufacturing strategies, and socioeconomic connotations of metal consumption. On the other hand, potential symbolic and ritualistic aspects permeating mining and metal-making activities have rarely been taken into consideration, largely due to the ephemerality of such traditions and practices in the material record. Extensive studies have analyzed the ritual dimensions of iron and copper metalworking across different belief systems and social structures, from pre-industrial sub-Saharan Africa to pre-classical Andean cultures, from Bronze Age Central Europe to China. Drawing on the contemporary anthropological and archaeological debate on the subject, this contribution identifies and analyzes recurrent semantics of ritualization in metalworking processes, looking at different lines of epigraphic and material evidence from the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean. The aim is to discuss patterns of correlation between belief systems, ritual behavior, and socioeconomic organizations and to prompt more comprehensive analyses on the complementary technological and symbolic aspects of ancient metallurgical practices.
The cultural dimension of metallurgy - The case of ancient Israel
Though metallurgy is approached today as no more than a technical domain, it had a central cultural importance in the past. This point is illustrated here by the deep metallurgical background of the cult of YHWH, the god of the Bible. This is reflected by the outstanding status of the smiths in Ancient Israel, by the central importance of metallurgy in the Biblical myths of origin, by the symbolism of the Jerusalem temple, by the strong metallurgical affinities of YHWH, revealed by his volcanic theophany, his residence in mining areas and his celestial domain envisioned as a giant furnace. These features reveal that the Israelite religion emerged as the extension to an entire people of beliefs previously belonging to the Canaanite metalworkers. This means that a substantial part of our cultural values are rooted in metallurgical traditions that remain to be rediscovered, investigated and clarified.
Contreras Iron Age copper production and the ‘ritual economy’ of Saruq al-Hadid
Advances in UAE Archaeology. Proceedings of Abu Dhabi’s Archaeology Conference 2022, 2022
The site of Saruq al-Hadid has significant potential to enhance our understanding of copper metallurgy and its social role in the Iron Age societies of Southeastern Arabia. The metallurgical evidence from the site indicates Iron Age copper production activities that included metal smelting and refining, alongside the fabrication of finished artefacts from local and imported materials through casting and working. Many of the products of this metallurgical activity were recovered from contexts that likely represent cultic activity, in particular the deposition of votives to a ‘snake deity’. Alongside these acts, copper artefacts were also a component of ritual performances of social cohesion that would likely have worked to legitimise the authority of those who controlled the production and deposition of such materials. The broader organisation and significance of copper production at the site can be effectively interpreted through the theoretical lens of a ‘ritual economy’, which situates this technology within the socially constructed knowledge, beliefs and practices of Early Iron Age society in Southeastern Arabia.
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Bronze Age through to the early Iron Age. Data arising from a combination of chemical, metallographic and lead isotope analyses are considered in terms of artefact typology, manufacturing techniques and archaeological context, and their social and economic implications for ancient metallurgy discussed.
Tin bronze replaced arsenical copper as the preferred alloy in the Levant for reasons that have long been debated. Found almost exclusively in graves, these two types of copper alloys share nearly identical mechanical properties. The Bronze Age cemetery of ‘Enot Shuni has yielded the first metals ever analysed from an uninterrupted stratigraphic sequence in the Levant, spanning the earliest adoption of tin bronze from the Early Bronze Age (EB) IV through the Middle Bronze Age (MB) II (c. 2300–1530 BC). SEM–EDS analysis of these artefacts, combined with a compositional meta-database of all previously published EB IV – MB II alloys, reveals diachronic alloy progression as selected by populations of the Levant. It has long been qualitatively understood that bronze became the primary alloy by the MB II. These results verify this trend and quantify human demand, showing that tin importation increased by 103% and arsenic content decreased by 49% throughout these periods. This shift in technological choice is attributed to cultural reorientation from the Egyptian to Mesopotamian sphere of influence, as well as to tin’s appreciable fuel efficiency over pure copper and arsenical copper in light of unprecedented timber shortages.