Edom& Copper The Emergence of Ancient Israel’s Rival Thomas E. L E v y a n d m ohammad Najjar Did King David do battle with the Edomites? The Bible says he did. It would be unlikely, however, if Edom was not yet a sufficiently complex society to organize and field an army, if Edom was just some nomadic Bedouin tribes roaming around looking for pastures and water for their sheep and goats. Until recently, many scholars took this position: In David’s time Edom was at most a simple pastoral society.1 This gave fuel to those scholars who insisted that ancient DUBY TAL / Israel (or rather, Judah) likewise did not ALBATROSS develop into a state until a century or more 24 BI B LICA L ARCHAEOLOGY REVIEW • JULY/AUGUST 2006 JULY/AUGUST 2006 • BI B LICA L ARCHAEOLOGY REVIEW 25 EDOM AND COPPER PHOTO BY MOHAMMAD NAJJAR PHOTO BY THOMAS E. LEVY after David’s time. Ancient Israel, they argued, explore the role of early mining and metallurgy on r PILES OF RUBBLE (opposite) bestride the outline of a large e v was just like the situation east of the Jordan—no i square fortress and more than 100 smaller buildings at social evolution from the beginnings of agriculture R AMMON n complex societies in Ammon, Moab or Edom. a Khirbat en-Nahas in the Edomite lowlands of Jordan. The and sedentary village life from the Pre-pottery d r According to this school of thought, David was o Neolithic period (c. 8500 B.C.E.) to the Iron Age J massive black mounds are slag, a waste product of the Jerusalem not really a king, but a chieftain of a few simple SEA copper-smelting process, indicating that large-scale copper (1200–500 B.C.E.) in Jordan. But archaeologists tribes. And of course Judah was not really a state MEDITERRANEAN production occurred here at the time of the site’s occupation. don’t always find what they are looking for, and H because it never reached the level of social com- A Radiocarbon dating of the slag mounds shows that copper what we have found has certainly thrown us into Gaza plexity that is the hallmark of a state. MOAB production took place here during the 12th–9th centuries the deep waters of Biblical history. U D A The land of Edom figures largely in the Hebrew J B.C.E. and no later. By 2002 we had surveyed and sampled metallur- DEAD SE W adi ujib Bible; it is mentioned no fewer than 99 times. But M / N. gical sites in the area. In the cool of fall that year, Qitmit Arnon Standing guard for the entire site, this gatehouse (above) just how much reliable history is embedded in controlled the sole entrance into the massive Iron Age fortress we decided to mount a major archaeological expe- these Biblical references? at Khirbat en-Nahas. Confirming Nelson Glueck’s earlier sug- dition at the largest Iron Age site in the region: Edomite lowland site W This is rapidly becoming a contentious issue adi Khirbat en-Nahas (“ruins of copper,” in Arabic). Hasa gestions that a gateway lay buried here, archaeologists recently Edomite highland site / Naha among archaeologists. Much of the debate centers y l Z Khirbat en-Nahas is located along Jordan’s e ere discovered a typical four-chamber gate (only two of the l d Edomite expansion site l on our recent excavations at Khirbat en-Nahas in the a chambers have been excavated). The entrance was through a Wadi al-Guwayb (wadi is Arabic for a dry stream other site V Sela lowland region of Edom in southern Jordan, around a valley; the Hebrew equivalent is nahal ). The Wadi v Busayra passage on the far side of the two exposed gate chambers on a 50 kilometers (30 miles) southeast of the Dead Sea. r al-Guwayb drains into the Wadi Arabah (Nahal A the western side of the site. Large amounts of charcoal here M Hatzevah / Our project represents the first attempt to apply radio- Khirbat Arava, in Hebrew), which today separates modern h and at other structures on the site were dated by precision N a carbon-dating methods on a large scale to Edomite b en-Nahas radiocarbon dating, which fixed the date of early construction Jordan and Israel south of the Dead Sea. The Wadi a r sites relevant to debates in Biblical archaeology. A Arabah, in turn, is part of the greater African Rift Tawilan of the fortress in the tenth century B.C.E., just as Glueck had i E D O d that extends from Tanzania and Olduvai Gorge in a Umm el-Biyara suggested decades before. 0 20 mi W PRECEDING PAGES: The barren landscape of Edom glows with Africa, home of some of the earliest fossil evidence a reddish hue, which may be how the Edomites got their for early humans, up through the Red Sea and Gulf name; it means, literally, “the red ones.” Though archaeo- We have discovered a degree of social complexity When we decided to work in the lowlands of of Aqaba, to the Jordan Valley and beyond. logical excavations in the highlands suggested that Edom in the land of Edom that demonstrates the weak Edom (in what is referred to as the Faynan dis- Edom occupies the territory of southern Jordan did not develop into a state until the late-eighth or seventh reed on the basis of which a number of scholars trict) back in 1997, we had no idea—or intention—of (south of the adjacent ancient kingdoms of Ammon century B.C.E., more recent excavation in the copper-rich have scoffed at the idea of a state or complex getting involved in the minefields that characterize and Moab). As early as Genesis we learn that Esau, Edomite lowlands has shown that Edom was a complex chiefdom in Edom at this early period—and, by controversies in Biblical archaeology. This was to Jacob’s twin brother, is the ancestor of the Edomites; society centuries earlier, as reflected in the Bible. extension, a state in Judah. be an anthropological archaeology expedition to the text adds that Edom is in the hill country of 26 BI B LICA L ARCHAEOLOGY REVIEW • JULY/AUGUST 2006 JULY/AUGUST 2006 • BI B LICA L ARCHAEOLOGY REVIEW 27 EDOM AND COPPER EDOM AND COPPER “THE BEDOUIN the land of Edom and requested permission from A DRASTIC CHANGE TRIBES OF EDOM” the king of Edom: in elevation occurs Busayra are recorded in the Allow us, then, to cross your country. We will between the highland notes of an Egyptian not pass through fields or vineyards, and will not site of Busayra and frontier official drink water from wells. We will follow the king’s Khirbat en-Nahas in from the time of highway, turning off neither to the right nor to the lowlands. This Pharaoh Merneptah the left until we have crossed your territory. 3-D satellite image (c. 1224–1214 B.C.E.). shows the drop from Though this earliest (Numbers 20:17) areas more than 1,200 mention of Edom in meters (almost 4,000 the Papyrus Anastasi The Edomite answer was a peremptory “no”: feet) above sea level might suggest that “And Edom went out against them in heavy force, (shown in blue) to the Edomites were strongly armed. So Edom would not let Israel cross regions below sea only a nomadic their territory, and Israel turned away from them” level (shown in pale people at that time, (Numbers 20:20–21). A standard Bible dictionary, green). The higher OSIA Biblical references and however, states that “No archaeological evidence of C annual rainfall and NI recent archaeological a fortified and organized [Edomite] settlement in , Khirbat en-Nahas richer soil of the 3 evidence indicate this time has yet been found.” This statement may TIONS Copper Production Site plateau have led some C that the Edomites now have to be modified. scholars to focus PRODU developed into a rela- According to the Biblical chronology, several cen- on highland settle- tively sophisticated turies after the Exodus, Saul, David and Solomon ROHR ments to write the OF culture in the early all fought the Edomites (1 Samuel 14:47; 2 Samuel history of Edom, but Iron Age, beginning in 8:13–14; 1 Kings 11:14), as did later kings. The major the lowlands are rich OURTESY the 12th century B.C.E. military action, however, was between David and the C in copper ore, and The fact that the Edomites. He campaigned there early and often— recent excavations and ancient Egyptians supposedly during the early tenth century B.C.E. highlands are composed of precipitous rock walls Some of the seasonal drainages include the Wadi surveys there show took the trouble Is all this entirely fictional? of Nubian sandstone that are so rugged that ascent Dana, Wadi Ghuwair and Wadi Ashaqer among that the ability to of even mentioning The earliest mention of Edom appears not in sometimes requires technical climbing equipment.5 others (that turn into the Wadi Faynan and then produce and control these nomads means the Bible, but in Egyptian records from the time The prophet Jeremiah, who is generally thought the Wadi Fidan), as well as the Wadi Musa (coming copper was a crucial they were no doubt a of Pharaoh Merneptah (c. 1224–1214 B.C.E.) in the to have lived during the last half-century of Israel’s down from Petra). As the descent approaches the element in the devel- formidable people.