GODS, CAVES, AND SCHOLARS: Chalcolithic Cult and Metallurgy in the Judean Desert

Abstract

The origins of southern Levantine Chalcolithic copper metallurgy have been debated for decades. Typological and metallurgical examinations of the copper artifacts from the Nahal Mishmar hoard and elsewhere have indicated a dichotomy between simple tools, made of pure copper by open casting, and elaborate items made by the “lost wax” technique of copper alloys with antimony and arsenic. While the former were considered local production of the northern Negev sites, the latter were prestige objects either considered as imports from the remote sources of arsenic-antimony copper, or local to the southern Levant. In the present paper the results of an ongoing research project are presented based on the analysis of ceramic mold remains that were still attached to a large number of copper implements from Israel. In a previous publication, the Ein Gedi area in the Judean Desert of Israel was suggested as the place of origin of all copper objects produced by this lost wax method. Some new results and simulations of...