A Large Copper Artefacts Assemblage of Fazael, Jordan Valley

Abstract

Late Chalcolithic metallurgy developed in the southern Levant simultaneously with other crafts and new social institutions, reflecting advances in social organization, cults and technology. Until recently, copper items were mostly found in the Negev and Judean Desert, while other areas, specifically the Jordan Valley, were considered poor, with limited copper finds. Recent excavations at Late Chalcolithic Fazael in the Jordan Valley yielded dozens of copper items that allow for the first time a comprehensive study of copper items from this area. The assemblage is one of the largest of any site in the Late Chalcolithic period and includes most of the known components of the Late Chalcolithic copper industry. The current paper presents the new metallurgical discoveries from the Fazael Basin and discusses their significance to our understanding of the Late Chalcolithic copper industry.

Identification of Fazael 2 (4000–3900 BCE) as first lost wax casting workshop in the Chalcolithic Southern Levant

“…The metal items in Fazael 2 and Fazael 7 are scattered over the entire site without any apparent pattern. Besides the characteristic polymetallic copper alloys with high Sb and As levels, preliminary pXRF analyses of many objects identified an unusually high Pb content of > 0.5 wt%, and one object seems to be made of a copper enriched in Pb and Bi [18].…”

“…Most of the metal items are fragments of standards, crowns, mace heads, and chisels. Moreover, excavations uncovered complete chisels, a mace head placed in a wall at Fazael 7, and, a head-shaped standard at Fazael 5, into which's shaft hole an awl, a chisel, and a third object were shoved [18,21,22]. The metal items in Fazael 2 and Fazael 7 are scattered over the entire site without any apparent pattern.…”

“…Recently, Rosenberg et al [18] presented a large assemblage of lost wax cast polymetallic copper alloy objects and fragments found in Fazael in the central Jordan Valley. The site also yielded several crucible fragments.…”

“…The site also yielded several crucible fragments. The presence of a lost wax casting production site in Fazael was suggested because of the co-occurrence of lost wax cast metal fragments and crucible fragments [18]. Furnaces and other evidence for metallurgical activities such as slag remain to be found [18].…”

“…To further our understanding of the metallurgical process at Fazael and provide additional evidence for the discussion of whether Fazael was a lost wax casting production site, the ceramic material presented by Rosenberg et al [18] and ceramic material from a later excavation season was investigated by petrography and with a scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (SEM-EDX). The results suggest that Fazael, specifically the sub-site Fazael 2, is indeed a lost wax casting workshop, making it the first ever found.…”