Fuel exploitation and environmental degradation at the Iron Age copper industry of the Timna Valley, southern Israel.

ABSTRACT: Economic and industrial progress frequently comes at the expense of environmental sustainability. For the early Iron Age (~ eleventh to ninth centuries BCE) smelters of the ancient copper industry of the Timna Valley, southern Israel, where today the hyper-arid Aravah Desert provides sparse vegetation, woody fuel for metallurgical furnaces constituted the greatest limiting factor for continued operations. This study presents the first investigation into the fuel sources relied upon by this industry during its most intensive period, as reflected by hundreds of charcoal samples collected from two well-stratified and chronologically anchored accumulations of industrial waste. The two sites demonstrate similar results: a heavy reliance on the local vegetation, particularly Retama raetam (white

SUBMITTER: Cavanagh M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9492654 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature