Chalcolithic (Copper Age period) A phase in the development of human culture in which the use of early metal tools appeared alongside the use of stone tools.
Levant A geographical term that refers to a large area in Southwest Asia, south of the Taurus Mountains, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea in the west, the Arabian Desert in the south, and Mesopotamia to the east.
Tel Dan Also known as Tel el-Qadi, an archaeological site in Israel in the Upper Galilee next to the Golan Heights.
The first known use of metals in the Southern Levant is during the Chalcolithic period (end of fifth to most of the fourth millennium BC). Dating from that time more than 500 metal objects have been found mainly in hoards, burials, and habitation remains, most of the metals come from sites in the southern part of Israel and Jordan and very rarely from beyond the center of Israel and north of Nahal Qanah. Most of the metals belong to two major categories and there is also a third, minor category:
1. Prestige/cult elaborated and complex-shaped objects made of copper (Cu) alloyed (either by a deliberate choice of complex minerals or by adding several minerals together) with distinct amount of antimony (Sb) or nickel(Ni) and arsenic(As). They were cast in a ‘lost wax’ technique into single closed clay molds and then polished into their final shining gray or gold like colors depending on the amount of antimony or nickel and arsenic in the copper. The biggest hoard (416 metal objects) comprising mainly of these highly artistically complex-shaped objects was found hidden in a remote cave (the cave of the treasure) in Nahal Mishmar, Judean desert, Israel, wrapped in a straw mat. The origin of the complex source material for the production of these objects is currently unknown. The nearest suitable ore is in Trans Caucasus and Azerbaijan - more then 1500 km from the finding sites of the objects. Several clay and stone cores and clay mold’s remains were petrographically analyzed and the results point to a possible local production within the metals distribution zone in Israel.
Currently, no production remains or production sites of these prestige/cult objects have been found.
2. Unalloyed copper tools comprising mainly of relatively thick and short bladed objects (axes, adzes, and chisels) and points (awls and/or drills) made from a smelted copper ore cast into an open mold and then hammered and annealed into their final shape and their blade’s or point’s hardness properties. The copper tools were produced in the Chalcolithic villages on the banks of the Beer-Sheva valley where slag fragments, clay crucibles, some possible furnace lining pieces, copper prills and amorphous lumps were found beside high-grade carbonated copper ore (cuprit). The ore was collected and selected in the area of Feinan in Trans-Jordan and transported to the Northern Negev villages some 150 km to the north to be smelted there for the local production of these copper objects.
3. A group of eight gold (Au) and electrum (Au + up to 30% Ag) solid rings was found in Nahal Qanah cave. This unique find, with no dated parallels, is attributed by the excavators to the Chalcolithic period based upon local stratigraphic and geological reasons and 14C dating of ground samples from the vicinity of the find in the cave. Surface analyses of these objects revealed a surface gold enrichment caused by the depletion of silver and the copper traces. This effect could be caused naturally by deposition, but could as well result artificially at the time of production in order to achieve a yellow color for the electrum rings rich in silver. During the Chalcolithic (copper + stone) era at least two, if not three different metal industries of different metals beside copper were operating and left their products in the Southern Levant.
During the next thousand years of the Early Bronze (end of fourth to end of third millennium BC), the same unalloyed copper production of the Chalcolith (1) continued to produce short blades and points as before. The same metal technique was now used for the novel production of long-blade weapons (riveted daggers and knives, heavy tanged swords, and epsilonshaped axes). The same copper production technique of casting into an open mold and then hammering and annealing was now used to produce all other metals as well, including jewelry of thin plates, sometimes decorated, and elongated thin wires (mainly for rings and bracelets) made of unalloyed copper as well as from silver (first appearance) and gold. Archaeological remains of Early Bronze copper mining and copper smelting in the vicinity of the mines have been found in Trans-Jordan (Feinan), the Arava valley (Timnah), and Southern Sinai. The only remains of metal production are those of copper and include copper slag, prills, and amorphous copper lumps as well as small shallow ball-shaped clay crucibles with a socket for inserting wooden handle. In the Early Bronze I site of the Ashkelon Marina in the southern part of the Israeli coast, small shallow open pits, probably for the melting of copper in a crucible, were found beside copper industrial remains. Most of the metal products are found in burials mainly from the Early Bronze I. The same types of metals continue to be found in sites and tombs throughout the whole Early Bronze and all over the local distribution map of Early Bronze sites. A single hoard of copper objects probably from the Early Bronze I was found with no related archaeological context in the fields of Kfar Monash. During the Early Bronze period the Southern Levant metal industry became more industrialized and homogenous in its production modes and the products typology. For the first time in the South Levantine metal history, significant typological and technological affiliations to the growing metal industries in the two major imperial centers (Egypt and Mesopotamia) on both sides of the Fertile Crescent are visible. During the whole Early Bronze age there is no archaeometallurgical evidence for bronze production and no bronze objects were used during this period in the Southern Levant (see Asia, West: Southern Levant, Chalcolithic Cultures).
More than 500 metal objects have been found that date to the Middle Bronze age (end of third to middle of second millennium BC). The development of more complex weapons (longer daggers, swords, complex battle axes, etc.) was possible by alloying the copper with arsenic at the beginning and tin (Sn) later to produce arsenical copper and tin bronze. These changes in the metal properties of weapons are reflected in a kind of a ‘mirror image’ in the composition of small objects like toggle pins that were probably made mainly from scrap re-melting. Lead (Pb) is starting to play a greater role as a major alloy for thick and relatively big casts of copper-based objects, mainly of battle axes at this period.
During the Late Bronze age (second half of second millennium BC) more than 400 metal artifacts were found (c. 200 blade weapons, 140 metal vessels, some working tools and small arrow heads and decorative objects). All the blades analyzed were found to be made of tin-bronze and most of all other copper-base objects are either tin-bronze alloy or have tin in their metal as impurity. At this stage in history, large quantities of copper and tin ingots are found all over the coasts of the Mediterranean and in several shipwrecks under the sea, mainly in the southern coast of Turkey.
Copper and copper-base metals continued to be the major metal in use during the first part of the Iron age (end of second to beginning of first millennium BC).
Bronze scrap re-melting remains (mainly v-shaped clay crucibles, slags, clay tuyers) and structures of open camp fires full of metal production remains were found in several sites in Israel associated mainly with the Philistines and the Sea People settlements on the coast (i. e., Tel Qasile, Tel Gerisa, Tel Dor) and Tel Dan in the north of Israel. Only later in the Iron Age metallic did iron start to play a major role as a base metal for tools and weapons.
See also: Asia, West: Southern Levant, Chalcolithic Cultures.
World History
