Latest news with #PiotrBienkowski
Jordan Times
18-05-2025
- General
- Jordan Times
Early Iron Age Faynan: Revisiting models of trade network
AMMAN — For decades scholars tried to reconstruct the society in Wadi Faynan during its copper boom in the 10th and 9th centuries BC. One hypothesis maintained that the local tribes established a hierarchical society with monumental, elite buildings, developed sophisticated, industrial-level copper technology and exerted control over the entire Arabah Valley, the Negev Highlands and the Edomite Plateau. However, careful studies of the available evidence showed that this evidence is not tenable. "Between the 12th and 11th centuries BC at Faynan, the evidence shows restricted, small-scale and technologically simple copper production, with no structures or production installations discovered, very little pottery and no imports. At this stage, it seems that the copper was being opportunistically exploited by local nomadic groups," noted Professor Piotr Bienkowski from the Manchester University. 'This activity was contemporary with the development of Tel Masos Stratum III, on the route to the Mediterranean, with a fortress/administrative building, structures, and sophisticated bronze-working,' Bienkowski continued. The professor added that it is likely that Tel Masos' prosperity at this time, and probably its very impetus for settlement, as well as the commencement of settlement in the Negev Highlands, were due to taking advantage of and prospering from the availability of Faynan copper, in response to a hiatus in the Cypriot copper trade. At the beginning of the 10th century BC, there was an abrupt and radical transformation of copper production and society in Faynan, characterised by an industrial boom with more sophisticated technology, expansion of copper working, complex organisation of production, and monumental elite buildings indicating a new social hierarchy, accompanied by huge amounts of pottery reflecting different approaches to cooking, dining and storage, and an influx of imports from the western Negev, Cyprus and Arabia. This shift was not created by local nomads as the evidence from a local cemetery shows that nomadic inhabitants of Faynan were not involved with the copper development. However, a small minority of them was involved but their contribution was not crucial for the industry's boom. "The tumuli graves found at Nahas, similar to those excavated at WF 40, were not related to the main phase of occupation of the site, rather belonging to post-collapse activities of the local pastoral population," said Bienkowski. The professor noted that the faunal assemblage recovered from Nahas reveals a subsistence economy not much different from that present in the contemporary northern Negev sites and very much unlike what is found at 'nomadic' sites. Inhabitants of Tel Masos had skills and sophistication necessary for the exploitation of the copper because the site was already prosperous in 12th and 11th centuries BC. Along the trade route from Faynan in the Negev Highlands, hundreds of sites were settled by pastoralists who found employment both in production and transport in the burgeoning copper industry, and whose slag-tempered pottery and architectural parallels link them to Faynan. "The industrial transformation of Faynan, along with the settlement of Tel Masos and the Negev Highlands sites, was short-lived, and lasted little more than a hundred years.' 'The rapid decline was probably the result of the revival of the Cypriot copper trade, which had begun in the late 10th /early 9th century BC, and which was on a bigger scale and with more effective networks than the Arabah copper trade," Bienkowski underlined. This decline in evidence for administrative oversight is undoubtedly linked to the abandonment of the lead player, Tel Masos, in the mid-9th century BC, while some activity at the Negev Highlands sites continued until the late 9th century BC until the supply of copper from Faynan petered out. "The prosperity and very existence of Faynan, Tel Masos and the Negev Highlands sites were interdependent and rooted in copper production and trade – and, like a house of cards, the whole precarious endeavour collapsed in the face of competition in a changing copper market. It would be a hundred years before the kingdom of Edom developed on the plateau, with different settlement patterns and an economy based on agriculture and the Arabian trade, not copper," Bienkowski underscored.
Jordan Times
20-03-2025
- Business
- Jordan Times
Rise, decline of Faynan's copper industry in Early Iron Age
AMMAN — The scholar Piotr Bienkowski studied archaeology at Liverpool University (BA and PhD) before he got involved in Jordanian Iron Age sites in 1980. The founding director of the British Institute at Amman for Archaeology and History (now the Council for British Research in the Levant),Crystal Bennett, invited Bienkowski to join her excavation in Busayra, the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Edom. Regarding his work in Wady Faynan, Bienkowski said: "Faynan was a major centre of copper production during the Early Bronze and early Iron ages, with a gap for most of the Middle and Late Bronze ages. In the early Iron Age, its copper was exported as far as the Aegean." The scholar added that the excavations by the professor Tom Levy and his team at Faynan concluded that local nomadic tribes created a complex polity at early Iron Age Faynan at the beginning of the 10th century BC, that was responsible for copper production. They argued that this was in effect the beginning of the kingdom of Edom, about 200 years earlier than previously thought. "My review of the archaeological evidence indicates that the sudden change at Faynan at the beginning of the 10th century BC, with an abrupt introduction of sophisticated copper technology at a vastly increased scale, monumental buildings, social hierarchy and sudden appearance of imports, cannot be attributed to the local nomads, as the evidence shows that they were not actively involved in copper production at that time and were unconnected to the industrial developments," Bienkowski explained. He added that the evidence displays all the attributes of an external take-over of copper production, and points instead overwhelmingly to Tel Masos as the instigator of the industrial boom. The scenario that best fits the evidence is that Tell Masos, a major site in the Negev, took direct control of copper production at Faynan and developed it as an industrial site to exponentially increase the copper trade – Masos had the resources, technical skills, an architectural tradition, and connections to trade networks that the local nomads lacked, and which transformed Faynan, the professor elaborated. Bienkowski noted that hundreds of sites in the Negev Highlands were settled by pastoralists who found employment both in production and transport in the burgeoning copper industry. But the early Iron Age copper production at Faynan was short-lived. It was abandoned by the end of the 9th century BC, and was unconnected to the development of Edomite settlement in the highlands one hundred years later. There is clear evidence that Faynan copper was exported across the Mediterranean. "Lead isotope and chemical bulk analysis indicate that the copper of tripod cauldrons at Olympia in Greece, dating c. 950-750 BC, was produced in Faynan, demonstrating a long-standing and well organised trade network from Faynan to the Mediterranean." "It is likely that the main port for exports of Faynan copper was Gaza. Ingots made of Faynan copper at the Neve Yam shipwreck off the Carmel coast, dated to the Late Bronze Age/early Iron Age, indicates that they had probably embarked from Gaza," Bienkowski underlined. Also, Egyptian royal figurines of the Twenty-first Dynasty (late 11th century BC), made of Arabah copper, would have been transported through Gaza, traditionally the main centre of Egyptian influence in the southern Levant. As to the decline in copper exploitation at Faynan: From the late 10th/early 9th century BC at Faynan, there is a long process of regression, with reduction of administrative control, abandonment or re-use of the elite buildings, and abandonment of copper-production sites, and all copper production had ceased by the end of the 9th century BC, Bienkowski said. The professor noted that this decline in evidence for administrative oversight is undoubtedly linked to the abandonment of Tel Masos in the mid-9th century BC. "By the late 10th/early 9th centuries BC, Cypriot copper production had intensified and there is evidence of its trade to Phoenicia. This coincides with the reduction of administrative control at Faynan and the abandonment of Masos, and it is likely that they were negatively impacted by this more competitive copper market," Bienkowski emphasised. A systematic trade network from Faynan to the Levantine coast and then to the Aegean does not organise itself: it requires economic and political negotiation with trade partners and complex logistical arrangements, such as setting and agreement of schedules and deadlines, organisation of production, storage, packing and transport, protection for the trade caravans, and financial transactions. While there is evidence at Faynan (and at Masos) in the 10th century of an elite, administrative layer that would have been responsible for those tasks – and which initially established the trade network reflected in the finds from Olympia – this disappeared and there is no such evidence after the early 9th century BC, Bienkowski elaborated. "The evidence suggests that, from the early 9th century BC on, the Faynan copper industry may have lacked the leadership and administrative infrastructure to compete with the renewed Cypriot trade," the scholar said. "It continued to produce copper, at a reduced number of sites, and probably traded it to established markets, but, lacking the capacity to negotiate and compete in a changing market with new players, it finally petered out by the end of the 9th century BC," Bienkowski underscored.
Jordan Times
10-03-2025
- Science
- Jordan Times
Study reveals no link between nomadic graves in Wadi Fidan, copper production in Iron Age Faynan
An aerial view of Khirbet Faynan (Photo courtesy of ELRAP) AMMAN — Nomads had always roamed around Wadi Faynan in the Iron Age. However, their presence was not a significant contributor for the copper industry boom. Regarding the evidence for nomads in Faynan, there is the large 10th to 9th century BC cemetery of Wadi Fidan 40, interpreted as the burials of a nomadic or semi-nomadic population. However, it is difficult to connect this nomadic population to the copper production at Faynan. The report of a scholarly team working in Wadi Faynan concluded that this mortuary assemblage was very different from the contemporary occupants of the copper production centres, and referred to a "dichotomy" between the two, explicitly acknowledging that it could findno evidence to connect the nomadic population of the cemetery with Khirbat an-Nahas or any of the copper production. "Not only were there no material culture parallels, but the cemetery is quite isolated, in a different wadi system, and 4 km distant from Nahas, the centre of copper production. Furthermore, there are no radiocarbon dates at the cemetery later than the mid-9th century BC, while copper production continued to the late 9th century BC," said professor Piotr Bienkowski from the University of Manchester. Bienkowski added that Wadi Fidan 40 does not show the evidence of a hierarchical society with an elite layer that is present at Nahas in the 10th and 9th centuries BCE. 'The WF 40 cemetery is related to the long tradition of desert funerary architecture of south-western Jordan and the Negev that harks back to the Neolithic period and it contains a total of 245 excavated cist graves, although most of the site is still unexcavated, the most common type consisting of stone cist graves, covered by stones labs and mud plaster,' Bienkowski continued. The professor noted that the graves were frequently surrounded by two or three concentric circles of cobbles set upright on the soil, some of them identified as an iconic or anthropomorphic standing stones because of their shape or special placement within the grave circles. "A large number of grave goods were interred with the dead, most commonly adornments made of stone, shell beads and pendants. Only two pottery vessels were found at WF 40, but the most common items were wooden bowls, said to be typical of pastoral groups," Bienkowski elaborated. The professor noted that this led the excavators to suggest that 'by avoiding ceramics, the individuals interred at Wadi Fidan 40 appear to have signalled a distinction between themselves and groups with ceramics.' All burials were roughly the same size, shared the same material culture and likely reflect a tribal, egalitarian society, the professor explained, noting that WF 40 was not the only Iron Age burial field found in the Faynan region, although it was certainly the largest and most complex. Other tumulus burials from the same period were excavated at Wadi Fidan 4, 45 and 61, with a similar material culture as WF 40. "Wadi Fidan 45 consisted of only one stone-ringed tumulus with cists covered by slabs; grave goods included 32 beads [including two made of copper], but no pottery." "Excavations at Wadi Fidan 4 unearthed three tumulus tombs, again made up of a ring of stones and covered by capstones; grave goods comprised beads [some made of copper and iron], an Egyptian seal, a scarab, and a figurine, but no pottery," Bienkowski underlined. At WF 61, one tumulus grave was excavated with similar burial offerings and the features present at WF 40 (and the other three excavated cemeteries) are completely absent at the main period of occupation of Khirbat an-Nahas. "At Nahas, no burial was found associated with the main early Iron II phase. It may be argued, of course, that WF 40 was the main cemetery for the people working at Nahas, but the striking fact is that the grave goods deposited at the former find no parallel in the latter," Bienkowski concluded.
