BIBLICAL METALS
The Bible mentions six metals: gold, silver, lead, tin, copper, and iron. Although not mined in the Holy Land, gold and silver played major roles in biblical history. The Bible mentions gold more than 400 times and silver nearly 300 times.
GOLD
During the biblical period, just as today, gold served as a store of value, a symbol of wealth and prominence, and a jewelry metal. It was obtained in trade mainly from sources in Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, India, and the Sinai Peninsula.
SILVER
Silver was scarce in the Holy Land until the Greeks developed the great Laurion silver-lead mines in the fourth century B.C. Silver coins such as Greek drachmas and staters, Roman denarii (the Bible’s “tribute pennies”) and Tyrian shekels, were the standard mediums of exchange throughout the greater biblical region.
LEAD
There’s also yielded large amounts of lead which, in the Holy Land, served as rebar in the construction of stone buildings. Holes drilled through adjoining stone blocks were filled with molten lead which then solidified to secure the blocks in place.
COPPER
Copper had a great impact on the Holy Land, and most came from the Timna Valley in Wadi Araba near Eilat, modern Israel’s southernmost city on the Gulf of Aqaba. Timna Valley copper occurs as both sulfide and oxide minerals emplaced in granite, dolostone and sandstone. Pre-dynastic Egyptian cultures were mining these rich deposits as early as 4000 B.C. Miners initially collected nodules of copper minerals from the surface; later, they followed outcrops underground to carve out large systems of passageways and galleries. Biblical scholars have long debated how Solomon, the fabulously rich king of Israel from 970 to 930 B.C., amassed his fortune. Many believed that Solomon owned gold mines. But in the 1930s, an American archaeologist suggested that the legendary “King Solomon’s Mines” were the Timna Valley copper mines, an idea initially discredited because the ruins, at that time, could not be dated to Solomon’s reign. But in 2013, Israeli archaeologists accurately carbon-dated organic remains from the Timna Valley ruins to 930 B.C. — the end of the great king’s reign. Most biblical scholars now agree that copper from the Timna Valley, the world’s earliest example of systematic copper mining, was indeed the source of Solomon’s wealth. Today, the valley, a remote, arid region of spectacular pillars, arches, and canyons, is the site of Timna Valley Park and an adjacent nature preserve. Exhibits at the park museum represent 6,000 years of copper mining.
IRON
Thanks to supplies of Timna Valley copper and Kestel tin, the Bronze Age dawned in the Holy Land about 3300 B.C. Bronze, a copper-tin alloy superior to copper in hardness, durability, and workability, was the primary metal for tools and weapons for the next two millennia. (Many Bible translations erroneously refer to bronze as “brass,” which is a modern copper-zinc alloy.) About 1500 B.C., the Hittite Empire in Anatolia began smelting iron from bog iron ores. Described in the Old Testament as adversaries of the Israelites, the Hittites produced tempered, carbon-steel alloys that were harder and more durable than bronze, and could be fashioned into sharper-edged weapons. Iron weapons, armor and chariots, the latter a landmark military advancement, soon made the Hittites a feared regional power. The Hittites zealously guarded their iron-smelting methods. When their empire collapsed around 1250 B.C., Hittite ironworkers scattered throughout the greater Mediterranean region to bring the Iron Age to various regional cultures. By 1200 B.C., iron, obtained from hematite and magnetite deposits in Syria, Anatolia and Wadi Araba, was in widespread use throughout the Holy Land.
TIN
The world’s first great source of tin was Kestel in the Taurus Mountains of Anatolia (now south-central Turkey), where the mining of placer and vein deposits of cassiterite or tin dioxide began about 3400 B.C. Caravans traded this tin throughout the Middle East and beyond. The Kestel ruins contain miles of narrow tunnels and dozens of small smelters that reduced cassiterite to metallic tin.
In 2013, Israeli archaeologists accurately carbon-dated organic remains from the Timna Valley ruins to 930 B.C. — the end of King Solomon’s reign. Most biblical scholars now agree that copper from the Timna Valley, the world’s earliest example of systematic copper mining, was indeed the source of Solomon’s wealth.”