Copper Built Solomon's Riches

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 119, 5 June 1937, Page 18

Copper Built Solomon's Riches

JEEUSALEM.— Txaces of' ihtensive occupation, dating baek as far as 2000 B. O.," of the arid "Whdi Araba, which extends from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akaba, were described here recently by Prof. Nelson Glueck, director of the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem. . Yery little ha,s ever grown in Araba, said Professor Glueck. But on the other hand, investigations carried out by the American school in conjunction with the • Transjordan Department of Agriquities point to the fact that th^re was a continuous strxp of iron and copper ore from the northeast to the southwest corners of the area, This area was intensively mined between the twelfth ^nd eighth centuries B. 0. and esppecially in the tenth and ninth centuries and during the reign of Iving Solomon. Professor Glueck described nis expedition into Araba carried out threo years ago and the aerial survey which he made recently. The flight revealed, on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea, an ancient Roman highway which was marked by many Roman posts. This, and all other highways of whieh there ai'O still many signs, stated the archaeologist, were occupied through all periods since' the Bronze Age. In ATaba many ruins Of the miners' huts and piles of slag and Temains of smelting l'urnaces were found. Fragments -of pottery were also discovered. The identilication of pottery in Palestine has been doveloped into so exact a science, that these fragments were sufficient to date niost of the mining aetivity as having been concentrated ih the "lieyday of the Judaean kings."_ Much of Kiag Solomon 's wealth, Dr. Glueelc believes, was derived from the export of copper and iron ore. Ore which was 99 per cent pure haematitc has been found at a site behind Petra, that "rose-red" Nabatean stronghold hewn into the mountains and approaehed only through a long, narrow gorgc liuudreds of feet deep.