Copper

The word Copper is from the Latin ‘Cyprium’, meaning the ‘metal of Cyprus’, and abbreviated to ‘Cuprum’.
This was because the majority of Copper production during the Roman Era came from Cyprus. It was shipped in Ingots around the Empire.

Alloying Copper with Tin produces Bronze, and this discovery brought in the Bronze Age.
Bronze continued to be manufactured during the whole Roman Era.

Alloying Copper with Zinc produces Brass, known to the Greeks, but produced in great quantities during the Roman Empire.
After 23 CE, Augustus changed the silver Sestertius into a Brass coin, which continued to be issued up until the end of the third century CE, requiring large quantities of copper.

Copper Mines in the Ancient World

The Skouriotissa Mines, amongst other Mines in the area, have 2,000,000 tons of slag.
The area has been mined since the early Bronze Age c. 3,000 BCE.
Cyprus, also known as Alashiya, was famed in the Ancient World for its Copper.
The Amarna Letters speak of the Pharaoh‘s trade in Copper with Cyprus.
The Uluburun Shipwreck, dating from the 14th century BCE, found in 1982 off the southern coast of Turkey, contained 355 Ingots of Cyprus Copper, and the vessel is thought to have originated in Cyprus.
The Romans extracted 250,000 tons of Copper up until the fourth century CE.

Great Orme Copper Mine.
Great Orme is a giant Bronze Age Copper Mine where copper has been excavated since around 2,000 BCE and was at its most productive between 1700-1400 BCE.
The Mine was closed in c. 600 BCE but reopened by the Romans.
The Mine is inside the Great Orme Promontory beside the town of Llandudno in North Wales.
It has been estimated that around 1,800 tons of copper ore were extracted from this Mine.

Wadi Faynan
Located in Southern Jordan contains a huge copper mining site.
Petra is located 30 miles (48km) to the south of these Mines and would have controlled the Copper trade.
Wadi Faynan was extensively mined throughout history, but particularly during the Roman Empire.
The area was also mined during the 10th century BCE, the same period as King Solomon, and may be the source of the vast amounts of Copper needed to build the Temple of Jerusalem.
The site covers 13 square miles, contains 200,000 tons of slag and has been mined for 6,500 years.
Khirbat en-Nahas was also heavily mined in the 10th century BCE.

Timna Valley
Located 19 miles (30km) north of Eilat, has 2,000 tons of slag and has been mined for Copper for over 6,500 years.
The so-called King Solomon’s Pillars are rock formations which stand at the end of the Timna valley, so named by the American Archeologist Nelson Glueck in 1930.
Just below the base of the Pillars was found a temple to Hathor, the Egyptian Goddess of Mining, built in the 14th century BCE.

Sinai Peninsular
It holds the Wadi Meghara Copper and Turquoise Mines and the Wadi Nas’b holds an estimated 100,000 tons of copper slag.
Serabit el Khadim held turquoise Mines and the Temple of Hathor, the Egyptian Goddess of Mining.
Copper was mined in Sinai since the Pharaoh Khufu, also known as Cheops.
100,000 tons of Slag would have produced approximately 5,500 tons of Copper.

Copper Mines of Oman.
They began extraction in 3,000 BCE.
The Sumerian clay tablets refer to two countries where Copper came from, one called called Dilmun (Bahrain) and the other called Magan, thought to be Oman.
The Sumer Civilisation received all its Copper from this area.

Rio Tinto Mines.
In the Huelva region are located the Rio Tinto Copper, Silver and Lead Mines.
The Rio Tinto mining complex in Huelva, Andalucia, also lays claim to being King Solomon's Mines.
The mines were worked from 1,000 BCE until the end of the Roman era after which they were closed and not reopened until 1556 CE.
Two villages nearby are named Zalamea la Real and Zalamea La Vieja (Nerva today) in an area called Cerro Salomon.
The Phoenicians traded with Spain for its metal ores as well as for its wines and Olive Oil.

Tell el-Kheleifeh.
The Legendary wealth of the Biblical King Solomon became a source of great interest during the Victorian Period after H. Rider Haggard published the novel ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ in 1885 describing the source as a diamond mine in Africa.
Then, in three seasons of digs between 1938-1940, the American Archeologist Nelson Glueck excavated a site at Tell el-Kheleifeh on the Gulf of Aquaba and declared that that he had found Copper Mines that were the source of Solomon’s wealth, and linked them to Ezion Geber mentioned in the Book of Kings I, 10:22.
Consequently, although The Bible makes no mentions of any Mines, the theory has become widely accepted.

Tell el-Kheleifeh, Eilat, Israel