Archaeometallurgical expeditions
to the Sinai Peninsula and the Eastern Desert of
Egypt (2006, 2008)
Ali Abdel-Motelib, Michael Bode, Rita Hartmann, Ulrich Hartung,
Andreas Hauptmann & Kristina Pfeiffer
Key words
Sinai Peninsula, Eastern Desert, Survey, Copper deposits, Metallurgy, Windpowered furnaces, Copper exchange, Maadi, Hujayrat al-Ghuzlan, Faynan, Timna, Predynastic, Late Chalcolithic, Early Bronze Age, Trace
elements, Lead isotope analysis, Provenance studies
Abstract
In this study we report on two archaeometallurgical expeditions (2006, 2008) of an interdisciplinary
Egyptian-German team to the Sinai Peninsula and
the Eastern Desert in Egypt. 27 mining, smelting and
habitation sites were visited which date from the Late
Chalcolithic to the Late Bronze Age. It was intended
to clarify the prehistoric copper production in these
regions and its influence on the supra-regional copper exchange between southern Canaan and Egypt,
mainly between Maadi (near Cairo) and Hujayrat
al-Ghuzlan and Tall Magass, Aqaba. In addition to
the field work analytical investigations (chemical
and lead isotope analyses) were performed on ores,
slags and metal objects collected. Provenance studies revealed that Sinai ore was probably imported
to the Nile valley along with copper ore from the
Wadi Arabah deposits Timna and Faynan, and from
Anatolia as well. The enormous potential of Sinai
copper ore deposits is impressively demonstrated
by gigantic metallurgical remains from the Early and
Late Bronze Age. Recent mining activities in the Um
Bogma area probably destroyed previous activities.
Copper was apparently smelted in Sinai in windpowered furnaces known from the entire Eastern
Mediterranean. Copper-metallurgical activities in the
Eastern Desert are limited. Ancient deposits were
probably exploited for green pigments, or for gold.
Introduction
Prehistoric cultural interaction between the Southern
Levant and Egypt has been a focus of archaeological
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
investigations for many years. Alongside many other
commodities such as wine, oil, cedar, turquoise and
lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, copper ores and metal
were exchanged in the first half of the 4th millennium
BC between the two regions and beyond. Excavations at Maadi/Egypt, located in the Nile Delta near
modern Cairo (Rizkana & Seeher 1989), and at Tell
Hujayrat Al-Ghuzlan and Tell Al-Magass, located close
to the coast of the Gulf of Aqaba in Jordan (Khalil &
Schmidt 2009; Khalil 1992; Khalil & Riederer 1998)
uncovered a range of copper artefacts, ore, and industrial debris that pose the question as to the origin of the metal and ore (Müller-Neuhof et al. 2003,
22-26; Khalil et al. 2003, 159-183; Khalil & Schmidt
2009, Hauptmann et al., 2009) (Figure 1). At Hujayrat
Al-Ghuzlan, where large amounts of metallurgical
remains such as ore, slag, ingots, and many dozens
of casting moulds (Pfeiffer 2009a) were unearthed, it
is indicated that in the Late Chalcolithic / Early Bronze
Age there was not only craft specialisation, but also
a surplus in copper produced.
For the Southern Levant the two ore districts of Timna and Faynan in the Wadi Arabah served as main
sources for the production of copper (Hauptmann
1989, 121; 2000; 2007). Most of the copper artefacts
analysed so far from the Southern Levant were made
using ore from these deposits in the Wadi Arabah. As
an exception, the collection of prestige items from
the Nahal Mishmar hoard may be mentioned: the
origin of its peculiar copper-arsenic-antimony-alloys
remains unknown until today (Tadmor et al. 1995).
As far as it is known, Maadi is located in an area
devoid of copper mineralisations. The source of the
copper artefacts and ore found at Maadi could also
not be clearly answered by Pernicka & Hauptmann
3
4
Fig. 1: Geographical overview on the Sinai Peninsula and adjacent areas in the east (Southern Levant) and the west (Eastern
Desert, Egypt) with the Nile Valley. Shown are localities mentioned in the text.
1 Maadi; 2 Aqaba with Hujayrat Al-Ghuzlan and Tell Al-Magass; 3 Timna; 4 Faynan; 5 Wadi Homr / Sarbot El-Gamal; 6
Ras Butran; 7 Wadi Ba’Ba; 8 Bir Nasib II and Bir Nasib “Rod el-Aiar”; 9 Bir Nasib I; 10 Serabit El-Khadim; 11 Um Bogma
(incl. mining area “45”); 12 Wadi Maghara; 13 Wadi Khareig; 14 Watiya, Sheikh Mukhsen, Nabi Salah; 15 Wadi El Regeita
/ Wadi Rimthi ; 16 St. Catherina; 17 Wadi El-Nefoukh (“Blue Valley”), Wadi Ahmar; 18 Ain Soukhna; 19 Gabal Dara; 20
Gebel Zeit; 21 Wadi Abu Greida; 22 Wadi Hamama; 23 Semna; 24 Wadi Tar and Wadi Samra. Note that Gebel Zeit (20) is
a lead-silver deposit.
(1989), but new discoveries at Hujayrat Al-Ghuzlan
(see below) raise the question whether copper deposits in the Wadi Arabah could have been suppliers
for these objects.
It is known that there was cultural interaction between Lower Egypt and the Levant, but the role of
the Sinai Peninsula located in between has not been
studied in detail, especially regarding the early use of
copper ore deposits located in the Sinai desert. Since
the 1970s scholars working in Sinai have stated that
the copper deposits were at the earliest exploited in
the Early Bronze Age II (Amiran et al. 1973; Beit-Arieh
1983; Ward 1991). Abdel-Motelib (2006) proposed
a Predynastic age for some copper smelting sites
at Wadi Homr near Serabit El-Khadim. It should be
stated that the chronology of the Sinai Peninsula
has been heavily debated and remains unclear (see
Pfeiffer 2009b), and, additionally, the trade routes in
and around Sinai are still for the most part unknown.
The lack of knowledge also applies to the Eastern
Desert. Apart from a few exceptions, Egyptian copper
sources in the Eastern Desert are mostly unknown.
For a better understanding of these complex exchange interconnections, and to disentangle the conglomerate of archaeological facts and assumptions,
a solid basis of geological and archaeometallurgical
data is necessary. The origin of copper in Predynastic
Egypt, at Maadi as well as in Upper Egypt, has to be
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
reconsidered by new analyses of copper sources and
objects. How important were the two major copper
districts in the Southern Levant? Was copper from
Timna or Faynan “traded” to Egypt? Or, alternatively,
were sources in the Sinai Peninsula or the Egyptian
Eastern Desert also exploited in the 4th millennium
BC? The purpose of the present study is to identify
and examine the potential ore resources available
in the 4th millennium BC in order to answer some of
these questions. Archaeological evidence suggests
that in the Neolithic period the populations of the
Sinai Peninsula had a complex and broad-reaching
material culture, and this is true for the Early Bronze
Age as well. Hence, it would come as a surprise if this
region would not have been involved in the supraregional frame of cultural and technical development
during the Chalcolithic. Which routes were used between Lower Egypt and the Southern Levant? The sea
route surrounding the Sinai Peninsula and the land
route passing through the Sinai are both options. To
answer questions like these, field surveys and analytical studies are necessary. It is mainly the question
of exchange relations between the Nile valley and the
Southern Levant that made a geochemical / isotopic
characterisation of the copper deposits in this part of
the world necessary. While those located in the Wadi
Arabah are sufficiently explored (Hauptmann 2007,
79ff.), the composition of the deposits in the Sinai
Peninsula are a scientific lacuna.
In a joint venture the Geological Department, Faculty
of Science, Cairo University, the German Archaeological Institute (the Cairo branch and the Orient-Department, Berlin) and the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum
Bochum conducted geological and mining-archaeological expeditions in 2006 (November 25th - Dec. 3rd)
and in 2008 (March 2nd - 15th) to the south-western
part of the Sinai Peninsula and in the northern part
of the Egyptian Eastern Desert. The team consisted
of the authors mentioned above. The 2006 expedition
was to the south-western central Sinai with the copper-manganese mining district of Um Bogma, and
to Serabit El-Khadim. During the second expedition
in 2008, a selected number of sites and mines in the
Eastern Desert were visited, followed by investigations of some more sites in the south-western Sinai.
Here, ancient mines and early smelting / melting sites
were visited and studied, and samples of ore, slag
and metallurgic material were collected.
The aim of these expeditions was to obtain geological and archaeometallurgical materials suitable for
provenance studies through laboratory analysis to
help clarify exchange relations and cultural interaction between Lower Egypt and the copper sources
in the Southern Levant. We wanted to record and
sample sites that had not been adequetly investigated; therefore, not all sites that were discovered and
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
5
Tab. 1: Chronology of Egypt, Sinai, and the Southern Levant
from the Chalcolithic period to the Early Bronze Age according to calibrated radiocarbon data.
described by previous scholars were visited. Such
investigations were carried out, e. g., by Rothenberg
(1979, 1987), who explored Southern and Central
Sinai systematically in 15 seasons in the 1960s and
1970s. The archaeometallurgical part of these surveys
was carried out by H.G. Bachmann and R.F. Tylecote.
Parts of the results were published by Bachmann
(1980) but the major part of the survey (Bachmann et
al.) is unpublished. A comprehensive site catalogue
from the Ophir-Expedition to Sinai was published
by Beith-Arieh (2003), and some observations were
made by Weisgerber (1991). All unpublished observations were made available to us and provided invaluable informations during our field work.
The surveys were carried out just in time because
modern mining for manganese has increased substantially destroying many of the ancient mining and
metallurgical sites. In this contribution, we will describe a number of the sites we visited, and we will
discuss the results of chemical, mineralogical and
lead isotope analyses we performed at the Research
Laboratory for Archaeology and Material Sciences at
the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum. For clarification we added a chronological overview for the
time periods in the Egypt, Sinai and the Southern
Levant (Table 1).
6
Maadi, Hujayrat Al-Ghuzlan and Tall
Magass, and the 4th millennium metal
exchange: the state of the art
have been found exclusively in Hujayrat Al-Ghuzlan,
a specific contact between Maadi and the sites in the
Wadi Arabah is suggested1 (Pfeiffer 2009a, 323ff.).
In the first half of the 4 th millennium BC copper
seems to have been exchanged connecting the
Southern Levant and Predynastic Lower Egypt. The
excavations in Maadi/Egypt, Tell Hujayrat Al-Ghuzlan
and Tell Al-Magass in the vicinity of Aqaba in Jordan
(Figure 1) revealed traces of the copper exchange
(Seeher 1990, 148ff.; Khalil 1992; Khalil &Riederer
1998; Müller-Neuhof et al. 2003, 22-26; Khalil et al.
2003, 159-183; Khalil & Schmidt 2009).
From the Egyptian point of view, the moulds from
Hujayrat Al-Ghuzlan seem to constitute exciting evidence for an exchange relationship between Maadi
and the southern Levant. On the other hand, it raises
new questions, e. g., what about the copper deposits
in Sinai and the Eastern Desert?
Hujayrat Al-Ghuzlan and Tell Al-Magass
The excavation of the settlement Tell Hujayrat AlGhuzlan began in 1998 as a joint venture of the University of Jordan and the German Archaeological
Institute. The assemblage of finds comprises the
complete metallurgical chaîne opératoire: copper
ore and slag, droplets and prills, copper ingots and
final artefacts. The ore, of a total of about 4 - 6 kg,
consist of green secondary copper minerals such as
malachite, chrysocolla and others, and are crushed
to pieces of ca. 0.5 – 2 cm size. In addition, a large
amount of technical ceramics such as crucibles and
ingot moulds was unearthed (Pfeiffer 2009a). The
finds point to a standardised technology of copper
production, ore processing, casting and smelting
(Khalil et al. 2003; Pfeiffer 2009a). Metallurgical finds
come from diverse stratigrafic contexts within the
site’s architectural features, and they were recovered
in various concentrations. Comparable artefacts were
found in Tell Al-Magass as well, during the excavations in the 1980’s under the direction of Lutfi Khalil
(Khalil & Riederer 1998, 1-9). The origin of the copper ore used for smelting could have been Timna or
mineralisations a few kilometres to the south. It is
also possible that the ore came from the ore district
of Faynan some 120 km to the north (Hauptmann &
Wagner 2007; Hauptmann et al. 2009). However, how
the exchange and circulation of ore was organised
still remains unclear. Archaeometallurgical residues
indicate that at both sites copper production exceeded the inhabitants’ needs (Müller-Neuhof et al.
2003), and we assume that metal was exported to
somewhere else. According to the number and shape
of the moulds, the majority of copper probably was
exported in the shape of rectangular and oval boat
shaped ingots. Only oval shaped ingots have been
found in Hujayrat Al-Ghuzlan. The final destination is
unknown, but we note that at Maadi, two rectangular
copper ingots and one oval plano-convex ingot were
excavated, which match with the clay moulds from
Tell Hujayrat Al-Ghuzlan. Due to the fact that, as far
as it is known, these special types of ingot moulds
Maadi
The settlement of Maadi is the key site after which the
Lower Egyptian Culture of the first half of the 4th millennium – as a counterpart of the Naqada-Culture in
Upper Egypt - was named. Excavations from 1930 to
the 1950s by M. Amer and I. Rizkana on behalf of the
Cairo University (Rizkana & Seeher 1987, 1988, 1989,
1990; Seeher 1990) and more recent investigations
undertaken by the German Archaeological Institute
(Hartung 2003, 2004, Hartung et al. 2003) revealed
evidence for relations to the Southern Levant including unusual architectural features, pottery and other
objects. In the middle of the 4th millennium, i.e., in
the EBA IA period in terms of southern Levantine
chronology, Maadi had exchange with several settlements in southern Palestine, like Site H in Wadi
Ghazzeh (Nahal Besor), Taur Ikhbeineh, Tel Halif, Nizzanim etc. (for summary with references Hartung
2001, 354-361). The exchange of goods seems to have
been handled by “Canaanites” living at Maadi, at
least temporarily (e.g., Seeher 1990, 153), and Lower
Egyptians whose presence is attested in some of
these settlements.
Copper and copper ore were probably the most important reason of this interaction. Beside small metal
objects like fishhooks, pins and needles, three or four
axes and adzes and three ingots, a deposit of ca. 15
kg of sedimentary copper-manganese ore was recovered (Rizkana & Seeher 1989, 13ff.). It was suggested
that this ore was used as green pigment (Rizkana &
Seeher 1989, 17f.) for eye-paint, a purpose that is well
known in predynastic Egypt. Copper prills and ash
layers were found at Maadi, but no crucibles or other
installations indicating for metallurgical activities
could be discovered. Ingots (and perhaps also the
axes) may have been also used as a kind of currency
(Rizkana & Seeher 1989, 17). It is unknown if copper
ore was smelted or if it was just worked at Maadi. The
first chemical and mineralogical analysis of copper
1 There were found similar ingot moulds in Tell esh-Shuna
in North Jordan, but their variety of shapes is slightly different from the objects in Hujayrat Al-Ghuzlan (Rehren et
al. 1996, 625 ff.).
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
and copper ore from Maadi suggested Timna and
Faynan as possible sources for a few pieces, and a
fragment of one of the axes high in nickel points to
sources in south-west Anatolia (Pernicka & Hauptmann 1989, 137ff.).
Since the amount and variety of copper finds at Maadi is not paralleled at any other site in Egypt, the settlement is thought to have played a major role in the
network of copper supply in predynastic Egypt. On
the other hand, the scale of this “trade” should not
be overstated - the economy of the settlement was
clearly based on agriculture and livestock breeding.
Recent investigations have shown, for instance, that
imported vessels at Maadi comprise not even 1% of
the total pottery assemblage (Hartmann 2003, 179).
With the end of Maadi in early EB IB, probably connected with the arrival of Upper Egyptian Naqada
groups to the north, several of the settlements in
southern Palestine have either been completely or
partly abandoned. Not before the late 4th millennium,
renewed Egyptian enterprises - now undertaken by
the Naqada-Culture – are indicated by Egyptian trade
posts in southern Palestine and the first occurrence
of Egyptian pottery in settlements of the Southern
Sinai mining district (for summary Hartung 2001,
384-388) .
Exchange routes through the Sinai Peninsula
The main route between Maadi and Southern Palestine could have been as it was called later the “Way
of Horus” (Figure 1) crossing the Northern Sinai
along the Mediterranean coast. During the Bronze
Age a number of temporary camp sites (Oren 1973,
203; Oren & Gilead 1981, Oren & Yekutieli 1992, 380)
served as way stations for the supply of the caravans
until they reached Site H (respectively ‘En Besor during EB IB) in the east. Interestingly, at Site H copper
ore originating in Faynan was found (Hauptmann
2007, 272), which might have been an exchange good
for Egypt. More recently, evidence for metallurgical
activities using copper ore from Faynan came to light
in the EB IA settlement of Ashkelon-Afridar (Segal et
al. 2004) which is situated not far from Site H and
which may have had also contacts to Egypt.
With the recent finds from Hujayrat al-Guzlan still
other routes for the copper exchange crossing central
Sinai have to be considered, and even a sea route
around the Peninsula is not to be excluded. A number
of ancient harbours along the western and eastern
coast of the Gulf of Suez such as Ras Butran and
Ain Soukhna, have been discovered (Figure 1). The
locations of other overland routes close to Neolithic
and/or Bronze Age sites and to oases suggest very
old origins (Rothenberg 1979; Finkelstein 1995). The
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
“Darb el-Hajj”, connecting Aqaba and Suez via the
ancient road between Ain Soukhna and Bin Gandali
(Abdel-Motelib 2006), may be assumed as the direct
passage from the sites in the Southern Wadi Arabah
to the southern Delta region, and the “Way of Shur”
between Ismailiya and Nizana is passing the great
oasis in the northern third of Sinai (Rothenberg 1979;
Anati 2001).
It remains unknown whether copper was ever exchanged through Sinai, or whether the indigenous
population was involved in such activities. Copper
ore deposits exist in Sinai, but was mining, metal
production and processing practised there? The
meaning and importance of the Sinai copper in prehistoric times is still a problem, even with a number
of copper smelting sites previously investigated (Beit
Arieh 1980, 2003; Rothenberg 1979, 1987; Bachmann
et al. unpubl.). At Maadi, there is no clear evidence
for connections to the Sinai at all. Finds of manganese ore or tabular flint scrapers may originate from
the Sinai but manganese ore occurs in the Eastern
Desert also, ca. 100 km away from Maadi. Further are
sources of tabular silex are known in the Negev and
elsewhere (Schmidt 1984, 261ff; Seeher 1990, 148; cf.
also Rosen 1983).
In contrast, since the middle of the 4th millennium in
Upper Egyptian Naqada tombs turquoise beads occur (cf. Hartung 2001, 270ff.) which must have been
mined in the region of Serabit El-Khadim and Wadi
Maghara in the Western Sinai. Despite this evidence,
Egyptian presence is not attested before the late 4th
millennium (Hartung 2001, 348ff.), neither in this region (Beit Arieh 1980, Fig. 7.14, 15; Bourriau 1996, Fig.
5.8) nor in the Wadi El-Regeita copper mining area
in the South (Beit Arieh 1981, Fig. 9.2; 1986, Fig. 12.
20-22; 2003, 127). During the time before, one has to
assume that the Naqadians got the raw materials by
trade with bedouins. Later, since the Old Kingdom,
Serabit and Wadi Maghara became the main target
of pharaonic expeditions whilst the southern Sinai
seems to have lost interest for the Egyptians completely.
Ancient copper in the Egyptian Eastern Desert
The Naqada Culture in Upper Egypt – but Maadi as
well - may have obtained copper ore also through
the exploitation of deposits in the Eastern Desert (e.
g., Murray 1951; Lucas & Harris 1962, 205f.; GarenneMarot 1984). Malachite might have even been a byproduct of predynastic gold-prospecting in this region. The mineral often occurs in connection with
auriferous quartz veines and its green colour may
have served as a tracer to find such outcrops (e. g.,
Klemm & Klemm 1994, 194ff.). On the other hand,
7
8
like in Sinai, none of the mining regions yielded any
evidence for connections to Maadi, and also here,
the earliest Naqada pottery does not occur before
the late 4th millennium. Therefore, for this region as
well, it seems that throughout the 4th millennium raw
materials were exploited by an indigenous nomadic
population which further distributed the minerals,
perhaps in exchange for agricultural products.
Before powerful state-like structures had emerged
at the end of the 4th millennium, the Naqada Culture
obviously did not undertake its own enterprises to
get direct access e. g. to copper ore from the region
of Wadi Um Balad, Wadi Dara, Wadi el-Urf (cf. Tawab
et al. 1990; Castel et al. 1992; Grimal 1993; 1994; Castel et al. 1998) and Wadi Abu Had (Bomann 1994, 30;
1995, 14-16) in the northern Eastern Desert. The newly
discovered site of Wadi Semna I also belongs to this
chronological horizon (see below).
Geology and ore deposits in the Sinai
Peninsula and the northern part of the
Eastern Desert
The Sinai Peninsula, a triangular landmass between
the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba is an extensive desert region. It is part of the Nubian Shield exposed in north-east Africa which in turn is part of
the Pan-African belt. Its age is ~ 950 - 550 Ma (Abdel
Rahman 1996). The Red Sea separates the Nubian
Shield from its previously contiguous counterparts,
the Sinai Peninsula, and the north-western part of the
Arabian Peninsula, the Hijaz. The Nubian Shield consists mainly of metasedimentary rocks, migmatites,
metavolcanic suites, serpentinites, gabbro-dioritetonalite complexes, granodiorite-granite batholiths
and the Dokhan volcanic sequence (El-Ramly 1972;
Bender 1985; Vail 1985; Kroner et al 1988; El-Gaby et
al. 1990; Abdel-Rahman 1996).
In the Sinai Peninsula, several geographic units
can be distinguished: (1) The northern flat coastal
strip consists of Pliocene to Quaternary sand and
evaporates deposits of gypsum and salt along the
Bardaweel lake, with some spectacular mountain
areas of Jurassic to Eocene rocks at Gabal Maghara
and Gabal Halal. (2) The El-Tih plateau which is made
up of thick sedimentary rock-units of limestone and
clastics from post-Carboniferous to Eocene, extending from the north to central Sinai and bounded to
a major east-west running fault system which separates the Sinai into a northern and a southern part. (3)
The mountain region of Southern Sinai, are formed
of Precambrian magmatic and metamorphic rocks
and Palaeozoic sedimentary facies of clastics and
carbonates. These are bearing copper ores. Typically,
the crystalline rocks as well some sedimentary units
are cut by many hundreds of basaltic-andesitic to
rhyolithic dike swarms of different ages. They are
related to multi-phase rifting acitivities from the Precambrian to the Oligocene of the supra-regional rift
system which divides the African and the Arabian
plates. This part of Sinai is characterized by steep
Wadis and a number of green oases, e. g., Feiran
and St. Catherina. The mountains of St. Catherina
contain copper bearing quartz-hematite veins. The
Precambrian basement around the Gulf of Aqaba,
near Dahab and Wadi Samra, is also cut by volcanic
dikes which are also copper bearing. The Precambrian basement continues to the Hijaz (north-west
Saudi Arabia) in the east. Copper mineralisation also
occurs here in quartz veins, andesitic volcanic rocks,
disseminated with auriferous deposits or within the
low grade metamorphic schists. (4) The western flat
coastal strip of Miocene to Quaternary which pervades the mountainous region of Southern Sinai,
capping subsurface a Phanerozoic succession, contains several archaeological sites along the mouths
of the wadis, i. e., Ba’Ba, Maghara, Feiran, Ras Sudr,
Sidri and Nukhul.
Geological set up of the copper deposits in
the Precambrian rocks of Southern Sinai
Hydrothermal copper bearing vein mineralisations
occur in Precambrian rocks of Southern Sinai mainly
in the area of the Wadis El-Regeita and Rimthi, northeast of the monastery of St. Catherina, and at Wadi
Samra, near Dahab. The copper mineralisation at
least at the surface is rather monotonous and consists of malachite, chrysocolla, and occasionally of
copper sulphides such as chalcocite and chalcopyrite.
With but one exception, copper ores analysed so far
from these mineralisations are very pure (Bachmann
et al., unpubl. data), i. e., they have very low concentrations of all those elements who would end up
in the copper after smelting (arsenic, nickel, cobalt,
bismuth, lead, silver, gold). Wadi Tar however is high
in arsenic (Hauptmann et al. 1999). The mineralisations are bound to dikes and veins with a thickness
of up to 5 m. In parts they are forming dike swarms
intersecting all other crystalline rocks of the Precambrian basement.
The largest copper bearing vein is located in Wadi
El-Regeita. It is a three km long north-east-south-west
running dike of rhyolitic-rhyodacitic composition,
embedded in a variety of granitic rocks. As shown
by numerous waste dumps heaped up all along the
vein, and by some shafts, the vein was exploited in
ancient times. The mineralisation was studied before for economic purposes (El-Metwally et al. 1992;
Niazy & Abdel–Rahman 1995; Hassen 1997; Hashad
et al. 1999).
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
9
Fig. 2: Geological map of the Um Bogma area, west central Sinai, Egypt, from the Wadi Ba’Ba in the west to Serabit ElKhadim in the east. After Kora et al. (1984) and Abdel-Motelib (1996).
The area around the small scale mineralisation in
Wadi Rimthi is dominated by low relief topography, in contrast to the surrounding high relief of the
mountains of St. Catherina. The mineralisations again
are bound to dikes in a two shear fault zone which
cuts late orogenic alkali-granites and granodiorites
(El Shazly 1964). This shear zone is heavily brecciated and shows fragments of granodioritic, basaltic,
rhyolitic and andesitic rocks. Secondary copper ores
occur in quartz veins. In association with the ores
mentioned above, specularite, a fine grained, “soft”
variety of hematite, and magnetite have to be mentioned.
Another small scale copper mineralisation occurs in
Wadi Samra near Dahab on (Figure 1). Also here, the
copper mineralisation is bound to Precambrian layered andesitic-rhyolithic dikes. These are intervening
banded iron metavolcanic-metasediment sequences.
Layers of magnetite-bearing marble are also encountered within the later part of this sequence. The copper ores contain gold in the range of some ten parts
per millions. Gold occurs possibly also in small quantities in crystalline rocks north of Eilat (Amar 1997),
and near Abu Kusheibah (cf. Hauptmann 2007, 62ff.),
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
but there, as it is the case in Sinai, is no conclusive
evidence that it was ever utilised in antiquity.
Geological set up of the copper deposits of
Serabit El-Khadim and of the Um Bogma area
The more important mineralisations are located at the
intake of the sedimentary rocks overlying the Precambrian rocks in the Um Bogma area in the west central
part of the Sinai Penisula. The only known exception
is one sample from Gabal Igma in the El-Tih-Plateau
in the center of the Sinai, where Bachmann et al. (unpubl.) analysed secondary copper minerals, probably
from the paleosol of the Um Bogma Formation. Stratiform to stratabound mineralisations of CambrianCarboniferous age occur in the area of Um Bogma,
Bir Nasib and Serabit El-Khadim (Figure 2). The Um
Bogma manganese-iron-copper deposit is situated in
south-west Sinai, ca. 40 km east of the Gulf of Suez.
The stratiform copper ores are of syngenetic origin
affected by later hydrothermal activities also (Elgamy
et al. 2000). The ores are composed exclusively of
various secondary copper ores associated with chlorite, kaolinite and siltstone that were deposited in a
10
fluvio-deltaic environment (Abdel Motelib 1987; El
Sharkawi et. al. 1990a, b). Stratabound carboniferous
copper deposits are made up of copper-carbonates,
-chlorides, -vanadates, -sulphates and -phosphates
(turquoise at Wadi Maghara and Serabit El-Khadim).
The ore lenses reach up to 200 m in diameter and
are up to 6 m thick. The tabular-lenticular lenses are
differentiated into Mn-rich cores and Fe-rich margins.
They occur mainly within soft and friable shaly beds
in the topsoil at the base of the Um Bogma Formation
in association with uranium anomalies (1 ppm at Um
Bogma and up to > 600 ppm at Um Hamd, some 4
km south-east of Um Bogma, Elgamy et al. 2000). Ore
lenses associated with shaly beds were exploited at
Um Bogma, mining area “45” (Wadi El-Shallal), Wadi
Kharig and other localities. The Um Bogma Formation
above the topsoil consists mainly of a sequence of
cliff-forming, dark-grey and yellow-pink dolostones
(“dolomite”). These show only minor copper mineralisations mainly along fault lines. They are deposited under a lagoonal-lateritic pedogenic environment
(Abdel-Motelib 1996; El Aref & Abdel-Motelib 2001).
This type of mineralisation can be correlated with the
marine Cambrian copper ores of Faynan and Timna in
the Wadi Arabah in Jordan and Israel.
Geological set up of the copper deposits in
the Precambrian rocks of the northern part of
the Eastern Desert
Two mega-sequences of rocks are building up the
northern part of the Eastern Desert: 1) A pre-rift sequence of crystalline rocks of the late Precambrian
basement of the Nubian Shield. This is unconformably overlain by sedimentary rocks of different ages,
i. e., a sequence of early Paleozoic to Cretaceous
rocks. 2) A syn- to post-rift sequence of Late Eocene
to Quaternary sediments.
Neoproterozoic volcanic rocks were identified in the
basement complex in the central and southern part of
the Eastern Desert. The oldest two groups are known
as the Older and Younger Metavolcanic units (Stern
1981). They are made up of mafic to intermediate
with subordinated felsic rocks. The Dokhan volcanics
and the Hammamat group (ca. 610 – 560 Ma), however, are restricted mainly to the northern Eastern
Desert. They include the major crustal components
of the shield which are (from old to younger rocks):
gabbro-diorite-tonalite, calc-alkaline Dokhan volcanic
rocks, granodioritic-dike swarms, and A-type peralkaline granites. The Pan-African crustal block of Northeastern Egypt is characterized by calc-alkalic younger
granites and coeval Dokhan volcanics and rocks of
the Hammamat series. Here, hydrothermal copper
veins occur. The later are un-metamorphosed and of
intermediate to felsic composition. The area west of
Hurghada is dominated by the Dokhan volcanics as
well, and of older and younger granites. The Dokhan
volcanics are represented by layered lava of different colour, texture (finegrained, porphyric and nonporphyric, jointed and fractured) and composition
(andesites, rhyolites, dacites with pyroclastics). Copper mineralisations with malachite, chrysocolla and
copper sulfides as predominant constituents - which
are in many cases associated with gold (Klemm et al.
2001, 645) - are commonly associated with andesite
and quartz veins. Many ancient archeometallurgical
sites are encountered west of Gabal El-Zeit, e. g.,
Wadi El-Urf, and the nearby sites of Wadi Daram,
Umm Balad, and Wadi Abu Had.
The auriferous copper mineralisations of the Wadi
Hamama, south of the Safaga-Qena road (Figure 1),
occur in andesitic-rhyolitic rocks of the Dokhan volcanics. Here, the largest copper mine (see below at
Semna) is a stratiform to stratabound horizon mainly
with secondary copper ores within a green pelitic
schist of the Banded Iron Formation (“BIF”) and Precambrian marble (Abdel-Motelib et al. in press). The
copper ore forms continuous streaks of green secondary copper minerals and muddy fine grained cupriferous phyllite layers above the metamorphosed
paleosol. Due to multiple remobilisations caused by
lateritisation during the Precambrian copper was
re-deposited in shear zones and scours. The ancient
mine of Wadi Hamama was dug into the low grade
metamorphic rocks.
The copper deposits in the Semna area, east of the
Wadi Hamama, occur in two different types. They
form stratabound copper-bearing quartz veins which
cut the low-grade metamorphosed Precambrian pelitic rocks. Second, stratiform mineralisations were observed usually intervening the low grade metamorphic muscovite quartz schists and red slates which
represent a deltaic deposition of the Precambrian.
The sedimentary cover of the northern Eastern Desert
is represented by clastic and non-clastic sedimentary
rocks of Early Paleozoic to Eocene age. The Oligocene
igneous activity led to the formation of basaltic dikes
and sills. These are highly weathered and overlain
by Lower Miocene conglomerates west of Gebel ElZeit. Widely distributed Miocene rocks of the Eastern
Desert are of special economic interest, since more
than 60 % of the oil and gas production of Egypt are
confined to them. Pliocene to recent sediments are
represented by a section of clastics, thin evaporites
and corals reefs that are widespread along the coast
and in the cross cut of wadis that run perpendicular
on the Red Sea coast
The copper mineralisations in the area of the Wadi
Dara and Gabal Umm Urf occur in the Precambrian
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
rocks of the Esh-Mellaha series which runs parallel
to the Red Sea coast. The area is encompassed by
Dokhan volcanics and alkali granites with metasediments of the Hammamat series. Copper bearing
quartz veins are found in swarms (Castel & Pouit
1997, 105). Mineralised rhyolite or andesite dikes also
occur.
Sites visited in the Sinai Peninsula
South-western Sinai
Wadi Homr (Sarbot al Gamal)
Coordinates: N29°06’00.2” – E 33°11’45.7”; altitude:
276 m
The site in Wadi Homr is located 20 km west of Um
Bogma in southern direction of the desert of El-Tih.
It is a copper smelting site consisting of a western
and an eastern hillside (Abdel-Motelib 2006). The
Fig. 3: Wadi Homr. Schematic geological map of the Wadi Homr or
Gabal Sarbot el Gamal area showing the different rock units and the
location of the copper smelting
sites and general trends of wind
draft of the area. Wadi El Hommur
= Wadi Homr; Copper settlement =
smelting site. After Abdel-Motelib
(2006).
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
hills are rising up to 40 m high above the nearby
paved road. They are made up of intercalated shales
and limestone of Miocene age (Figure 3). The hard
limestone is partly dolomitic and siliceous and was
used to manufacture stone tools. The site extends
over an area of about 30 m and shows flat fields of
copper slag (estimated amount of a few hundred kilograms) and other remains of metallurgical activities
(Figure 4). Due to its position on the crest of hilltops
the smelting site of Wadi Homr is exposed to strong
blowing winds. In comparison with various localities in the Wadi Arabah it can be assumed that here
copper ore was smelted in wind powered furnaces.
Such types of furnaces are typical for the developed
Early Bronze Age (Hauptmann 2007, 228ff.). The site of
Wadi Homr is located in a greater distance to any ore
deposits or mineralisations. Hence, ore must have
been transported from distance to the smelting site,
e. g., from the ore district of Um Bogma.
The eastern hill is smaller and the surface is widely
scattered by slag and weathered lithic flakes and tools.
The scatter increases in north-western direction where
11
12
Fig. 4: Wadi Homr. The western hill shows flat slag fields on the top of small ridges. They are exposed to strong winds
blowing from the north-west and north-east. Due to this unique position of the smelting site and the lack of tuyères, we
suggest that copper was produced at the site in wind-powered furnaces. Foto: A Hauptmann, DBM.
the slope shows a higher concentration of slag. In
west-eastern direction four stone circles are arranged.
Two circles were constructed in double partition and
the other two are built as single circles. The outer diameters of the circles measure 2 - 2.5 m, the interior
diameters about 0.8 m. The outer circles were built of
unworked sandstone whereas the interior circles were
made of limestones. No openings were observed. The
function of the stone circles remains unclear. Whether
these might be recent bedouin burials or possibly
ancient constructions needs to be investigated.
Archaeometallurgical finds
Slag, furnace fragments, copper ore and prills, and
hammer-stones were found. The size of the slag
lumps varies between 0.5 and 15 cm on average.
Crushed slag indicates mechanical extraction of copper prills entrapped in the slag after smelting.
Other finds
Weathered lithic flakes and tools; Pottery: Few Nile
silt body sherds, wheel thrown, one fragment with
cannelure decoration; all probably Roman or later.
Dating/comments
In comparison to various localities in the Wadi Arabah (Faynan and others) we suggest that this site is
an Early Bronze Age smelting site where copper was
produced in wind powered furnaces. Characteristically, the position of the furnaces was choosen in
relation the intensity and direction of winds, and not
primarily to the close vicinity of ore deposits. The
site may have been re-visited in Roman or medieval
times.
Confluence of Wadi Nasib/Wadi Sih
Coordinates: N 29°03’59.2” – E 33°23’14.0”; altitude:
406 m
This copper smelting site is located close to the confluence of the Wadis Nasib and Sih on a flat quaternary terrace on the upper Paleozoic sandstone
surface. It has an extension of ca. 50 x 50 m, and
was partly destroyed by recent acitivities (Tallet 2006:
418). The site is covered by a few tons of slag (Figure
5). Slag lumps of a few cm to more than 10 cm were
found. The thickness of the slag heaps is between 10
cm and 30 cm. The slag accumulations are built up
of two strata which possibly result from a re-use of
slag in later period(s). It is not certain that some stone
settings are remains of smelting furnaces. Scattered
slag was observed around the smelting site also.
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
13
Fig. 5: Wadi Nasib - Wadi Sih, the copper smelting site. The flat slag heaps are marked by a darker colour in contrast to the
reddish rocks and soil. Foto: A. Hauptmann, DBM.
Fig. 6: Wadi Nasib - Wadi Sih. Multiple re-used tuyères from the smelting site. Tuyères of this design are a characteristic
feature exclusively for the late 2nd millennium BC copper production of the Sinai Peninsula. Foto: A. Hauptmann, DBM.
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
14
Fig. 7: Bir Nasib I. At present the largest smelting site on the Sinai Peninsula is Bir Nasib. The amount of slag is estimated
at 100,000 tons. The site is among the most important smelting sites in the Eastern Mediterranean. Most of the slag was
produced during the Late Bronze Age / New Kingdom periods. The left part of the smelting side is severely destroyed by
bulldozing.
Archaeometallurgical finds
The slag heaps consist of up to fist-sized slag fragments, often they were crushed, i.e., they were reworked. Very typical is a large number of multiply renewed and heavily slagged tuyères (Figure 6). They
were made of several layers of (fire-resistant) clay
(Al-Shorman 2009). The outer diameter of the tuyères
measures between 8 and 10 cm, and the diameter
of the wind-hole between 1.5 and 2.5 cm. They are
comparable to those found at Bir Nasib I and suggest
a dating from the New Kingdom (Rothenberg 1987).
Dating/comments
New Kingdom/ Late Bronze Age / Iron Age I. Specific
dating material are the tuyères.
27 batteries of possible wind-powered furnaces
were recently discovered by the Institut Français
d’Archéologie Orientale (IFAO) on top of the hills flanking the northern part of Wadi Nasib. It is suggested
that the original number of furnaces was considerably higher. Surprisingly, only a little amount of slag
has been observed. The beginning of these apparent
metallurgical activities seems to go back to the Old
Kingdom (Tallet 2007, 331; Castel et al. 2008, 67f.).
Bir Nasib I
Coordinates: N 29°02’20.6” – E 33°24’04.4”; altitude:
473 m
The famous smelting site of Bir Nasib comprises a
large area inside and around the modern oasis village Bir Nasib. It consists of a number of large copper slag heaps and a thick all-over coverage layer
of slag with an extent of ca. 100 x 200 m (Figure 7).
The largest slag heap liesbetween a steep mountain
ridge in the east, and the settlement. On a rock face,
ca. 300 m south-west of the slag heap, inscriptions
of Ramesses II or Merneptah (19th Dynasty, New
Kingdom) are found. The site is known already from
early travellers (Rüppell 1829, 264f.) and since then
it was repeatedly described by, e. g., Petrie 1906, 27;
Lucas & Harris 1962, 203; Rothenberg 1970, 17, 25
(Site No. 350), 1973, 14, 1979, 164f.; Weisgerber 1976,
29ff.; Chartier-Raymond et al. 1994, 41f.; Tallet 2003,
462ff, Fig. 1-7, 2006, 417f.). Preliminary calculations of
the slag amount to ca. 100,000 tons which could be
equivalent to 5000 – 5400 tons of copper produced
in total (Petrie 1906, 27; for further discussion see
Lucas & Harris 1962, 206f.; Bachmann et al., unpubl.,
site 350; Rothenberg 1987, 5f.).
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
15
Fig. 8: Bir Nasib I. Many hundreds of multiple re-used
tuyères were found at Bir Nasib. They are identical in shape
and design with those found at
the smelting site of Wadi Nasib / Wadi Sih. a) Preserved to
a length of 10 cm; b) Top view
of the same sample, note the
diameter of the air hole. From:
Al-Shorman (2009, 116).
Unfortunately the originally accumulated slag heaps
have not been preserved due to “ancient” re-working
of the slag and modern constructions as well. The
volume of the slag heaps itself, however, has not
suffered from these activities. The largest heaps are
located in the east of the oasis. They are quite “homogenous” in contrast with the heaps within the
oasis which are mixed with ancient and recent pottery. The site is among the largest smelting sites in
the Eastern Mediterranean and testifies to a supraregional center for copper production at least during
the Late Bronze and Iron Age I.
Previous soundings by Rothenberg (1987, 7) showed
that the slag heaps consist of three layers. The upper
layer is mixed with tuyères, while in the lowest level
no tuyères were found. No further investigations
were performed. According to Rothenberg (1987, 5),
the ancient copper mines should be located in the
slopes of the many low hills surrounding the slag
valley, especially in the Wadi Umm Rinna. Bachmann et al. (unpublished) identified also turquoise
among the copper ores from Bir Nasib I (but not
found occurring in the solid rock). To underline the
importance of Bir Nasib, Rothenberg (1987, 7) states,
that “…The whole district should rather be considered the center of an ancient copper district instead
of an individual copper mine…”. Archaeometallurgical finds such as slag, copper prills, hammer
stones, anvil stones, copper ore were found. Worth
mentioning are again the multiply re-newed tuyères
used at Bir Nasib I which very frequently occur at
the slag heaps, similar to the site of Wadi Nasib /
Wadi Sih (Figure 8, see above). Only fragments of
slagged ceramic furnace lining occur.
Other finds
Pottery: Some Nile silt body sherds, wheel thrown;
not datable.
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
Dating/comments
The large smelting activities testify to enormous copper production at least during the late New Kingdom
(Late Bronze and Iron Age I). The lower layer of the
main slag heap, in which no tuyères could be found,
may indicate earlier activities.
Like in the northern part of Wadi Nasib, 27 batteries
of wind-powered furnaces were recently identified
by investigations of the IFAO on top of the hills immediately to the west of Bir Nasib. They consist of
furnaces, arranged side by side in a row of 11-18 m
length. The rectangular furnaces are built of stones
with two openings at the base of their northern walls
facing the main wind direction. According to the pottery connected to these structures, the furnaces date
to the Middle Kingdom. No slags are reported from
this site (Tallet 2007, 329f.; Castel et al. 2008, 67f.).
Bir Nasib II / “Rōd El-Aiar”
Coordinates: N 29°02’36.1” – E 33°24’23.2”; altitude:
589 m
Bir Nasib II is located in north-eastern direction of the
large smelting site of Bir Nasib I, in close vicinity but
high above the huge slag heaps. The site is situated
on a small path (“Rōd el-Aiar”, meaning camel road)
which leads from Bir Nasib to the area of Serabit elKhadim. A rock-art panel with depictions of horned
animals is found immediately above the findspot,
and a rock inscription of Amenemhet III (12th Dynasty,
Middle Kingdom, Figure 9), flanked by proto-Sinaitic inscriptions, further 10 m up on the anticline of
the hill. A copper mine and several small turquoise
mines are reported to be located on top of the hill
(Petrie 1906, 27 and Fig. 20; Porter/Moss 1951, 366;
Gardiner et al. 1952, Pl. XIV; Gardiner et al. 1955, 30f.,
16
Fig. 9: Bir Nasib II / “Rōd El-Aiar”. Inscription of Amenemhet III (Middle Kingdom, c. 1830 BC) next to the small trail on the
pass (“Rōd el-Aiar”) which leads from Bir Nasib to the area of Serabit el-Khadim. Note the horned animals on the left
(weathered) table. Foto: A. Hauptmann, DBM.
Fig. 10: Bir Nasib II / “Rōd El-Aiar”. Vitrified and slagged furnace fragments made of sandstone from Bir Nasib “Rōd”. Note
the glazed sandstone sherds which sometimes have distinctive greenish colour. These fragments are possibly parts of
wind-powered furnaces. Along with these fragments nut- to fist-sized copper slag were found. Foto: A. Hauptmann, DBM.
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
76; Gerster 1961, 61; Gardiner 1962; Rothenberg 1970:
17, 25 (Site No. 351); 1973, 13f.; 1979, 164ff.; ChartierRaymond et al. 1994, 43; Tallet 2006, 418). On the site
a few kilograms of slag, slagged furnace fragments
(Figure 10) made up of sandstone-slabs and pieces
of copper ore embedded in sandstone were found
scattered in the upper part of the slope of the hill
where also weak secondary copper mineralisations
were visible in the sandstone matrix.
Archaeometallurgical finds
Scattered pieces of nut- to fist-sized slag, copper ore
in sandstone, vitrified and slagged furnace fragments
Other finds
Pottery: Few Nile silt body sherds, including two rim
fragments (of a bowl and of a large plate) dating to
the Old or Middle Kingdom; few Nile silt body sherds,
wheel thrown, probably Middle Kingdom or later;
few body sherds of pinkish-yellowish local ware,
not datable.
Dating/comments
The location of the site on top of a mountain, the
conspicuous absence of any tuyères, and the shape
and size of slag resembles the pattern of Early Bronze
Age smelting sites in the Wadi Arabah (Hauptmann
2007, 228ff). On the other hand, based upon the rock
inscription, the pottery evidence and the newly discovered furnaces on top of the opposite mountain
range (see Bir Nasib I), a later date (Middle Kingdom?) has to be considered. The site is assumed to
constitute the eroded remains of another smelting
site with wind-powered furnaces located originally
on top of the hill, like the batteries of furnaces east
of Bir Nasib (Castel/Tallet/Fluzin 2008, 67).
Wadi Kharig
Coordinates: N 29°03’00.4’’ – E 33°20’56.3’’; altitude:
376 m
This site is a small copper-manganese mine (Figure
11), located in a narrow wadi showing steep rock
edges on both sides. The mine was opened in an
outcrop of copper mineralisations at the lower Um
Bogma Formation which forms a faulted block here.
A shallow tunnel system was dug with several adits
to follow the ore body and thin mineralisation layers.
Fig. 11: Wadi Kharig. Some galleries of the ancient copper mine in the shaly-sandy part of the lower Um Bogma Formation
cut by erosion. The soft and friable layer could easily be exploited in ancient times. A workmen’s settlement was located
on top of the plateau above the mine. A stela of Sesostris I (12th dynasty) was still lying on the plateau immediately above
the mine. Foto: U. Hartung, DAI.
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
17
18
Copper minerals are malachite and paratacamite
(Bachmann et al. unpubl.). The remains of the ancient mining activities are located on the surrounding
slopes: about 30 m in front of the adits of the mines
small green copper ore pieces were found. Inside the
mine the sandstones shows a few layers with pale
greenish copper mineralisations, but their concentration is quite low. In general the lack of significant
quantities of copper ore is striking. Ancient traces of
mining tools can be seen within the mine, among
them hammering traces from metal tools.
On a narrow plateau above the mine, ca. 150 m to
the south, stone built houses of an Old Kingdom
workmen settlement are located with an inscription
of Sahure (5th Dynasty) on the rock face behind the
houses. Directly above the mine, a badly erroded
stela of Sesostris I (12th Dynasty) was found (Rüppell
1829, 266; Gardiner/Peet/Černý 1955, 31; Rothenberg
1973, 14f.; Beit-Arieh 1977; Giveon 1977; Giveon 1978;
Rothenberg 1979, 163f.). Slag heaps are reported
from the wadi, ca. 500 m north of the mine, and remains of furnaces and fragments of tuyères are men-
tioned as well (Chartier-Raymond et al. 1994, 41). A
battery of possible wind-powered furnaces has been
discovered by the investigations of the IFAO on the
hilltop above the Old Kingdom settlement. To the
west of the site, more mines and settlement remains
dating to the Middle Kingdom were found (Tallet
2006, 417; 2007, 330; Castel/Tallet/Fluzin 2008, 67f.).
Archaeometallurgical finds
Around the mines ancient slag scatters and furnaces
fragments were observed. It is possible that more
material is hidden under the windblown sandy plain.
Other finds
Pottery sherds from the Old Kingdom
Dating/comments
Mining and metallurgical activities obviously took
place from the Old Kindom (5th Dynasty / Early Bronze
Age III) until the Middle Kingdom /Middle Bronze Age
but may have well continued into later times as indicated by the finds of tuyères mentioned above.
Fig. 12: Wadi Maghara. View of the ancient turquoise mines and waste dumps from the opposite hill where workmen’s
habitation sites of the Old Kingdom are located. Exploitation activities date also to the New Kingdom. Most prehistoric
remains are destroyed by mining activities in the 20th century. Foto: A. Hauptmann, DBM.
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
19
Fig. 13: Wadi Maghara. Relief of Pharao Sechemchet (2600-2595 BC) above the ancient turquoise mines. It survived destruction despite the use of explosives in mining activities during the 19th century. Unfortunately, the cartouche of the Pharao
was stolen in the 1950’s. Foto: K. Pfeiffer, DAI.
Wadi Maghara
Coordinates: N 28°53’50.4’’ - E 33°22’16.8’’; altitude:
296 m
The turquoise mines at Wadi Maghara and the surrounding rock inscriptions are well known since the
19th century (e. g., Palmer 1872, 197; Weill 1904, 95ff.;
Petrie 1906, 34ff.; Porter/Moss 1951, 339ff.; Gardiner/
Peet/Černý 1952, Pl. I-XV; Gardiner/Peet/Černý 1955,
22ff.; Giveon 1974, Weisgerber 1976, 31ff.; Rothenberg 1979, Garenne-Marot 1984, 98; Weisgerber 1991,
Chartier-Raymond et al. 1994, 36f.). The mines are
located along a ridge of a steep rocky slope, high
above the Wadi Maghara itself (Figure 12). Turquoise
was exploited from an only slightly dipping copper
bearing sandstone strata. It occurs in small veins and
pockets within this stratum. It is related to the Carboniferous lateritic and karst manganese ore deposit
of the Um Bogma formation (Abdel-Motelib 1996;
Sharkawi et. al. 1990 a, b; El Aref & Abdel-Motelib
2001). Due to mining activities at the beginning of
the 20th century, the prehistoric traces are nearly
completely destroyed. Waste dumps cover the slope
below the mines and are heaped up in front of the
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
adits. Only few ancient hammering marks from metal
tools are still visible today. Ancient tools were found
by E. H. Palmer during his visit in 1869. He describes
a large amount of lithic tools (hammer-stones?) and
flint flakes, scattered around the mines, but he also
mentions chisel marks from metal tools inside the
mines.
Vis-à-vis of the mines, on the top of a steep Tertiary/Quaternary gravel terrace, the settlement of the
workmen of the Old Kingdom consisting of a large
number of small stone-built huts is located. Bachmann et al. (unpubl.) describes finds of obsidian-like
slag from Maghara.
Archaeometallurgical finds
No finds related to metallurgical activities could be
found.
Dating/comments
According to the inscriptions around the mines
(beginning with king Djoser, 3rd Dynasty), the main
phase of exploitation was the Old Kingdom but
seems to have continued on a smaller scale until
the New Kingdom. Apart from two inscriptions of
Sekhemkhet (3rd Dynasty, Figure 13), all other inscriptions are today either destroyed by the mining
activities at the beginning of the 20th century, or have
been transferred to the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
20
Um Bogma, mining area “45”
Coordinates: N 28°57’13.6’’ – E 33°19’03.9”; altitude:
315 m
The ancient mines of the Um Bogma district are distributed in a wide geographic area. Although large
parts of the mining district have already been destroyed by recent manganese mining activities, there
are still a number of ancient copper mines preserved.
The mining area “45” is one of them. It lies about 20
km east of the coast of the Gulf of Suez, between the
ancient roads of the wadis Ba’Ba, Mokattab, and Firan
(Abdel-Motelib & El-Derby 2006). The mine area occupies a triple block faulting junction of the Paleozoic
against Precambrian basement rocks. The copper ore
consists here of pronounced streaks and veinlets of
malachite, pseudomalachite and atacamite (Figure
14) which are associated with the topsoil karstic sediments of the parent manganese bearing Um Bogma
formation (Abdel-Motelib 1987,1996; El Sharkawi et
al. 1990b, El Aref & Abdel-Motelib 2001). The topsoil
horizon is also enriched by uraniferous anomalies
(see Table 2). Its thickness varies between 1 - 5 m and
forms also the traps of copper minerals which sometimes reach a thickness of 3 m alternating with clayey
materials and iron oxides. The manganese- and ironrich copper-containing shales provided a natural selffluxing composition of ore for the ancient smelters.
Dating/comments
No secure dating material was available at the time
of the expedition. According to macroscopic features
the type of ore is similar to that found at the smelting
site of Wadi Ba’Ba which mainly dates from the Early
Bronze Age.
Fig. 14: Um Bogma, mining area “45”. Copper bearing shaly-sandy part of the lower Um Bogma Formation, enriched with
copper carbonates, phosphates and chlorides. As demonstrated in Fig. 10 (Wadi Kharig), this soft and friable layer was
exploited in ancient times. The composition of silt and sand provided a natural “self-fluxing” material. Foto: K. Pfeiffer, DAI.
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
Mouth of Wadi Ba’Ba
Coordinates: N 28°57’03.4’’ – E 33°15’14.9”; altitude:
122 m (lower level of the site)
The mouth of the Wadi Ba’Ba into the El-Markha plain
along the coastal area is cutting a north-south running
steep hillside looking westwards to the sea. Here, a copper smelting site is located at the slope of a hill made
up of Eocene limestone and dolomite (Petrie 1906, 18,
Fig. 12; Lucas & Harris 1962, 207; Rothenberg 1970, 25
(Site 347); Chartier-Raymond et al. 1994, 34f.; Mumford
& Parcak 2003, Fig. 2).The slag heap covers the western
surface of the hill from the connection of the wadi to
around 30 m up and along the bedding plane.The slag
heap comprises perhaps ca. 1,000 tons (Figure 15).The
site is faced by strong winds blowing from the nearby
seaside. The deeply black coloured slag (ca. 5 -8 cm
sized) is partly crushed. Many slag pieces were found
to be rich in copper as indicated by remarkable encrustations of green secondary copper minerals and inclusions of copper droplets. No tuyères were found, but
vitrified furnace fragments were frequently observed
especially in the upper part of the slag heap which may
point to the location of ancient furnaces on top of the
hills. No copper mineralisations were found close to the
smelting site. We therefore assume that copper ore was
transported from the mining area “45” of Um Bogma,
a distance of only a few kilometers.
Archaeometallurgical finds
Slag, vitrified furnace fragments
Other finds
Few pottery fragments of a local ware, not datable.
Dating/comments
There is no material available for a secure dating of
the site. Due to the position of the slag heap on the
two hills, however, a dating to the developed Early
Bronze Age / Middle Bronze Age seems to be most
likely, especially considering the short distance (ca.
7 kilometres) to the site of Ras Budran.
Fig. 15: Wadi Ba’Ba. The smelting site is located at the mouth of Wadi Ba’Ba on the slope of the first mountain range which
rises from the flat plain on the western side of the peninsula. The smelting site is exposed to very strong winds blowing
from the sea. A dating to the developed Early Bronze Age / Middle Bronze Age is possible. Foto: K. Pfeiffer, DAI.
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
21
Ras Budran
Coordinates: N 28°59’03.6” - E 33°10’53.3”; altitude:
8m
22
The site is located in the northern part of the el Markha
plain, in a distance of only 200 m from the seashore.
It was discovered by Rothenberg (1970, 25f., site no.
345) in the 1960’s and is recently investigated by G.
Mumford from the University of Toronto (Mumford
2006). The site is built on an alluvial fan deposits of
Wadi Ba’Ba and along the sandy bay of Ras Budran.
It is surrounded by sabkha deposits and aeolian sand
hills. The beach is scattered with gravels of granite and
various types of hard sedimentary rocks.
The excavations revealed a roughly circular structure
built of limestones, 44 m in diameter, with a 5-7 m
wide wall which is preserved to a height of ca. 3.50
m. The interior of the structure constitutes a courtyard used as storage area, for household activities,
for flint-knapping and for the processing of copper
and turquoise. According to Mumford (2006) the
construction seems to have been a fortified outpost
which served as a garrison to secure and to support
the Egyptian mining expeditions to Wadi Kharig and
Wadi Maghara. From here, the raw materials may
have been transported by ship to Ain Soukhna (see
below) and then overland to Memphis, Egypt’s Old
Kingdom capital. A connection to the smelting site
at the mouth of Wadi Ba’ba, located some 7km to the
west, seems to be quite possible.
Archaeometallurgical finds
Fragments of crucibles, crucible slag
Dating/comment
According to the pottery evidence, the construction
of the fort and the main phase of its use was dated by
Mumford (2006) to the late Old Kingdom (Early EBA
IV/MBA I). The strategic importance of the northern
el-Markha Plain – with suitable anchorages, easy
access to the mining areas (by Wadi Ba’ba and Wadi
Sidri) and a fresh water well at its northern edge is furthermore mirrored by a New Kingdom smelting and anchorage site situated to the north of Ras
Butran which has been excavated by G. Mumford in
2002 (Albright 1948, 14f., fig. 2; Rothenberg 1970, 25
(Site no. 346); Mumford & Parcak 2003).
Southern Sinai
posits of Wadi El-Regeita. It is a wide wadi running
from west to north and is bordered by large granitic
rock formations. The ground is sandy. In the middle of
the Wadi and on both sides, copper ore pieces were
found. The copper ore might have been transported
by the wadi from the west, where the copper ore deposit of Wadi El-Regeita is located. No other remains
of metallurgical activities were found.
Wadi El-Regeita
Coordinates: N 28°37’29.7” – E 34°05’15.1”; altitude:
1364 m
This is a site which comprises a long copper mineralized andesitic dike embedded in granitic rock suites
which runs from Wadi El-Regeita in west-east direction with an extension of a few kilometres (Wilson
& Palmer 1869, 121, noted a length of 3 km; Holland
1871, 540; Lucas & Harris 1962, 204). The dike is 2 –
2.5 m thick and is partially heavily mineralized by
secondary oxidic copper minerals, copper sulfides
and hematite / specularite). The Geological Survey of
Israel (Brenner & Mart 1970) describes two Cu-mineralized dikes in this region, divided into a northern
one of 4.5 km in length and a southern one of about
1.5 km in length. The average thickness of this dike
is below 1 m. In addition, small mineralized fissures
and veins occur in the vicinity (Beit-Arieh 2003, 201).
Analyses of a geological sample revealed a copper
content of 4 wt.%, but this average concentration is
probably not relevant for the “ancients” who exploited selectively ore enriched and concentrated punctually in the dike. The copper dike of Wadi El-Regeita
is one of the largest copper deposits of Southern
Sinai, apart, of the ore deposit of Um Bogma. The
dike was exploited almost all over its length, and it
shows rows of “ancient” Pingen, up to a depth of 1
– 4 m, and a shaft of ca. 10 m, accompanied by waste
dumps stringed like pearls on a necklace (Figure 16).
Dating/comments
The main phase of mining activities is probably contemporary with Early Bronze Age II sites such as Nabi
Salah, Sheikh Muhsen and others, in which evidence
for copper metallurgy was observed (Beit-Arieh 2003,
202). Chemical analyses of copper artefacts from
these sites and from ore from the Wadi El-Regeita
mine seem to confirm this connection for a large
part of the investigated samples (Beit-Arieh 2003,
205-206).
Wadi Zaghra
Coordinates: N 28°38’17.7” – E 34°05’28.2”; altitude:
1231 m
Wadi El-Nefoukh
Wadi Zaghra is located in the crystalline basement
in Southern Sinai, close to the region of the ore de-
Coordinates: N 28°35’41.1’’ - E 34°02’00.0’’ – altitude:
1456 m
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
23
Fig. 16: Wadi El-Regeita. View of the “ancient” copper ore vein of El-Regeita at its western end. The mineralisation in the
dike extends ca. 1000 m over the hills to the east. It was exploited almost along its total, and waste dumps run parallel to
the so called “Pingen”. Foto: K. Pfeiffer, DAI.
Fig. 17: Wadi El-Nefoukh. Close to a group of striking granite boulders formed by “Wollsack”-weathering, and in close
vicinity of a well, flat slag scatters of about ten tons occur (not shown in the picture). The plain is called “Blue Valley” due
to some modern art blue rock paintings (arrow).
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
24
The slag heaps of Wadi El-Nefoukh are located in
the so called Blue Valley, in the south of the Sinai
Peninsula, some 10 km from the monastery of St.
Catherina. The knick-name of this locality is due
to the painting of some rock boulders by modern
artists. The site (numbered as 1091 by Beit-Arieh
2003, 326) is in a distance of a few kilometres from
the copper mineralisations in Wadi El-Regeita. It is
located at the margin of the plain on top of a small
gravel terrace of about 40 x 15 m, surrounded by
huge granite boulders to the east and close to a
well (Figure 17). Scatters of small-sized, crushed
slag pieces (cm- to mm-sized) and pieces of copper ore were found on the terrace. Due to a macroscopic evaluation the ore is indeed compatible
with that from Wadi El-Regeita. The amount of slag
is about 1 ton, which indicates a very small scale
copper production.
Archaeometallurgical finds
Slag, copper pieces, ore
Dating/comment
The wind exposed location of the smelting site, and
the assemblage of finds (crushed slag, ore, furnace
fragments, and namely the absence of any tuyères or
clay tubes) point to a typical wind-powered furnace
situation. This type of furnace seems to be characteristic for the later EBA. No pottery was found.
Wadi Ahmar
Coordinates: N 28°37’26.4’’ - E 34°03’28.4’’; altitude:
1308 m
The site was numbered no. 1039 previously by Beit
Arieh (2003, 297). It is located along the alluvial fan
of Wadi Ahmar, on a slight slope. The extension
of the place measures about 40 x 160 m (Figure
18). The site shows different sized stone settings
of oval or irregular shape all around. In the lower
third of the elongated site a high concentration
Fig. 18: Wadi Ahmar, site 1039. General view of the sites 1038 (left, three persons) and 1039 (right, one person) which are
separated by a small wadi draining into the Wadi Ahmar. Site 1039 is located on the slope at the background beyond the
wadi. Foto: U. Hartung, DAI.
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
of quartz pieces and chips, scattered between the
ruins, was noticed. They originate from a copper
bearing quartz dike nearby. Few pottery sherds
and cm-sized crushed slag were found. Copper
ore could not be found within the architectural
units, but the rocks which enclose the site to the
West were densely scattered with small copper ore
pieces. Wadi Ahmar site 1039 is a copper producing site, but there is little evidence for large scale
copper smelting.
Dating/comments
The site is dated by Beit-Arieh (2003, 298) to the Early
Bronze Age II, but considering the tuyères found at
the nearby site 1038 also a later date seems possible.
On the eastern flank of the site a 4 m deep wadi rift
divides the sites 1039 and 1038 (Beit-Arieh 2003, 298).
On both slopes of the wadi architectural remains are
found.
The site was numbered no. 1038 previously by BeitArieh (2003, 297). It joins eastwards to site 1039 and
is separated from it by a small wadi rift. The stone
structures at site 1038 are well preserved, in parts
they are covered by small boulders and eroded walls.
Round and round cornered buildings characterize
the site, in which all in all more than 15 well preserved stone houses can be observed (Figure 19).
The amount of (crushed) slag was estimated by Bachmann et al. (unpubl.) to be ca. 75 kg. Perhaps 10 kg
Archaeometallurgical finds
Slag, copper ore, tuyères
Other finds
Two Egyptian marl clay body sherds, not datable
25
Wadi Ahmar
Coordinates: N 28°37’26.64” – E 34°3’27.61”; altitude
1309 m
Fig. 19: Wadi Ahmar, site 1038. View on site 1038 with slight slag accumulations within and outside architectural remains
on a gravel terrace (grey). Foto: U. Hartung, DAI.
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
a
b
26
Fig. 20a, b: Wadi Ahmar, site 1039. Slagged tuyères made of clay from a copper (s)melting process (a: slagged outside
of a tuyère, b: inside, showing a diameter of the hole with ca. 1 cm). They are of the same making as those found at Late
to Middle Bronze Age Faynan and Timna. Sample collected by Prof. Dr. H.G. Bachmann 1978 from site 717A which most
probably is identical with Beit-Arieh’s site 1039. Foto: A. Hauptmann, DBM.
or so of metal could have been produced. Tiny pieces
of copper ore can be found scattered on the granitic
rocks which close the site northwards. Dozens of
tuyères with finger-sized wind holes were found on
the site (Figure 20). These are comparable to those
from the Late to Middle Bronze Age tuyères found
at Faynan and Timna (Hauptmann 2007; Rothenberg
1990). Due to the shape, diameter and size these objects indicate a later date than assumed by Beit-Arieh
(2003, 301). Wadi Ahmar site 1038 is a copper producing site also, but there is also no evidence for ample
copper smelting
Archaeometallurgical finds
Tuyères, crushed slag, few pieces of copper ore
Dating/comments
Especially the type of tuyères, in comparison with
the two major copper districts at Faynan and Timna,
indicate a dating into the Late EBA / MBA. The pottery
described by Beit-Arieh (2003, 297, „…body sherds
of holemouth jars similar in composition to the EBA
II pottery, sherds of red clay“) points to the EBA II.
due to the excavations of Currelly in 1906 (Currelly in
Petrie 1906, 239f.) or Rothenberg in 1972 (1979, 138).
We did not find slag in such an amount as described
by previous authors, but a few kilograms of small
pieces of crushed slag, and pieces of mineralized
quartz probably from the nearby Wadi El-Regeita
vein are nevertheless proof for a limited copper production at the site. The stone structures of different
size and oval or round cornered shapes are well preserved and their diameters measure between 1 - 4
m. Furnaces or crucible fragments were not found.
Archaeometallurgical finds
Slag, copper ore form nearby Wadi El-Regeita
Other finds
flint borers
Dating/comments
Rothenberg dated the copper production installations
which he had excavated to the Early Bronze Age II,
flint implements found by Currelly date from the PrePottery Neolithic B date (Beit-Arieh 2003, 201).
Wadi Rimthi
Watiya Pass
Coordinates: N 28°37’41.80” – E 34°4’4.87”; altitude:
1214 m
Coordinates: N 28°41’53.63’’ – E 33°58’48.52”; altitude: 1272 m
The site was numbered before as 1035 by Beit-Arieh
(2003, 295-296). It is located on a steep rocky edge
which build up the northern border of the Wadi
Rimthi. Several waste dumps and accumulations of
excavated soil between the remains of stone structures are visible at the surface of the site; they are
In his report Beith-Arieh (2003, 65ff.) numbered the
site 1042. The Early Bronze Age II settlement is located directly westwards of the Watiya pass, about
100 m on the northern bank besides the asphalt
road. It lies on a flat gravel terrace formed by the
detritus of the steeply arising granite mountains.
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
27
Fig. 21: Watiya Pass. About 50 m above an Early Bronze Age II settlement, located next to the paved road, a small copper
smelting site was found. Vitrified furnace fragments and slag were found on the steep slope facing strong winds from the
west. Due to this specific position and the absence of any finds of tuyères, it is suggested that copper was produced here
in wind-powered furnaces. Foto: K. Pfeiffer, DAI.
Fig. 22: Watiya Pass. Granite hammer stones found at the gravel slope between the smelting site and the Early Bronze Age
II settlement below. Foto: K. Pfeiffer, DAI.
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
28
Beit-Arieh (2003, 65ff.) excavated the settlement at
the bottom of the mountains. He reports very little
copper slag and ore, and two small copper implements. From the archaeometallurgical point of view,
the smelting site located nearby, which obviously
was not discovered before, is of greater interest for
us. It is located ca. 50 m above the settlement in a
broad incision in the granitic rock caused by weathering of a copper-mineralized andesitic dike (Figure 21). Copper ore, slag, heavily vitrified furnace
fragments and hammer stones (Figure 22) were
found on top of the dike’s exposure and on its steep
slopes. Not one single clay tuyère was found. The
site is exposed to very strong winds from the west.
Therefore it can be suggested that the smelting of
copper was performed in wind powered furnaces.
Unfortunately, the position of the furnaces could
not be found. As the amount of slag did not exceed
the amount of a few kilograms, metal probably was
produced only on a small scale for the settlers own
needs. It is worth mentioning, however, that Watiya
is one of the few Early Bronze Age II sites that offer
both artefacts and production of copper.
Archaeometallurgical finds
Hammer stones, slag, ore, and vitrified furnace fragments
Dating/comments
According to his excavation results, the settlement
site was dated by Beit-Arieh to Early Bronze Age II,
and the smelting site above the settlement is probably of the same date.
Sites visited in the northern and central Eastern Desert of Egypt
Northern Eastern Desert
Ain Soukhna
Coordinates: N 29°35’12.48’’ - E 32°20’07.09’’ - altitude
24 m
The site of Ain Soukhna is located on the western
seashore of the Red Sea, only a few kilometres south
Fig. 23: Gabal Dara, Eastern Desert. Overview of a working/smelting site in a Wadi nearby Gabal Dara with several building
remains. Next to the buildings two terraces were built. One contains crushed copper slag and the other crushed copper
ore. Foto: U. Hartung, DAI.
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
Fig. 24: Pottery from different sites in the Eastern Desert, scale 1:4 (a, b: Gebel Dara; c,d: Wadi Hammama ‘Ain; e-i: Semna
I; j-l: Semna II). Drawing by R. Hartmann, DAI.
of Suez. In 1999 hieroglyphic inscriptions were discovered at a rock face not far from the sea shore, and
since 2001, the site is intensively investigated by the
Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, Cairo (Abd
el-Razik et al. 2002; Mathieu 2003: 595ff.; 2004: 690ff.;
Defernez 2004, 59ff.; Abd el-Razik et al. 2004; 2006;
2007; 2007a; Abd el-Razik et al. 2007; Castel et al.
2008, 64f., 70f.). Ain Soukhna turned out to be a multifunctional center involved in maritime enterprises
along the Red Sea coast as well as in metallurgical
activities. The site covers more than one hectar and
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
comprises not only a settlement with several workshops but also galleries, built ca. 20 m into the rock
of the hill slope. First thought to have been ancient
mines for local copper ore, the excavations revealed
that they were intentionally built as magazines to
store dismantled ships and other equipment. Additionally, ca. 50 wind-powered furnaces and other
metallurgical installations indicate considerable
smelting and melting activities at the site. As to the
origin of the copper ore, it is assumed by the excavators to be come from the Sinai Peninsula.
29
30
Dating/comments
According to the inscriptions and the pottery evidence from the excavations, Ain Soukhna seems to
have been the starting point for pharaonic expeditions to the copper and turquoise mines of the Sinai Peninsula mainly during the Old and the Midlde
Kingdom. The metallurgical activities attested so far,
date to a rather short span of time during the Middle Kingdom. Some finds of stone vessel fragments
and one of the radiocarbon dates yielded from an
excavated fire place may indicate earlier (late Predynastic/Early Dynastic) activities at the site (personal
communication, G. Castel).
Gebel Dara
Coordinates: N 27°55’47.0’’ - E 33°00’21.9’’ - altitude:
432 m
The site is located in the mining district of Wadi Dara
- Umm Balad - Wadi el-Urf (Tawab et al. 1990, 359ff;
Castel & Mathieu 1992; Grimal 1993; 1994), some 10
kilometres to the east of the sites in Wadi Dara, at
the end of a small wadi cutting from the east into
the Gebel Dara mountain ridge. The site comprises
architectural and archaeometallurgical features (Figure 23). Among the stone houses, some buildings
are preserved with a height of 1.20 m. They are rectangular and use the natural rocks being part of the
construction. The walls are made of medium sized
stones. Scattered grinding stones of different shape
can be found in the site.
Two terraced places of about 4 x 5 m can be observed, one of them is enclosed by a row of stones.
On this terrace only crushed slag was found, densely
covered and with an amount of about 1 ton; whereas
on the other terrace exclusively copper ore pieces
were found. These features represent probably two
working areas in the centre of a dwelling place.
Archaeometallurgical finds
Copper ore, slag, and grinding stones
Other finds
Rather large amount of scattered sherds, including
coarse straw tempered Nile clay fragments of large
pithoi (not datable), two pieces of fine red polished
late Roman “Aswan ware” (Figure 24 a) and several
marl clay fragments, amongst them a rim of a bottle
of Ptolemaic/Roman date (Figure 24 b).
Dating/comment
The pottery indicates the use of the site from early
Roman (or even Ptolemaic) until late Roman time.
Neither slag nor any of the grinding stones are datable.
Central Eastern Desert
The following sites are situated south of the Qena-Safaga asphalt road in the northern part of the
central Eastern Desert. This region was not only important as one of the connections between the Nile
valley and the Red Sea but was also quite intensively exploited during the Ptolemaic (gold mining)
and Roman period (gold mining, quarrying). Gold
deposits occur, e. g., at Abu Marawat, Semna, Gebel
Semna, Gidami, and in the Wadi Hamama (Botros
2002). Several way stations and hydreumata (fortified wells) in this area witness the effort to secure
these activities (e.g. Barron & Hume 1902, 59, 86,
221, 265 (Wadi Semna); Murray 1925, 146, pl. XI;
Meredith 1952, fig. 1, 105ff.; Klemm & Klemm 1993,
408ff.; 1994, 206ff; Sidebotham 1996, Fig. 1; 189f.;
Sidebotham et al. 2001).
Wadi Abu Greida
Coordinates: N 26°21’27.9’’ – E 33°17’18.5’’ – altitude:
372 m
The site (possibly mentioned by Meredith 1952, 106
and Klemm & Klemm 1994, 220, No. 29 or 30) is
located along the north-east – south-west running
Wadi Abu Greida, on an elevated Quaternary alluvial
plain. To the south, Paleozoic sandstone hills rise
over the rocks of the Precambrian basement. The
alluvial sediments contain Precambrian volcanic
rock gravels such as rhyolites and red and green coloured porphyric rocks. In the sandstone formation,
a tableau with animal petroglyphs is found. The site
is characterised by some stone-built architectural
remains and several waste dumps with volumes
of 10 to 20 m3 each. They consist of fine grained
sandy material very rich in hematite (“specularite”). It is not certain if this material was derived
from mineralisations in the Banded Iron Formations
(“BIF”) only a few kilometers east of Abu Greida, or
if gold was extracted (Botros 2002, 147). Distributed over the site are dozens of grinding and anvil
stones (Figure 25) mostly made from the gravels
of the alluvial plain. Grooves at the surface clearly
indicate that the waste dumps result from a very
careful and systematic beneficiation of material by
grinding and hammering. Approximately 1 ton of
slag from iron processing is scattered over the site
and accumulated on a small heap. Although iron
smelting is mentioned in the literature (e.g. Murray
1925, 146; Meredith 1952, 106), most probably the
slag does not represent any iron smelting process,
but rather point to smithing activities.
Archaeometallurgical finds
Iron processing slag, anvil stones, hammer stones
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
31
Fig. 25: Wadi Abu Greida, Eastern Desert. One of the dozens of anvil stones found at the site. Note the typical porphyric
texture of the rhyolithic rock. The anvils stones are identical to those found by Klemm & Klemm (1994) at gold processing
sites in the Eastern Desert. We can not exlude the possibility that hematite rich gold bearing ore was processed here as
well. Foto: A. Hauptmann, DBM.
Fig. 26: Wadi Hamama, Eastern Desert. Ptolemaic mining site (copper, gold?) showing remains of mining activities on the
slope. In the foreground are traces of a rectangular stone building. Foto: U. Hartung, DAI.
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
Other finds
Nile silt and marl clay fragments, often covered by
a white wash, including some body sherds and a
handle of a Roman amphora.
32
Dating/comments
The site belongs obviously to the network of sites
supporting Roman gold mining activities in the region.
1 - 1.5 m. Their interior is divided into several rooms.
Small green copper mineralisations in limonite are
visible in rhyolithic dikes and are associated with
Precambrian mudstone schist where the host rock is
heavily altered.
Archaeometallurgical finds
Copper ore, grinding stones, and slag
Coordinates: N 26°20’44.2’’ - E 33°21’13.7’’ - altitude:
497m
Other finds
Around the houses scattered sherds of Ptolemaic
date were found, including the rim fragments of an
amphora made of Nile silt (Figure 24 c) and of a red
polished bowl made of marl clay (Figure 24 d).
The site (possibly mentioned by Klemm & Klemm
1994, 220, No. 29 or 30) is situated at the upper
course of a small wadi, ca. 5 km east of the site of
Abu Greida. It may have secured the water supply in
this barren region. Two rectangular stone buildings
are found immediately beside a mine (Figure 26). The
walls of the houses are preserved to a hight of ca.
Dating/comments
The small mining site seems to have been in use exclusively during the Ptolemaic period. Due to the association of copper with gold the latter was probably
exploited from the mineralisations as well. Semna
and Gebel Semna are described as gold mines by
Botros et al. (2002, 138).
Wadi Hamama
Fig. 27: Semna I, Eastern Desert. Small late Predynastic / Early 1st Dynastic (EBAI / EBAII) mines in a tributary of Wadi Semna
probably for extracting copper ore. Since neither slag nor metallurgical installations were observed the copper ore might
have been exploited solely for its use as a pigment. Foto: U. Hartung, DAI.
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
Wadi Semna I
Coordinates: N 26°28’03.6’’ - E 33°36’49.5’’ – altitude:
538 m
The mining area of Semna I consists of ca. 20 individual mines or tailings, respectively, on both sides of
a small tributary to Wadi Semna where copper bearing
hydrothermal quartz veins embedded in Precambrian
meta-sedimentary rocks were exploited (Figure 27).
They may reach an extent of up to 15 x 20 m each. The
veins show limonite and, subordinated, manganese
hydroxides. The mineralisations are intruding into the
host rock. Secondary green copper minerals such as
malachite and chrysocolla are forming striking wallpapers and small, mm- to cm-sized geoids. Of special
interest are layers of very fine to fine grained argillaceous metamorphic rocks made up of clays and silt
sized quartz and iron oxides. Due to iron and organic
contents as well as the various types of the original
clay show reddish-green and greyish-black colours.
During our short visit, no furnaces or any other metallurgical installations, and no slag were observed.
If at all, furnaces may be located on top of the neighbouring hills or, alternatively, it was just copper ore
that was exploited here as a pigment rather than for
metal production.
At the bottom of the wadi, a square stone structure
is partly visible, measuring ca. 5 x 5 m. Inside and
around the structure some scattered pottery fragments and large amounts of partly worked chips of
grey metamorphic shist were found. The debris may
point to the additional production of cosmetic palettes, vessels or bracelets, as they are common in
predynastic and early dynastic Egyptian tombs, at
the site.
Archaeometallurgical finds
No finds related to metallurgy, but copper ore, and
hammer stones
Other finds
The pottery found scattered on the surface is all
handmade and can be classified into four groups
with only a limited range of shapes:
Fig. 28: Semna II, Eastern Desert. Remains of a small workmen settlement from the Old Kingdom (3rd / 4th Dynasty) located
on the foot of a hill slope with copper mines. Foto: U. Hartung, DAI.
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
33
34
1. Medium sand and straw tempered alluvial Nile clay
with mica inclusions, wet finished surface: fragment
of a shallow bowl with conical walls and rectangular
smoothed rim (Figure 24 e) and a fragment of a deep
bowl with convex walls (Figure 24 f).
2. Fine marl clay, red slipped and polished on the inner and outer surface: all fragments belong to bowls,
e.g. to a thin-walled, streak polished bowl typical of
the early 1st Dynasty (Figure 24 g).
3. Medium to coarse marl clay, smoothed and
scraped surface: all fragments belong to high ovoid
jars with broad shoulders and a distinct neck (Figure
24 h).
4. Probably mixed fine alluvial/fine marl clay with
few limestone particles, sand and mica inclusions,
burnished surface: quite rare, one fragment belongs
to a globular jar with lentil-shaped base (Figure 24 i).
Dating/comment
According to the pottery, the activities on the site
seem to date from the late Predynastic until the early
1st Dynasty. This evidence corresponds to the beginning of copper mining and smelting in the Wadi Dara
region in the northern Eastern Desert. According to
macroscopic features the copper ore of this outcrop
shows strong similarities to malachite finds from
Predynastic tombs at Abydos.
Semna II
Coordinates: N 26°27’58.3’’ - E 33°37’27.0’’ – altitude:
505 m
Another cluster of small mines is located in a distance of about 2 km east of Semna I on the slopes
above the bottom of another wadi. One ore vein of 1
– 2 m width was found to be mined in ancient times.
It is filled with debris at a depth of about 2 m. The
copper mineralisation and geological set up is identical to Semna I.
At the foot of the slope several stone structures are
visible: Beside a rectangular installation preserved
to a height of about 30 cm, an ensemble of round
structures is found (Figure 28). The construction is
rather well preserved and consists of several roughly
Fig. 29: Semna III, Eastern Desert. View to the ancient mines on the slope of a mountain ridge. Quartz veins of ca. 500 m
length were probably exploited for copper ore, possibly also for gold. Foto: A. Hauptmann, DBM.
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
circular units of 2 – 4 m in diameter. A connection
between the architectural remains and the mines
seems to be obvious – they may well have been the
habitations of a group of workmen.
35
Archaeometallurgical finds
Copper ore and hammer stones
Other finds
The majority of pottery was found in and around
the stone built structures, some additional pieces
on the slopes immediately below the mines. The assemblage consists mainly of different kinds of red
polished wares, with only a few additional coarse
straw tempered Nile silt sherds with rough surface.
Among the red polished wares three major groups
of fabrics can be distinguished:
1. Fine alluvial clay with fine sand and mica inclusions.
2. Fine marl clay.
3. Medium straw tempered alluvial clay.
The first two fabrics include mostly different kinds
of the very hard and high-quality “Meydum ware”
(Figure 24 j), but also fragments of ovoid storage jars
with broad shoulder and of slim bottles with narrow
neck (Figure 24 k). The third group is represented
only by a few pieces restricted to vessels of closed
shape with convex wall and flaring rim which have
been most probably used as cooking pots (Figure 24
l). All the assemblage can be dated to the late 3rd and
the 4th Dynasties.
Dating/comments
The Old Kingdom date of Semna II leads to the assumption that the site may have been the successor
of the late Predynastic/Early Dynastic site Semna I.
Altogether, the mining region of Semna may have
covered an area measuring several square kilometers. As far as we know, these sites are the first evidence for early copper ore mining in the area which
was hitherto known mainly from its gabbro quarry
and other installations of Roman times (Klemm/
Klemm 1993, 408ff.; Sidebotham et al. 2001). The
chronological evidence from Semna I and II seems
to reflect the situation in the Wadi Dara region, where
late Predynastic/Early Dynastic mining activities were
continued also especially during the 4th Dynasty (cf.
Köhler 1998). In contrast to Wadi Dara, furnaces or
any other metallurgical installations for the processing of copper ore are missing at Semna I and II. This
may be due to the fact that they were not yet found,
or that they did not exist because only the exploitation of green copper minerals was the intention
of these mining activities, and not the production
of metal. Furthermore, we should not exclude the
possibility that the small mines were dug only for
prospection purposes and were soon abandoned
because only poor ore was found.
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
Fig. 30: Semna III, Eastern Desert. One single U-shaped
smelting furnace was built on top of a small hillock opposite to the mines. The front part of the furnace is totally
removed; the backside shows some ceramic furnace lining.
Only a few kilograms of slag were produced which are now
broken to fist-sized pieces. Obviously, copper production
was not of any major importance here. The dating of these
metallurgical acivities is not clear. Foto: A. Hauptmann,
DBM.
Wadi Semna III
Coordinates: N 26°27’22’’ - E 33°37’46’’ – altitude:
472m
Some 2 kilometres south-east of Semna II the mining area of Semna III is located. No further subdivision was made. At Semna III steep dipping, copper
bearing quartz veins with a length of ca. 500 m were
exploited in ancient times. This vein is located ca.
50 m above the wadi bottom on the eastern slope
of a steep mountain ridge. Mining activities are visible from the wadi by numerous tailings (Figure 29).
Opposite to the mountain ridge, on top of a small
isolated hillock, some ten kilograms of crushed black
copper slag were found, next to a single U-shaped
smelting furnace with a height of ca. 30 cm (Figure
30). The stone settings of the furnace were covered
inside by remains of a vitrified ceramic layer. Defi-
nitely, the furnace was fired, but no indications of a
metallurgical operation were recognizable.
36
Archaeometallurgical finds
Copper smelting slag, remains of a smelting furnace
Other finds
Pottery: Few marl clay body sherds, not datable
Dating/comments
Semna III is the only site in the district which bears
remains of copper metallurgy. Due to its position on
top of a hillock, the smelting furnace could have been
operated as a wind-powered furnace. This installation
might have been in use during the Old Kingdom.
Analytical investigation of archaeometallurgical finds
Copper and manganese ores, copper slag and metal
artefacts as compiled in Table 2 were delivered to the
laboratories of the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum. These samples were analysed for their chemical composition (main and trace elements) and for
their lead isotope ratios.
In addition to these samples, 6 copper ores and 2
metal artefacts from the settlement of Maadi (ET-5/18) were analysed for their lead isotope ratios. Previous lead isotope analyses of 5 copper objects from
Maadi were performed by Hauptmann et al. 2012. We
also analysed 4 copper ores and two small copper
artifacts (ET-65/1-6) found at several road-stations
along the “Way of Horus” in Northern Sinai, which
is the continuation of the route that starts at Wadi
Ghazzeh in the eastern part. Additionally, several
copper objects from Predynastic and Early Dynastic
Upper Egypt have been sampled in different museums for comparison. Chemical analyses and mineralogical phase analyses by microscopy and by X-ray
diffraction were performed at the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum, lead isotope measurements
at the Westfälische Wilhelms-University, Muenster,
and at the Institute of Geoscience, Dept. of Mineralogy, J.W. Goethe University of Frankfurt/Main using
a Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometer (VG Sector
54, see Bode 2008) and a Multicollector-ICP-Mass
Spectrometer (Neptune, Thermo Scientific) at Frankfurt. Part of the samples were already published in
the PhD-thesis of one of the authors (Pfeiffer 2009b).
These and all other data used in this part of the study
are mentioned in the tables.
The analyses were performed to find out (1) which
sources were exploited to produce copper objects
found in the Sinai, at Maadi and in the Eastern Desert,
and (2) to characterise the composition of the locally
produced metal. Lead isotope analyses are of major
interest. Newly measured and previously analysed
samples from Hujayrat Al-Ghuzlan (unpublished data
Bochum), Tell Al-Magass (Hauptmann et al. 2009),
Faynan, and Timna (Hauptmann 2007), and finally
from the Sinai (Hauptmann et al. 1999) and from the
Beit-Arieh-collection (Pfeiffer 2009b) were included
for comparison with our results from the expeditions
in 2006 and 2008. The currently available set of data
comprises 95 analyses.
Chemical composition
Ores
All copper ores we analysed from the Sinai Peninsula
and from the Eastern Desert show very low concentrations in sulphur. They are typical supergene secondary ores derived from the weathering of simple
composed sulphidic copper ores such as chalcopyrite, bornite, chalcocite, covellite. Mineralogically the
ores consist of paratacamite (Cu2(OH)3Cl), chrysocolla (CuSiO 3·2H 2O), malachite (Cu 2[(OH) 2/CO 3]),
pseudo-malachite (Cu5[(OH)2/PO4]2) and turquoise
(CuAl6((OH)2/PO4)4 4H2O). Petrographic features of
copper (manganese) ores can be used to distinguish
the three sedimentary ore deposits of Um Bogma,
Faynan, and Timna. Differentiation solely based upon
geochemical data and lead isotope ratios is rather
difficult. Some of the characteristic textural features
are shown in Figure 31.
All the ores analysed are very low in the elements
(Table 3) which would remain in the (final) artefact
after a smelting or re-melting operation. These are, e.
g., arsenic, antimony, bismuth, lead, cobalt and nickel
which are all below 1 wt.%. One exception is a sample of ore from Wadi El-Regeita (ET-58/1) with nearly 1
wt.% of lead. Typically, zinc may reach the lower percentage level in samples from localities such as the
mining area “45” and Serabit el-Khadem. Low minor
and trace element levels characterise these ores from
ore formations containing complex Cu-As-Ni-Co-Agore compositions such as fahlores (silver-containing
Cu-As,Sb-sulfides), enargite (Cu3AsS4), or other rich
complex copper sulfides. We therefore exclude a
provenance from Sinai and the Eastern Desert for
artefacts such as those found at the Chalcolithic Nahal Mishmar hoard west of the Dead Sea (Tadmor et
al. 1995), or from Givat Ha-Oranim, north-east of the
Ben-Gurion-Airportwest (Namdat et al. 2004). These
artefacts are high both in arsenic and antimony, and
partly high in nickel and were probably manufactured using fahlore. On the other hand, the low minor
and trace element concentrations make it futile to
distinguish geochemically between raw sources in
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
Tab. 2: List of ores, slags and metal objects from the Sinai Peninsula and from the Eastern Desert included for measurements of the chemical composition and of the lead isotope ratios. * Surface collected samples; ** Ore from archaeological
contexts; *** Bedrock ore. Note that the sample numbers of the copper ores from Wadi El-Regeita (ET-5/1 and 5/2) come
from an outdated system (Hauptmann et al. 1999). These samples are different from those found at Maadi.
Region
Locality
Southern Sinai Sheikh Muhsen
Type
Sample No.
Literature
Cu-ore**
ET-1/3
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-prill
ET-1/4
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-lump
ET-1/5
Pfeiffer 2009b
smelting slag
ET-1/6
Pfeiffer 2009b
smelting slag
ET-1/7
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-prill
ET-1/8
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-ore**
ET-1/9a
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-ore**
ET-1/10a
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-metal
145
Hauptmann et al. 1999
Cu-metal
6678
Hauptmann et al. 1999
Sheikh Awad
Cu-metal
225
Hauptmann et al. 1999
Wadi Samra
Cu-ore**
ET-4/1
Hauptmann et al. 1999
Cu-ore**
ET-4/2
Hauptmann et al. 1999
Cu-ore**
ET-6/1
Hauptmann et al. 1999
Cu-ore**
ET-6/2
Hauptmann et al. 1999
Cu-ore***
ET-10/1
Hauptmann et al. 1999
Cu-ore***
ET-10/2
Hauptmann et al. 1999
Cu-ore***
Segal3
Segal et al. 2004
Cu-ore***
Segal2
Segal et al. 2004
Cu-ore***
Segal1
Segal et al. 2004
unknown
Cu-ore
ET-11/1
Hauptmann et al. 1999
Wadi Nasib / Wadi Sih
smelting slag
ET-52/1
this study
Um Bogma,
Cu-ore***
ET-12/1
Pfeiffer 2009b
(mining area"45")
Cu-ore ***
ET-55/1
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-ore***
ET-/552
Pfeiffer 2009b
turquoise ***
ET-55/3a
Pfeiffer 2009b
turquoise ***
ET-55/3b
Pfeiffer 2009b
Wadi Rimti
Wadi Tar
Cu-ore***
ET-55/4
Pfeiffer 2009b
Wadi Homr
smelting slag
ET-50/1
Pfeiffer 2009b
Bir Nasib 1
smelting slag
ET-51/1
Pfeiffer 2009b
Bir Nasib "Rod"
smelting slag
ET-53/1
Pfeiffer 2009b
Wadi Kharig
Cu-ore *
ET-54/1
Pfeiffer 2009b
Wadi Maghara
turquoise ***
ET-56/1
Pfeiffer 2009b
Wadi Ba'Ba
smelting slag
ET-57/1
Pfeiffer 2009b
Wadi El-Regeita
Cu-ore***
ET-5/1
Hauptmann et al. 1999
Cu-ore***
ET-5/2
Hauptmann et al. 1999
Cu-ore ***
ET-58/1
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-ore ***
ET-58/2
Pfeiffer 2009b
turquoise *
ET-59/1a
Pfeiffer 2009b
turquoise *
ET-59/1b
Pfeiffer 2009b
turquoise *
ET-59/1c
Pfeiffer 2009b
smelting slag
ET-59/2
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-lump
ET-59/3
Pfeiffer 2009b
slag + matte
ET-63/1
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-ore **
ET-63/2
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-prill
ET-63/3
Pfeiffer 2009b
slag + Cu
ET-63/4
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-metal
ET-63/5
Pfeiffer 2009b
Serabit el-Khadim
Nabi Salah
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
37
Tab. 2: Continuation.
Region
38
Locality
Type
Sample No.
Literature
smelting slag
ET-64/1
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-ore**
ET-64/2
Pfeiffer 2009b
smelting slag
ET-64/2a
Pfeiffer 2009b
smelting slag
ET-64/2b
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-ore **
ET-64/3
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-ore **
ET-64/5
this study
Wadi Nefoukh
smelting slag
ET-72/1
Pfeiffer 2009b
Wadi Ahmar
tuyère fragment
ET-73/1a
Pfeiffer 2009b
tuyère fragment
ET-73/1b
Pfeiffer 2009b
Site B-10
Cu-ore **
ET-65/2
this study
Site B-50
Cu-ore **
ET-65/1
this study
Site B-50
Cu-ore **
ET-65/3
this study
Site B-50
Cu-metal
ET-65/4
Pfeiffer 2009b
Site B-50
Cu-ore **
ET-65/6
this study
Site B-51
Cu-metal
ET-65/5
Pfeiffer 2009b
Maadi H31 II 5/4
Cu-ore**
ET-5/1
this study
Maadi F 32 II 13/4
Cu-ore**
ET-5/2
this study
Maadi H33 I, 63/6
Cu-prill
ET-5/3
this study
Maadi H33 I, 63/6
Cu-metal
ET-5/3 b
this study
Maadi DE 36/3 7 83, 12
pin
ET-5/4
this study
Maadi 001
Cu-ore**
ET-5/5
this study
Maadi 002
Cu-ore**
ET-5/5 b
this study
Maadi 003
Cu-ore**
ET-5/5 c
this study
Maadi 004
Cu-ore**
ET-5/5 d
this study
Maadi 005
Cu-ore**
ET-5/6
this study
Maadi 006
Cu-ore**
ET-5/7
this study
Maadi 007
Cu-ore**
ET-5/8
this study
Maadi 48
Cu-metal
HDM 363
Hauptmann et al. 2012
Maadi 51
Cu-metal
HDM 364
Hauptmann et al. 2012
Maadi 53
Cu-metal
HDM 365
Hauptmann et al. 2012
Maadi 54
Cu-metal
HDM 366
Hauptmann et al. 2012
Maadi 57
Cu-metal
HDM 367
Hauptmann et al. 2012
Ain Soukhna
Cu-ore *
ET-66/1
this study
Southern Sinai Watiyah Pass
Northern Sinai
Lower Egypt
Eastern Desert
(north)
Cu-ore *
ET-66/2
this study
Gabal Zeit
Pb-ore ***
ET-67/1
this study
Gabal Dara
smelting slag
ET-68/1a
this study
smelting slag
ET-68/1b
this study
Eastern Desert
Abu Greida,
Cu-ore **
ET-70/1a
this study
(central)
(Wadi Hamama)
Cu-ore **
ET-70/1b
this study
Wadi Semna III
Cu-ore ***
ET-71/1a
this study
Cu-ore ***
ET-71/1b
this study
Cu-ore ***
ET-71/1c
this study
Cu-ore***
ET-78/1
this study
Wadi Abu Mureiwat
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
Tab. 3: Chemical composition of copper ores and one lead ore from Gabal Zeit (ET-67/1), Eastern Desert. Values of SiO2 to Cu given in wt.%, those of Ni to U in μg/g.The total of the analyses
do not always sum up to 100 wt.% because Cu an d Fe are often corroded to secondary minerals.Sn and Ag with but one exception (ET-64/5: 110 μg/g) were found always to be < 30 μg/g.
n.d. = not determined.
Sample No.
SiO2
Al2O3
Fe2O3
MnO
MgO
CaO
Na2O
P2O5
S
Cu
Ni
Zn
Pb
As
Sb
Bi
Cr
Co
Ag
U
ET-1/3
3,53
<0.01
48,5
<0.01
0,14
0,17
<0.01
0,06
4,03
29,0
760
<10
30
<10
<10
340
40
<10
<10
210
ET-1/9
4,15
<0.01
10,3
0,02
0,16
0,34
0,07
0,03
5,98
53,1
60
<10
250
<10
<10
80
70
<10
30
30
ET-1/10
67,3
1,39
16,5
0,03
0,32
0,80
0,03
0,04
<0.01
12,0
55
<10
320
<10
<10
130
40
<10
<10
80
ET-54/1
66,9
21,6
1,40
0,14
1,45
0,04
0,55
0,13
0,09
0,12
10
445
<10
120
30
<10
190
<10
n.d.
n.d.
ET-55/1
45,9
12,1
34,5
0,24
1,53
0,07
0,73
0,23
<0.01
0,044
<10
620
30
350
<10
245
3010
10
n.d.
n.d.
ET-55/2
50,1
13,8
22,2
0,20
2,23
0,07
1,42
0,17
0,01
0,024
10
1685
<10
120
<10
155
10790
25
n.d.
n.d.
ET-55/3a
3,64
37,0
1,56
<0.01
0,08
0,05
0,23
29,4
0,06
5,52
10
20650
<10
110
<10
<10
40
<10
n.d.
n.d.
ET-55/3b
2,35
37,7
1,62
<0.01
0,01
0,03
0,08
29,8
0,11
5,23
<10
30750
<10
100
40
<10
25
<10
n.d.
n.d.
ET-55/4
37,3
3,84
28,7
17,3
2,51
1,93
0,38
1,08
<0.01
0,037
30
590
65
40
<10
205
225
265
n.d.
n.d.
ET-56/1
70,0
12,1
11,8
0,08
0,04
0,09
0,03
0,60
0,02
0,036
<10
510
<10
110
<10
88
10
<10
n.d.
n.d.
ET-58/1
48,5
10,1
2,87
0,12
0,42
0,90
0,05
1,44
0,22
23,9
40
260
9090
10
<10
30
100
<10
n.d.
n.d.
ET-58/2
45,4
28,7
1,56
0,00
0,44
0,40
0,04
<0.01
<0.01
13,8
20
90
<10
60
<10
25
<10
<10
n.d.
n.d.
ET-59/1a
1,57
35,8
0,48
<0.01
0,01
0,04
0,08
28,6
0,07
5,20
<10
9810
<10
100
<10
25
60
<10
n.d.
n.d.
ET-59/1b
0,36
36,4
0,58
<0.01
0,02
0,03
0,14
29,9
0,13
6,69
<10
5500
<10
180
<10
<10
105
<10
n.d.
n.d.
ET-59/1c
0,66
35,9
1,69
0,24
0,00
0,02
0,03
28,6
0,13
5,91
<10
10450
<10
350
<10
10
<10
<10
n.d.
n.d.
ET-63/2
45,7
9,45
24,4
0,16
4,50
0,21
0,05
<0.01
<0.01
7,28
420
1400
<10
30
<10
175
390
115
<10
210
ET-64/3
84,9
0,29
4,50
<0.01
0,12
0,25
0,05
0,02
0,09
6,71
340
320
10
<10
<10
45
530
<10
<10
40
ET-64/4
42,9
18,9
13,8
0,16
5,00
8,25
2,59
0,63
0,04
0,018
400
70
<10
60
<10
115
485
540
20
70
ET-64/5
16,1
0,21
0,74
<0.01
0,23
0,58
0,09
0,05
2,25
54,2
60
50
210
<10
<10
<10
650
<10
110
10
ET-65/1
75,1
4,44
0,36
0,06
0,40
0,55
0,12
0,11
0,06
14,0
630
30
350
30
<10
<10
60
320
<10
<10
ET-65/2
76,2
4,27
0,35
0,04
0,26
0,73
0,09
0,09
0,05
11,9
500
50
35
20
<10
10
30
10
<10
<10
ET-65/3
75,4
3,62
0,62
0,06
0,32
0,47
0,09
0,06
0,06
14,8
560
1200
970
30
<10
<10
25
105
10
<10
ET-65/6
46,8
17,6
2,35
0,33
0,78
13,4
3,31
0,16
0,21
3,27
280
360
490
10200
<10
20
25
<10
20
<10
ET-66/1
82,8
2,66
2,55
0,13
0,14
0,27
0,02
0,01
0,05
7,02
480
<10
1860
40
1130
20
15
101
30
50
ET-67/1
0,52
<0.01
14,8
n.b
3,05
26,0
1,08
n.b
11,9
<0.001
n.d.
60500
11.9 %
10
20
3185
45
n.d.
<10
5200
ET-70/1a
80,3
3,99
6,82
0,41
2,64
0,20
0,01
0,02
<0.01
2,31
260
<10
90
40
885
60
10
170
20
80
ET-70/1b
52,3
19,4
12,2
0,32
3,91
0,25
1,05
0,07
0,03
3,59
390
<10
395
100
<10
100
160
55
<10
120
ET-71/1a
95,8
0,87
0,75
0,13
0,05
0,08
0,02
0,01
0,02
1,10
185
<10
10
<10
855
15
<10
38
20
30
39
40
Tab. 3: Continuation.
Sample No.
SiO2
Al2O3
Fe2O3
MnO
MgO
CaO
Na2O
P2O5
S
Cu
Ni
Zn
Pb
As
Sb
Bi
Cr
Co
Ag
U
ET-71/1b
42,8
1,53
24,2
0,10
1,13
0,85
0,02
0,10
<0.01
19,0
785
<10
45
30
2080
160
35
80
<10
220
ET-71/1c
59,8
3,03
12,6
0,03
1,60
1,12
0,02
0,04
0,02
13,3
680
<10
25
30
1350
95
25
40
<10
130
ET-75/1
60,4
7,49
18,0
0,11
2,51
0,28
0,29
0,03
0,01
5,51
290
20
<10
40
<10
140
<10
30
<10
<10
ET-76/1
64,1
15,3
5,04
0,16
1,67
0,33
2,44
0,09
0,05
5,27
310
110
<10
50
<10
50
<10
40
<10
<10
no No.
41,2
9,56
2,06
0,31
1,35
0,63
0,85
0,09
1,74
23,5
650
180
520
70
<10
20
45
55
20
20
Tab. 4: Chemical composition of copper smelting slags, a piece of matte and of two slagged tuyères from the Sinai Peninsula and from the Eastern Desert. Values of SiO2 to Cu given in
wt.%, Ni to U in μg/g.The total of the analyses do not always sum up to 100 wt.% because Cu an d Fe are often corroded to secondary minerals. Sn was found always to be < 40 μg/g. n.d.
= not determined.
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
Sample No.
SiO2
Al2O3
Fe2O3
MnO
MgO
ET-50/1
23,2
4,48
29,9
21,6
ET-51/1
36,2
2,97
42,2
3,29
ET-52/1
31,8
7,04
16,6
26,1
ET-53/1
52,6
7,76
2,36
1,65
ET-57/1
24,3
4,46
33,4
ET-59/2
24,1
3,63
30,3
ET-63/1
0,13
0,58
0,29
ET-63/4
5,48
0,12
8,60
CaO
Na2O
P2O5
S
Cu
Ni
Zn
1,06
7,80
0,50
0,20
1,71
10,0
0,31
0,11
2,69
12,3
0,69
0,23
3,99
21,2
0,64
0,09
14,5
1,48
9,30
0,68
0,10
<0.01
7,65
0,62
1,25
5,03
0,59
0,12
0,12
24,5
<0.01
0,10
0,43
0,05
0,04
15,9
59,4
<0.01
0,04
0,30
0,08
0,07
0,37
73,7
Pb
As
Sb
Bi
Cr
Co
Ag
U
0,29
10,4
<10
<0.01
2,71
<10
<10
50
<10
<10
235
50
250
n.d.
n.d.
<10
<10
<10
<10
310
50
120
n.d.
n.d.
1,32
0,65
0,10
8,69
<10
<10
<10
<10
<10
130
80
120
n.d.
n.d.
<10
<10
80
950
<10
450
145
100
n.d.
n.d.
<10
<10
50
<10
<10
245
490
90
n.d.
n.d.
2740
550
80
120
<10
230
1090
870
10
230
1650
2800
1100
10
<10
<10
100
<10
70
<10
100
80
230
210
<10
690
780
<10
30
90
ET-64/1
15,6
0,07
5,72
<0.01
0,25
1,63
0,07
0,06
2,93
51,1
60
60
190
<10
<10
450
630
<10
60
60
ET-64/2a
8,96
<0.01
12,8
<0.01
0,05
0,17
<0.01
0,03
2,60
45,4
100
80
110
<10
3000
110
80
10
380
120
ET-64/2b
35,1
0,49
55,0
<0.01
0,36
1,56
0,12
0,02
0,02
1,29
140
<10
160
<10
1600
320
35
<10
<10
360
ET-68/1a
69,1
2,38
9,8
0,14
0,87
3,03
0,03
0,07
0,16
6,42
450
<10
60
30
830
850
20
30
10
110
ET-68/1b
16,3
4,72
57,8
0,54
1,65
10,5
0,42
0,29
<0.01
0,033
90
<10
30
40
900
330
100
50
<10
350
ET-72/1
32,1
5,10
38,8
8,61
1,64
6,52
0,81
0,21
0,03
1,53
210
<10
40
50
780
265
80
90
<10
310
ET-73/1a
84,5
0,49
3,25
0,01
0,24
0,09
<0.01
0,02
<0.01
6,95
480
<10
60
<10
1100
360
130
10
50
50
ET-73/1b
74,3
13,2
2,07
0,12
0,92
4,67
0,80
0,23
0,04
1,04
200
<10
20
75
<10
260
15
10
<10
40
A
C
41
B
D
Fig. 31: Some petrographic-textural characteristics of copper ores from the ore deposits of Um Bogma and Faynan and from
archaeological sites of the northern Sinai and from Maadi. A Maadi. Banded chrysocolla with thin layers of manganese
rich shales (ET-5/5). Width of the piece c. 5 mm. B Um Bogma, Sinai. Massive chrysocolla intergrown with black shales
(Freiberg, Ore deposit collection # no. 6206 = ET-12/1 in Hauptmann et al. 1999). Note petrographic similarities between A
and B. Width of pieces c. 3 - 6 mm. C Northern Sinai, site B-50 (Eliezer Oren, 1974, EBA I). Copper bearing arcosic sandstone
with green colored quartz grains (ET-65/3). In parts, the samples are considerably darkened by manganese oxides. Width
of the piece 3 cm. D Faynan. Matrix mineralisation of copper silicates in manganese bearing, black arcosic sandstone
and replacement of quartz grains by copper silicates which lead to their characteristic blue-green coloring (cf. Hauptmann
2007). Note petrographic similarities to C. Width of picture c. 1.5 cm.
Sinai, the Eastern Desert and the Wadi Arabah in the
Southern Levant.
There is also no indication that Chalcolithic and Early
Bronze Age copper artefacts high in arsenic and nickel, as found at Maadi, in the Southern Levant (Kfar
Monash, Hauptmann et al. 2012) and at other localities in the Near East (overview in Hauptmann 2007,
297f.) may have their origin in the Eastern Desert/Sinai region. The only locality where ore rich in arsenic
occurs is Wadi Tar in the south-east corner of the Sinai Peninsula. Native copper and copper-arsenides
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
occur in this deposit with low concentrations of Zn,
Mn, Pb, Ag and Sb. They were found in a possibly
ancient prospecting trench, but it remains unknown
whether at all this small mineralisation support the
early metal production in the region.
One of the characteristic features of the ores from
the Sinai Peninsula are extremely high concentrations of P2O5. Examples are not only ores from Serabit El-Khadim, where turquoise is the most typical
mineral, also ores from the mining area “45” near
Um Bogma may show nearly 30 wt.% of P2O5. We
42
also found uranium contents in copper ores between 30 to > 200 ppm in the ores collected in the
Sinai, and in the Eastern Desert. One Pb-Zn-ore
from Gabal Zeit reached 0.5% uranium. Almost all
ores from Sinai are high in Al2O3 (10 – 36 wt.%). Of
special importance are iron-rich copper ores associated with manganese ores. Such ores occur in
large quantities in the Um Bogma area and they are
exploited up to this date. In ancient times manganese bearing copper ores were used because of the
advantages of manganese oxide for slag formation.
An example of such an ore is # ET-55/4 from the mining are “45” near Um Bogma. It contains 17 wt.%
MnO and almost 29 wt.% Fe2O3. Otherwise the ores
are in parts high in iron oxides.
dates from the same time period as the large smelting site of Bir Nasib.
Slags
All slags analysed (Table 4) are residues of the production of copper and are smelting slag. Slags were
collected and analysed for two purposes, namely to
determine their manganese- and iron-oxide concentrations to find possible indications to similarly composed mineralisations, i. e., if the slags would result
from the sedimentary deposits of the Um Bogma
area or from other mineralisations in the Sinai Peninsula, and to analyse their lead isotope ratios. In contrast to the large variety of ores which we collected
during our surveys (which are necessarily not the
ones that were used for smelting copper in ancient
times), with ancient slags and their entrapped copper prills one can get a better idea of the types ores
that were smelted in ancient times. A comprehensive
study of the archaeometallurgy of slags from the
Sinai Peninsula was published by Bachmann (1980).
All slags are high in CaO (7-10 wt.%). Sample ET-53/1
from the Early Bronze Age smelting site of Bir Nasib
“Rod” with > 20 wt.% CaO, and with > 50 wt.% SiO2
is a fragment of a vitrified furnace lining, not a smelting slag.
Slags high in both manganese (ca. 20 wt.%) and
iron-oxides (ca. 30 wt.%) were found at two localities, namely at the Early Bronze Age sites of Wadi
Homr (ET-50/1) and at the mouth of Wadi Ba’Ba (ET57/1; ca. 33 wt.% MnO, ca. 15 wt.% FeO). Their main
constituent is knebelite ((Fe,Mn)2SiO4) high in CaO.
Such slags were also analysed from the large New
Kingdom/Late Bronze Age/Iron Age I smelting site
of Bir Nasib (ET-52/1). They obviously result from
smelting (self-fluxing) shales high in manganese
and iron oxide as they occur in the Um Bogma area.
More precisely, the slags from Wadi Ba’Ba (ET-57/1)
derived most probably from ore of the mining area
“45” which is a few kilometres from the smelting
site. Mixed Fe-Mn-silicate slags were frequently
observed previously by Bachmann (1980) and Bachmann et al. (unpublished report) from Timna and
from sites in the Sinai as well; and they were found
also at archaeometallurgical smelting sites in the
Faynan area (Hauptmann 2007).
Slags high in iron oxides were found at the smelting
site of the Wadi Nasib/Wadi Sih (ET-51/1) which also
Pfeiffer (2009b) and Beit-Arieh (2003) published slag
analyses from the Early Bronze Age sites of Watiya,
Nabi Salah, Sheikh Mukhsen, Wadi Ahmar and from
Wadi Zagra which were iron-rich copper smelting
slags low in manganese oxide. These slags most
probably originate from mineralisations in the crystalline basement of the south-central Sinai. Such a
composition equals most of the archaeometallurgical slags found in the Old World. In our case these
slags are indication for a possibly contemporaneous
smelting of Mn-rich ores at the one hand, and Fe-Mncopper ores at the other hand in close vicinity.
Lead isotopy
Lead isotope analyses are compiled in table 5. Figure 32 provides an overall picture of lead isotope
abundance ratios 208Pb/206Pb vs. 207Pb/206Pb of ores
and metallurgical finds from Sinai, and the Eastern Desert. For comparison, ore and metallurgical
finds from Faynan and Timna are depicted in the
diagrams also. In Figure 32A the lead isotope ratios
of 204Pb/206Pb vs. 207Pb/206Pb are shown including
arrows which point to uranogenic 206Pb-enriched
compositions. In this diagram we included the twostage-model by Stacey & Kramers (1975).
In accordance with the geological context the dominant
lead source for the copper deposits in the Sinai Peninsula, and in the sediment hosted copper deposits of
Timna and Faynan as well were Lower Cambrian / Precambrian mafic-felsic dikes of the igneous basement
(Burgath et al. 1984; Segev et al. 1992). They originated
from a similar geochemical source with μ (238U/204Pb)
≈ 10.The highest ages are reached by copper ores from
the Proterozoic basement of the Eastern Desert with >
800 Ma. Erosion of the volcanic rocks during the lower
Cambrian and multiple remobilization and migration
of copper in uranium-containing sedimentary environments during the Cambrian and later periods finally
lead to an epigenetic type ore deposit.
Copper ore from the Precambrian and post-Precambrian stratiform-stratabound sediment-hosted deposits,
namely Um Bogma, Faynan, and Timna are characterised by highly variable ratios of non-radiogenic
to radiogenic lead which do not provide significant
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
Tab. 5: Lead isotope compositions of ores, slags and metal objects from the Sinai Peninsula and from the Eastern Desert. * Surface collected samples; ** Ore from archaeological
contexts; *** Bedrock ore; h.e. = high error; n.a. = not analysed. Note that the sample numbers of the copper ores from Wadi El-Regeita (ET-5/1 and 5/2) come from an outdated system
(Hauptmann et al. 1999). These samples are different from those found at Maadi.
Sample No. Pb (μg/g)
208Pb/206Pb
207Pb/206Pb
204Pb/206Pb
208Pb/204Pb
207Pb/204Pb
206Pb/204Pb
Region
Locality
Type
Southern
Sinai
Sheikh Muhsen
Cu-ore***
ET-1/3
30
1,239
0,5330
0,0322
38,429
16,529
31,010
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-prill
ET-1/4
140
1,977
0,7904
0,0502
39,404
15,752
19,929
Pfeiffer 2009b
References
Cu-lump
ET-1/5
420
2,098
0,8577
0,0547
38,364
15,682
18,284
Pfeiffer 2009b
smelting slag
ET-1/6
1100
2,083
0,8498
0,0542
38,466
15,693
18,467
Pfeiffer 2009b
smelting slag
ET-1/7
380
2,097
0,8518
0,0544
38,581
15,669
18,395
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-prill
ET-1/8
290
2,109
0,8593
0,0547
38,566
15,710
18,284
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-ore**
ET-1/9
250
1,956
0,7961
0,0506
38,689
15,747
19,781
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-ore**
ET-1/10
320
1,916
0,7965
0,0505
37,928
15,765
19,792
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-metal
145
1080
2,120
0,8697
0,0557
38,093
15,628
17,969
Hauptmann et al. 1999
Cu-metal
6678
50
2,108
0,8696
0,0558
37,769
15,584
17,921
Hauptmann et al. 1999
Sheikh Awad
Cu-metal
225
100
2,095
0,8530
0,0545
38,446
15,654
18,352
Hauptmann et al. 1999
Wadi Samra
Cu-ore**
ET-4/1
580
1,777
0,7058
0,0446
39,874
15,839
22,442
Hauptmann et al. 1999
Cu-ore**
ET-4/2
180
2,065
0,8460
0,0543
38,028
15,580
18,416
Hauptmann et al. 1999
Cu-ore**
ET-6/1
20
1,929
0,7885
0,0499
38,694
15,817
20,060
Hauptmann et al. 1999
Cu-ore**
ET-6/2
90
1,458
0,6061
0,0374
38,992
16,206
26,738
Hauptmann et al. 1999
Cu-ore***
ET-10/1
2000
2,117
0,8792
0,0566
37,439
15,547
17,683
Hauptmann et al. 1999
Cu-ore***
ET-10/2
640
2,072
0,8609
0,0553
37,490
15,579
18,096
Hauptmann et al. 1999
Cu-ore***
T500
n.a.
2,0415
0,8498
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
Segal et al. 2000
Wadi Rimti
Wadi Tar
Cu-ore***
T800
n.a.
2,048
0,8528
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
Segal et al. 2000
unknown
Cu-ore***
ET-11/1
40
2,045
0,8391
0,0537
38,059
15,617
18,612
Hauptmann et al. 1999
Umm Bogma (mining
area "45")
Cu-ore***
ET-12/1
60
2,016
0,8083
0,0517
39,036
15,650
19,361
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-ore ***
ET-55/1
30
2,089
0,8486
0,0541
38,588
15,673
18,470
Pfeiffer 2009b
turquoise ***
ET-55/3a
< 10
1,932
0,7914
0,0502
38,493
15,766
19,920
Pfeiffer 2009b
turquoise ***
ET-55/3b
< 10
1,940
0,7926
0,0503
38,552
15,754
19,875
Pfeiffer 2009b
Wadi Homr
smelting slag
ET-50/1
50
2,097
0,8545
0,0545
38,490
15,682
18,351
Pfeiffer 2009b
Bir Nasib 1
smelting slag
ET-51/1
< 10
2,103
0,8563
0,0545
38,586
15,709
18,345
Pfeiffer 2009b
Bir Nasib "Rod"
smelting slag
ET-53/1
80
2,085
0,8475
0,0539
38,675
15,719
18,547
Pfeiffer 2009b
Wadi Kharig
Cu-ore *
ET-54/1
< 10
2,058
0,8376
0,0533
38,602
15,710
18,756
Pfeiffer 2009b
Wadi Maghara
turquoise ***
ET-56/1
< 10
2,091
0,8477
0,0540
38,719
15,695
18,515
Pfeiffer 2009b
Wadi Ba'Ba
smelting slag
ET-57/1
50
2,105
0,8590
0,0548
38,432
15,681
18,254
Pfeiffer 2009b
43
44
Tab. 5: Continuation.
Region
Locality
Type
Sample No. Pb (μg/g)
208Pb/206Pb
207Pb/206Pb
204Pb/206Pb
208Pb/204Pb
207Pb/204Pb
Wadi El-Regeita
Cu-ore***
ET-5/1
270
1,940
0,8023
0,0511
37,959
Cu-ore***
ET-5/2
520
2,071
0,8500
0,0544
38,068
Serabit el-Khadim
Nabi Salah
Watiyah Pass
References
15,701
19,569
Hauptmann et al. 1999
15,622
18,379
Hauptmann et al. 1999
Cu-ore ***
ET-58/1
9090
2,114
0,8613
0,0548
38,578
15,720
18,253
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-ore ***
ET-58/2
< 10
1,984
0,8010
0,0510
38,896
15,704
19,607
Pfeiffer 2009b
turquoise *
ET-59/1a
< 10
1,999
0,8216
0,0524
38,161
15,685
19,092
Pfeiffer 2009b
turquoise *
ET-59/1b
< 10
2,094
0,8594
0,0550
38,068
15,627
18,182
Pfeiffer 2009b
turquoise *
ET-59/1c
< 10
2,084
0,8510
0,0544
38,322
15,646
18,385
Pfeiffer 2009b
smelting slag
ET-59/2
80
2,098
0,8565
h. e.
h. e.
h. e.
h. e.
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-lump
ET-59/3
0
2,077
0,8395
0,0534
38,885
15,718
18,723
Pfeiffer 2009b
smelting slag
ET-63/1
1100
1,968
0,7651
0,0485
40,592
15,782
20,629
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-ore **
ET-63/2
<10
0,872
0,4209
h. e.
h. e.
h. e.
h. e.
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-prill
ET-63/3
240
2,003
0,8194
0,0521
38,477
15,739
19,207
Pfeiffer 2009b
smelting slag
ET-63/4
230
2,116
0,8642
0,0551
38,380
15,676
18,139
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-metal
ET-63/5
580
2,126
0,8712
0,0556
38,240
15,669
17,985
Pfeiffer 2009b
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
smelting slag
ET-64/1
190
2,000
0,8244
0,0527
37,940
15,641
18,972
Pfeiffer 2009b
copper ore**
ET-64/2
< 10
2,010
0,8298
h. e.
h. e.
h. e.
h. e.
Pfeiffer 2009b
smelting slag
ET-64/2a
110
1,567
0,6575
0,0410
38,175
16,022
24,368
Pfeiffer 2009b
smelting slag
ET-64/2b
160
2,055
0,8391
0,0532
38,662
15,782
18,809
Pfeiffer 2009b
Cu-ore **
ET-64/5
210
2,009
0,8298
h. e.
h. e.
h. e.
h. e.
this study
Cu-ore **
ET-64/3
10
1,204
0,5079
0,0308
39,074
16,489
32,467
Pfeiffer 2009b
smelting slag
ET-72/1
40
2,034
0,8146
0,0519
39,189
15,690
19,262
Pfeiffer 2009b
tuyère fragments
ET-73/1a
60
1,865
0,7640
0,0483
38,609
15,817
20,703
Pfeiffer 2009b
ET-73/1b
20
2,005
0,8111
0,0514
39,049
15,794
19,472
Pfeiffer 2009b
Site B-10
Cu-ore **
ET-65/2
35
2,113
0,8657
0,0553
38,220
15,659
18,087
this study
Site B-50
Cu-ore **
ET-65/1
30
2,124
0,8688
0,0553
38,372
15,701
18,073
this study
Site B-50
Cu-ore **
ET-65/3
970
2,121
0,8689
0,0554
38,276
15,682
18,047
this study
Site B-50
Cu-metal
ET-65/4
300
2,094
0,8471
0,0540
38,776
15,689
18,520
Pfeiffer 2009b
Site B-50
Cu-ore **
ET-65/6
490
2,064
0,8592
0,0551
37,443
15,584
18,138
this study
Site B-51
Cu-metal
ET-65/5
620
2,111
0,8602
0,0550
38,399
15,650
18,194
Pfeiffer 2009b
Wadi Nefoukh
Wadi Ahmar
Northern
Sinai
206Pb/204Pb
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
Tab. 5: Continuation.
Region
Locality
Type
Sample No. Pb (μg/g)
208Pb/206Pb
207Pb/206Pb
204Pb/206Pb
208Pb/204Pb
207Pb/204Pb
206Pb/204Pb
References
Lower
Egypt
Maadi H31 II 5/4
Cu-ore**
ET-5/1
n.a.
2,064
0,8308
0,0530
38,961
15,686
18,879
this study
Maadi F 32 II 13/4
Cu-ore**
ET-5/2
n.a.
2,096
0,8547
0,0545
38,424
15,670
18,334
this study
Maadi H33 I, 63/6
Cu-prill
ET-5/3
n.a.
2,007
0,8165
0,0520
38,571
15,695
19,222
this study
Maadi H33 I, 63/6
Cu-metal
ET-5/3 b
60
1,996
0,8050
0,0515
38,631
15,635
19,408
this study
Maadi DE 36/3 7 83, 12
pin
ET-5/4
n.a.
2,117
0,8645
0,0551
38,402
15,686
18,144
this study
Maadi 001
Cu-ore**
ET-5/5
n.a.
2,083
0,8524
0,0546
38,157
15,618
18,322
this study
Maadi 002
Cu-ore**
ET-5/5 b
n.a.
2,071
0,8435
0,0540
38,202
15,604
18,503
this study
Maadi 003
Cu-ore**
ET-5/5 c
n.a.
1,999
0,8076
0,0516
38,605
15,645
19,371
this study
Maadi 004
Cu-ore**
ET-5/5 d
n.a.
1,998
0,8073
0,0517
38,524
15,619
19,345
this study
Maadi 005
Cu-ore**
ET-5/6
n.a.
2,032
0,817
0,0523
38,872
15,633
19,135
this study
Maadi 006
Cu-ore**
ET-5/7
n.a.
2,031
0,8181
0,0523
38,791
15,631
19,106
this study
Maadi 007
Cu-ore**
ET-5/8
n.a.
1,975
0,795
0,0508
38,910
15,665
19,702
this study
Maadi 48
Cu-metal
HDM 363
210
2,068
0,8434
0,0539
38,531
15,650
18,555
Hauptmann et al. 2012
Maadi 51
Cu-metal
HDM 364
2030
2,102
0,8575
0,0548
38,370
15,653
18,255
Hauptmann et al. 2012
Maadi 53
Cu-metal
HDM 365
1670
2,102
0,8579
0,0548
38,385
15,670
18,266
Hauptmann et al. 2012
Maadi 54
Cu-metal
HDM 366
1120
2,093
0,8518
0,0544
38,476
15,658
18,382
Hauptmann et al. 2012
Maadi 57
Cu-metal
HDM 367
560
2,101
0,8566
0,0546
38,458
15,681
18,307
Hauptmann et al. 2012
Eastern
Desert
(north)
Eastern
Desert
(central)
Ain Soukhna
Cu-ore **
ET-66/1
1860
2,175
0,9036
0,0580
37,506
15,585
17,248
this study
Cu-ore **
ET-66/2
190
2,101
0,8568
0,0547
38,398
15,656
18,275
this study
Gabal Zeit
Pb-ore ***
ET-67/1
11900
2,012
0,8015
0,0508
39,636
15,786
19,696
this study
Gabal Dara
smelting slag
ET-68/1a
60
1,270
0,5407
0,0329
38,540
16,413
30,352
this study
smelting slag
ET-68/1b
30
2,002
0,7997
0,0509
39,298
15,698
19,630
this study
Cu-ore **
ET-70/1a
90
2,106
0,8738
0,0564
37,370
15,505
17,745
this study
Cu-ore **
ET-70/1b
395
2,150
0,8927
0,0569
37,751
15,679
17,560
this study
Abu Greida (Wadi
Hamama)
Wadi Semna III
Wadi Abu Mureiwat
Cu-ore ***
ET-71/1a
10
2,082
0,8552
0,0551
37,801
15,530
18,159
this study
Cu-ore ***
ET-71/1b
45
2,082
0,8506
0,0547
38,049
15,546
18,276
this study
Cu-ore ***
ET-71/1c
25
2,088
0,8523
0,0546
38,242
15,611
18,319
this study
Cu-ore**
ET-78/1
<10
2,054
0,8378
0,0538
38,188
15,572
18,588
this study
45
46
Fig. 32 (above) and 32A (below): Normalised 206Pb (lead isotope) ratios commonly used in archaeology for provenance
studies. Fig. 32A with lead evolution curves after Stacey & Kramers (1975). Overall composition of copper ores, copper
smelting slags, and other metallurgical artefacts from Sinai (Segal et al. 2000; Hauptmann et al. 1999; Pfeiffer 2010; present
data) are compared to copper ores and metal produced from these ores from Faynan and Timna in the Wadi Arabah, Southern Levant (Hauptmann 2007; Asael 2010; Jansen 2011). Also copper ores and slag samples from the Eastern Desert are
plotted. Note the cluster of compositions at 207Pb/206Pb = 0.84 – 0.88 for data from Sinai, Faynan and from Timna. All other
values of lead isotope data are due to an epigenetic origin of the copper mineralisations in the sedimentary environments.
As exemplified with the locality of Um Bogma, this can lead to large variability from the ore in a single deposit. Note the
negative ages caused by uranium contents in the sediments. Analytical error smaller than 0.1 %, i. e., smaller than symbols.
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
differences in their compositions. We recognize pronounced clusters of 208Pb/206Pb vs. 207Pb/206Pb ratios
at 2.10 to 2.12 and 0.855 to 0.875 in the copper districts
of Timna, Faynan, and in the Sinai as well (Hauptmann
et al. 1992; Hauptmann 2007; Asael 2010). A progressive relative increase in radiogenic lead is observed in
copper ore from all these deposits which finally lead to
“negative” ages. Lead associated with uranium in the
ore has its isotopic composition changed due to the
addition of 206Pb from the radioactive decay of 238U.
This is the reason for a large variety of compositions
which reaches far into the lower left corner in both diagrams. Lead isotope ratios, in addition, show that ore
and slag from the same locality may have enormous
variations. For example, ore from Um Bogma vary in
their 207Pb/206Pb-ratios between ± 0.79 to 0.85.
The compositions of the ores are reflected by that of
slags and metal artefacts from various sites. Many of
the slag fragments, and the tuyères from Wadi Ahmar
as well, contain tiny copper prills. All these metallurgical finds were completely molten (and other metallurgical finds such as tuyères more ore less as well) so that
the lead from whatever individual copper ore sources
may have contributed to the total, and will have been
homogenised so that the isotopic composition of lead
in the prills and lead in the matrix will be identical.
In Figure 33 isotope ratios of ores and metal objects
from Maadi are plotted with those from sites along the
northern coast of the Sinai Peninsula (“Way of Horus”;
sites B-10, B-50, B-51), and from Wadi Ghazzeh as well.
These plots were selected to help verify an exchange
of copper (ore or metal) as part of the well established
cultural interaction between Lower Egypt and the
Southern Levant during the 4th millennium BC. This
was previously suggested (see above), and an import
of a copper artefact high in nickel and arsenic from
sources in Eastern Anatolia was proposed (Pernicka
& Hauptmann 1989; Hauptmann 2007, 261-267). Site
B-50 dates from the EBA I. Three of the ore samples
prove to have 208Pb/206Pb-ratios between around 2.11
and 2.12 which all are identical with copper ore of the
Dolomite-Limestone-Shale Unit at Faynan.This ore horizon was mainly (but not exclusively) exploited during the developed Early Bronze Age. The lead isotope
ratios also match compositions of copper ore analysed
from the ancient copper deposit of Timna (Hauptmann
2007). The provenance of Faynan for this ore, however, is confirmed by their petrographic features: their
arkosic compositions with striking bluish-greenish
coloured quartz grains typically occur at Faynan, but
not at Timna, and it was never observed in the Sinai.
Additionally, two copper artefacts from the northern
Sinai sites (a needle ET-65/4 and a not identifiable
piece of copper ET-65/5) match the isotopic composition of the ores and at least one unidentifiable piece
of metal from Maadi. Note that ratio of metal artefact
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
HDM 363, a CuAsNi-alloy, matches an ore fragment
from Maadi, but this association can be rejected because of its minor and trace element concentrations:
the ore consists of pure copper.
47
The “Way of Horus” begins in the east at the Wadi
Ghazzeh. One of the sites located in this wadi is site H
which dates from the Early Bronze Age Ia (Roshwalb
1981). Ore from the site were already analyzed by
Hauptmann (1989) and found to be consistent with
those from Faynan. In addition, two copper prills and an
awl (IL-2/8, 9, 10) which were analyzed by Hauptmann
(2007, 267,272) also match the “ore field” of Faynan.
Taking the arguments for a distribution of copper ore
and metal from the Faynan district during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Ia-periods to the northwest, as they are discussed in Hauptmann (1989; 2007,
261-272), we can pinpoint a route to the northern Sinai
from Faynan. At least two of the metal objects from
Maadi (HDM 364, HDM 365) match these compositions. Based on these data, and based on the observation of Pernicka & Hauptmann (1989) that some of the
copper ore found at Maadi could originate from the
Dolomite-Limestone-Shale Unit of Faynan (Pernicka
& Hauptmann 1989, 138f.), there is a strong indication
for a supply of ore from this source. Otherwise, the
208Pb/206Pb vs. 207Pb/206Pb and 204Pb/206Pb-ratios of
Maadi ores and metals tend to have lower ratios compared to those from Northern Sinai and Wadi Ghazzeh.
This, on the other hand, means that we found no copper ore or slag from the Eastern Desert which could
have been a suitable starting material for the Maadi
artefacts. This holds true for the sample ET-66/1 analysed from the archaeological site of Ain Sukhna
(208Pb/206Pb = 2.175), a smelting site which is located in a distance of 150 km from Maadi. We can also
exclude the possibility that copper produced at the
smelting site of Gabal Dara (ET-68/1a,b; 208Pb/206Pb
= 1.277 and 2.002) was ever utilized at Maadi, and
the same is true for the ore sample ET-70/1b from
Abu Greida (208Pb/206Pb = 2.150). However three ores
collected at Semna I (ET-71/1a,b,c) are compatible
with ores and metals from tombs of the necropolis
at Abydos / Umm el-Qaab in all three isotope ratios
(Hartung et al. in prep.). It seems reasonable to suggest that at least a part of the finds from Abydos
originate from Semna I. While the distance between
Abydos and Semna is ca. 150 km, the distance between Maadi and Semna is more than 500 km.
As outlined above, although the main stream of cultural interactions between the Levant and Lower Egypt
was running via the Northern Sinai, relations from
Maadi to the bay of Aqaba, namely to Tell Hujayrat alGhuzlan and Tell Magass, are indicated by the design
of copper ingots and casting moulds found especially at Hujayrat, which show great similarity to Maadi
48
Fig. 33: Normalised 206Pb-ratios for metal artefacts and ores from Maadi (Hauptmann et al. 2012) are compared to those
found at (EBA I) sites at the Northern Sinai, and in Wadi Ghazzeh, Southern Levant (Hauptmann 2007, 272). The congruence
of ores and metals between Wadi Ghazzeh and Northern Sinai indicates a trade route of material starting from Faynan,
Wadi Arabah to the north-east and then to the west. The isotope ratios of metals and ores from Maadi do not discredit the
existence of the route. Note sample HDM 363 which is a CuAsNi-alloy that differs in its minor- and trace element pattern
from the isotopicall matching ore. Analytical error smaller than 0.1 %, i. e., smaller than symbols.
(Pfeiffer 2009a), and the scarcity of finds of metal
smelting or processing, such as slag, at Maadi suggests an import of metal also from the Aqaba region.
It was proved by Hauptmann et al. (2009) that most of
the ore found at Tell Magass originated from the ore
deposit of Timna and neighbouring mineralisations at
the western rim of the Wadi Arabah. Possible imports
of copper ore from Faynan, or even from more remote
sources such as the south-west Sinai could not be fully
excluded, but nothing was found at the excavations
that strongly suggests such a possibility. The same is
true for Tell Hujayrat al-Ghuzlan. The composition of
copper produced at the two sites is representative of
the copper deposit of Timna, and this is the most likely
source. As shown in Figure 34 all metal finds from
the Aqaba region could be interpreted as mixtures
from this source. Maadi copper matches Hujayrat and
Magass, and it lies on the mixing line of copper from
Timna. Therefore, there are no arguments against
an origin of Maadi copper from Timna. This is in accordance with some Egyptian finds at Hujayrat which
suggest exchange connections between Maadi and
the Aqaba region in the middle of the 4th millennium
BC. One exception is HDM 363, a fragment of an axe
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
49
Fig. 34: Normalised 206Pb-ratios for metal artefacts and ores from Maadi (Hauptmann et al. 2012) are compared to those
found at the Late Chalcolithic / Early Bronze Age I settlements of Tell Magass (Hauptmann et al. 2009) and Tell Hujayrat
al-Ghuzlan (unpubl. Data Bochum/Berlin/Amman) in the Aqaba region, where ores from Timna were smelted. The metallurgical finds from Tell Hujayrat consist of copper-rich slag. Note the concordance of metals from Maadi and the Aqaba
region, and with some Sinai ores as well. Sample HDM 363, a CuAsNi-alloy, differs in its minor- and trace element pattern
from the isotopically matching ore. Analytical error smaller than 0.1 %, i. e., smaller than symbols.
high in Ni and As which points to a provenance from
Anatolia (Hauptmann et al. in prep.).
On the other hand, based solely on the geochemical and isotopic similarity, we can not distinguish
between the three ore districts with absolute certainty. This is especially true for clusters of isotopic
composition at 207Pb/206Pb between c. 0.845 and 0.87.
We can, however, note from Figure 34 that many
compositions of ores and metals from Sinai show
a pronounced tendency towards an enrichment of
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
206Pb. Four of the Maadi copper artifacts, and four
pieces of Maadi copper ore can not be distinguished
in their isotopic composition from copper ores analysed from, e. g., Sheikh Muksen and Um Bogma on
the Sinai Peninsula. Pernicka & Hauptmann (1989)
argue, due to petrographic-textural features, that the
Maadi ore could possibly originate from the Wadi
Arabah, but ore fragments of sample no. ET-5/5, and
the previously investigated ore sample no. 52 (in
Pernicka & Hauptmann 1989, 138) could also have
been transported to Maadi from the Um Bogma area.
Conclusions
50
During the expeditions of the Sinai project investigations primarily included the survey and study of
mines and smelting sites in Sinai and the northern
Eastern Desert. The main focus was to collect and
analyse samples from the regions which had not
previously been studied before. Because of the two
expeditions we achieved an overview of the volume
and scale of ore exploitation and archaeolometallurgical activies in the investigated area. All in all,
five sites in the northern Eastern Desert and 16 sites
in Sinai were visited and studied. Due to time constraints of fieldwork and the necessity of proper site
investigation, the number of visited sites was limited.
According to observations made during the survey,
the size of the deposits and their possible mineral
content is rather small in comparision to other copper districts exploited in ancient times such as Faynan, Cyprus, Murgul and Rio Tinto. The only exception is Um Bogma with its significant amounts of
copper-manganese ores, which is still mined today.
The quantity of metal extracted from various mineralisations and ore deposits can roughly be estimated
by the amount of slag that was produced. In the case
of the Sinai Peninsula, and in the Eastern Desert as
well, the quantities of slag were rather low with the
exception of the site of Bir Nasib. The bulk composition of the slag is in most cases high in iron and
manganese silicates with considerable CaO-concentrations. Generally they match the overall composition of copper smelting slag known in the Old World.
The copper ores of the Sinai Peninsula, and the northern part of the Eastern Desert with but one exception
of the As-rich ores at Wadi Tar, reveal very low minorand trace-element concentrations.They consist of pure
copper ores, and, hence, pure copper was produced
from the sites we investigated. No ores were found
which could have been used to manufacture the Late
Chalcolithic CuAs- and CuAsSb-artefacts found in the
Southrn Levant and the CuAsNi-artefacts excavated
at Maadi and other localities in the Eastern Mediterranean. Geologically the copper ore deposits are located
within the supra-regional aureole of gold anomalies
which is most concentrated in the southern part of
the Eastern Desert and Nubia. This anomaly led to
the formation of many dozens of the famous ancient
gold deposits. Even if no gold concentrations were
analysed in our samples we would not exclude an exploitation of gold, e.g., in the Semna area (see Klemm
et al. 2001; Botros 2002). Also mineralisations in the
crystalline basement south of Timna are discussed as
possible gold sources (Amar 1997).
During the survey many sites could be dated by pottery or Egyptian inscriptions. When pottery was absent it was difficult to determine the age of a site. In
a few cases we used the shape and design of tuyères
(Wadi Ahmar) or specific topographic features of slag
accumulations (Watiah Pass). No archaeometallurgical remains from the Chalcolithic were found. This is
not surprising because in the 4th millennium BC, as
a rule, copper was not smelted close to the mine, but
rather inside of habitation sites. Further, copper was
not extracted in large quantities like in the later EBA.
Hence, archaeological evidence of copper smelting
from Chalcolithic needs excavations of the habitation sites and can not be solved by the study of the
mines. Also, prehistoric mining traces could have
been destroyed by both ancient and recent works.
In summary, most of the visited sites in Sinai can be
dated to the Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age and
partly to the Iron Age. The features in the northern
Eastern Desert revealed dates presumably from Late
Prehistoric, Old Kingdom and Ptolemaic/Roman Time
The beginnings of mining activities in Wadi El-Regeita, Um Bogma and several places within the area of
Bir Nasib have not been clarified yet. Although ore
exploitation is evident in these places, it remains unclear when these activities occurred and whom was
involved. Analytical data shows that in Early Bronze
Age sites like Nabi Salah or Sheikh Muhsen ores
from the local deposits were being smelted, and it
can be clearly stated that the beginnings of mining in
Sinai date earlier than the period of the Old Kingdom.
An answer to these questions would need detailed
observation and excavation. Also, in the mining district of Semna in the northern Eastern Desert, pottery
sherds and siltstone workshops reveal a date in the
Late Predynastic, Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom.
Several remains of windpowered furnaces, or alternatively, evidence for windpowered smelting operations dating from the Early Bronze Age were found.
Compared to the amounts of slag and the vitrified
remains of the installations they indicate early smallscale metallurgy in some sites such as Watiya Pass
or Wadi Nefoukh. These sites might date to a period
between the Late EBA I and EBA II. One recently discovered smelting site at Wadi el-Homr (Abdel-Motelib
unpubl.) was visited during the expedition in 2006.
Similar to Wadi Ba’Ba (Petrie 1906) and Bir Nasib
“Rōd El-Aiar” (Rothenberg 1979) the smelting site
shows a particular topographic situation: the sites
are located on top of hills in far distance to any mineralisation and ore deposit. The amounts of slag that
have been produced vary between several tons to a
few thousand tons (Wadi Ba’Ba). Preliminary dating
of these sites points to activities during the 3rd millennium BC. Contemporary smelting sites of comparable topographic situation are known in Egypt (Wadi
Dara), in the Southern Levant (Faynan, Timna/Wadi
Arabah), and in the Aegean (Chrysokamino/Crete,
Seriphos, Kea, Kythnos) (Hauptmann 2007). It was
shown previously that these smelting sites resulted
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
from copper smelting using wind powered smelting furnaces, and we suggest that the new smelting
sites on the Sinai Peninsula are further evidence for
a widely distributed technology that developed during the Early Bronze Age. These furnaces obviously
represent an overregional technological stage in the
development of metallurgy and can be seen as precursors of smelting furnaces operated by bellows in
later periods (Pfeiffer 2009b).
Furthermore it is obvious, that both the number of
wind powered furnaces and the high amounts of
slag show a dramatic increase of these smelting
techniques during the MBA and LBA. Bir Nasib, the
most important smelting site of the Sinai Peninsula
comprises several batteries of wind powered furnaces and outstanding amounts of copper slag. The
slag heaps which accumulated at this locality were
estimated to comprise more than a 100,000 tons.
This clearly points to a smelting of large amounts of
copper ore which must have been mined in the vicinity. The site dates to the Late Bronze Age / Early Iron
Age (New Kingdom), but earlier phases of production
can not be excluded. Bir Nasib is not investigated
properly. The era of mass production begins after
the decline of copper production at Cyprus. It is not
known, however, where the copper from Bir Nasib
was transported to. Unfortunately, Bir Nasib is seriously underestimated as a major copper supplier in
the Bronze and Iron Ages of the Eastern Mediterranean (see Stos 2009).
From various archaeological and historical sources
it is known that copper was “industrially” produced
by expeditions organized by the Pharaonic administration. Although Bir Nasib holds a unique place in
the Eastern Mediterranean, other sites of this time
period, for instance Wadi Ba'Ba, produced large
amounts of copper also. The site presents evidence
for the use of wind powered furnaces. We have to
take into consideration that it was the intention of the
Old Kingdoms administration to develop a gigantic,
supra-regional centre of copper production in the Sinai Peninsula. This would be one explanation for the
discovery of the vast number of smelting furnaces
by Castel et al. (2008) in the area of Bir Nasib. The
authors describe batteries with a calculated number
of around 3,000 single smelting units. Smelting sites
of such a dimension are unknown in the Early Bronze
Age Old World.
These finds can be connected to sites such as Ain
Soukhna in the Eastern Desert, where inscriptions
left by Egyptian expeditions name persons that can
be found in inscriptions in Sinai also. The scale of
metal production in ancient times can be exemplified
by another example, admittedly from later periods:
c. 420,000 smelting furnaces (!), belonging to 6,000
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
smelting batteries were calculated for Roman iron
production in the Holy Cross Mountains in Poland
(Orzechowski 1993).
The lack of slag near the batteries of wind-powered
furnaces at Bir Nasib is difficult to explain. However,
even if prehistoric smelting did not occur, it is not difficult to understand why planning such an operation
makes sense. As clearly indicated by the largest smelting site of the Sinai Peninsula at Bir Nasib with its calculated giant slag heaps, ore resources were definitely
available in prehistoric times. But, at present we do
not have any conclusive evidence for prehistoric mining in this area, but this might be due to destruction
by modern mining activities. A possible explanation
for the absence of slag (absence of evidence is not
evidence for absence) close to the Early Bronze Age
batteries at Bir Nasib could have been caused by a
recycling and re-melting of Early Bronze Age slag.
Extensive recycling of copper rich slag from the Early
Bronze Age in the Iron Age was a common practice at
prehistoric Faynan (Hauptmann 2007, 245f.).
Another peculiarity could be observed in some Sinaitic sites: the multi-layered clay tuyères from Um
Bogma, Wadi Nasb/Wadi Sih and Bir Nasib. These
tuyères are technological masterpieces and evidence
for high technology in copper production. These big
clay tuyères differ in size and diameter and show up
to 15 phases of re-usage. Smaller clay tubes of only
one or two applications were found in sites like Wadi
Ahmar 1038/1039. So far the examples are unique
and were found exclusively on Sinai, neither in the
Levant nor in Egypt. They date from the Late Bronze
Age/Early Iron Age and their existence in Sinai is
outstanding. Therefore, wind-powered furnaces obviously represent a regional technological stage in
the development of metallurgy and can be seen as
precursors of smelting furnaces operated by bellows
in later periods.
Besides the archaeological survey, it was of central interest during our study to obtain lead isotope
measurements for provenance studies. Concerning
the sites of Tell Hujayrat al-Ghuzlan and Tell Magass,
Maadi and the sites along the Sinai mediterranean
coast, new data obtained that support the theory
that ore was exchanged during the first half of the
4th millennium BC.
The total of mineralogical, chemical and lead isotope
data analysed in this study show that during the 4th
millennium BC Maadi did not rely on one source for its
copper (ore) supply. It suggests a supply from several
sources, namely ore deposits of Um Bogma or possibly other mineralisations in the southern part of the
Sinai, and from more remote sources such as Timna
and Faynan in the Wadi Arabah. This is confirmed by
51
one may assume that an indigenous Sinai population may have played a role for the copper supply of
Maadi - not only as traders of copper from Hujayrat
but also as miners and traders of Sinai ore which
could have been delivered to Maadi in exchange for
agricultural products. The Egyptian finds from the
nawami-tombs in the Southern Sinai are an important remainder of such connections.
52
Fig. 35: Maadi. Some pieces of blackish-greenish coppermanganese ore (?) next to a vessel imported from southern
Palestine stored in the Maadi site museum. Unfortunately
the ore was not available any more to investigate its provenance. Foto: E. Oren.
the archaeological record. Intensive cultural interaction between Maadi and the two settlements Tell Hujayrat al-Ghuzlan andTell Magass are demonstrated by
recent excavations (Khalil & Schmidt 2009), e. g., by
specific lithic tools like fan scrapers (Hikade 2009,237),
a fragment of a “Libyan Vase”, trapezoid copper axes
and mollusc artefacts (Müller-Neuhof et al. 2003, 2325).The exchanged materials, though, show a stronger
tendency of exchange from the Levant into Lower
Egypt and not the reverse.
Shapes, sizes and weights of the ingots in Maadi,
for instance, clearly correspond to the supraregional
specific ingots and ingot moulds from Hujayrat and
Magass (Pfeiffer 2009a). Unfortunately due to the
looting of the Museum at Maadi in 2002 no analytical
work could be performed of these ingots, nor could
ores found at Maadi (Figure 35) be investigated.
How this transfer of copper was organised, is difficult
to determine, but both land routes and sea routes
must be considered. Due to the archaeological remains along the Sinai Mediterranean “Way of Horus”
this direct route is a probable feature. This is supported especially by the fact that the analysed samples from the Survey of Eliezer Oren match with the
deposits of Faynan. Furthermore, since no evidence
for copper smelting occurs at the sites B-50 and B51
in North Sinai, transport of ore and metal most probably from Faynan is clearly indicated.
In addition to the “Way of Horus”, shipping along the
Mediterranean coast is indicated by Maadian finds
in coastal settlements and even abroad. In contrast,
there is not yet any definitive 4 th millennium evidence for sea trade in the Red Sea, and despite 150
years of scientific research, Maadian pottery or other
corresponding finds are completely missing in the
Sinai Peninsula. Therefore, considering the probable provenance of copper and copper ore at Maadi,
The import of copper and of copper ore to settlements from a number of different raw sources in a
distance of more than 100 km seems to be a common organisational pattern of early (Chalcolithic /
Early Bronze Age I) metallurgical practices in the
Old World. Analytical investigations of finds from
Arslantepe indicated an import of copper ore from
a number of different sources in Eastern Anatolia in
the late 4th millennium BC, which were smelted for
copper inside the settlements, and of final artefacts
from the north-eastern part of Anatolia (Hauptmann
et al. 2002). A similar situation was observed in the
Copper Age site of Zambujal, Portugal, where copper
and copper ore were imported from various copper
sources in the Estremadura (Müller et al. 2007, 22f.)
Acknowledgement
Our sincere thanks go to Prof. Dr. El Aref from the
Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza who generously supported this project
under every aspect. We also greatfully acknowledge
the help of Dr. Abdel Hamid el-Manawi from the
same institute during the field work. Prof. Dr. HansGert Bachmann, Hanau (Germany) provided most
valuable informations from his diary from 1972-1978
when he crossed the Sinai Peninsula together with
the Rothenberg Expedition. We are grateful to Prof.
Dr. Itzak Beit-Arieh, Tel Aviv University, who willingly
handed over much material from his excavations
in 1971-1982. We also received copper ore samples
and some metal artefacts from Prof. Dr. Eliezer Oren,
University of Beer Sheva, collected from archaeological sites in Northern Sinai, and from Dr. Castel,
Institut français d’archéologie orientale, Cairo. We
gratefully acknowledge the permission to use still
unpublished material from the excavation of Hujayrat al-Ghuzlan, co-directed by Prof. Dr. Lutfi Khalil,
University of Amman, and Prof. Dr. Klaus Schmidt,
German Archaeological Institute, Berlin. We acknowledge the help of MA Stephen Merkel for helping in
language problems. We appreciate very much comments and corrections from the anonymos reviewer
of this study. Field surveys and analytical work was
financially supported by the German Archaeological
Institute, Kairo within the project “Cluster-research 2:
Innovations: technical, social”.
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
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Cahiers de la céramique égyptienne
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DAI
Deutsches Archäologisches Institut / German
Archaeological Institute
GSI
Geological Survey of Israel
IEJ
Israel Exploration Journal
JAAS Journal of Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
JEA
Journal of Egyptian Archaeology
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MIFAO Mémoires de l’Institut français d’archéologie
orientale
MDAIK Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen
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Authors
Weill, R.
1904 Recueil des inscriptions égyptiennes du Sinaï.
Paris.
Dr. Ulrich Hartung, Dr. des. Rita Hartmann
German Archaeological Institute (DAI)
31, Abu el-Feda, Zamalek, Cairo
hartung@kairo.dainst.org
Wilson, C.W. & Palmer, H.S.
1869 Ordinance Survey of the Peninsula of Sinai.
Abbrevations
ASAE
AV
Annales du servive des antiquités de
l'Egypte
Archäologische Veröffentlichungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Abteilung
Kairo
Metalla (Bochum) 19.1/2, 2012, 3-59
Dr. Ali Abdel-Motelib,
Geology Department, Faculty of Science
Cairo University, Giza
aliabdelmotelib@yahoo.com,
awaelmanawi@yahoo.com
Dr. Michael Bode, Prof. Dr. Andreas Hauptmann
Deutsches Bergbau-Museum (DBM),
Research Laboratory for Archaeology
and Materials Sciences
Hernerstraße 45, D – 44791 Bochum
andreas.hauptmann@bergbaumuseum.de
Dr. des. Kristina Pfeiffer
German Archaeological Institute (DAI),
Oriental-Department
Podbielskiallee 69-71, D - 14195 Berlin
kp@orient.dainst.de
59