Copper

A metal used in pure form or alloyed with other elements (such as tin, lead and zinc) to produce a range of tools, weapons and decorative items. Arabian copper ore deposits were exploited discontinuously from the Bronze Age onwards, with the raw metal traded widely.

Eastern Arabia

Copper ores are common in the mountains of Oman and the U.A.E., and small-scale primary smelting slags and copper-base artefacts at Ḥafīt and early Umm an-Nar settlements indicate that they were smelted by the late 4th or early 3rd millennium BCE. Production grew in the Umm an-Nar period, indicated by smelting sites with up to several thousands of tonnes of copper slag and an increase in the number of copper-base artefacts known from settlements and tombs, and through Mesopotamian written sources that identify southeast Arabia as Magan/Makkan, the “copper mountain”. Although little primary evidence is known from southeast Arabia in the 2nd millennium BCE, the composition and abundance of contemporary copper-base artefacts suggests the continued smelting of local ores. The common occurrence of copper-base artefacts at Early Dilmun sites on Bahrain and Faylakā reflects participation in the Persian Gulf maritime exchange network (see Maritime trade) that transported Magan copper to Mesopotamia. A subsequent peak in production occurs in the early Iron Age (see Chronology of southeast Arabia), as seen for example at Rākī, when new technology allowed the exploitation of abundant copper sulphide ores and supported a dramatic expansion in copper-base artefact use in contemporary settlements and graves. Key assemblages include those from Sarūq al-Ḥadīd, ʿUqdat al-Bakra, Masāfī 1, Jabal Mudhmar East, Dibba al-Baya and the Ibri-Selme hoard. Evidence for primary production declines in the Late Pre-Islamic period, although copper-base artefact production and use is documented at Mleiha, ed-Dur and Samad Late Iron Age sites in Oman, at least in part utilising imported alloys such as brass.

Western Arabia

Although substantial copper deposits occur in Arabian Shield rocks, evidence for the earliest production and use of copper-base artefacts in northwest Arabia is sparse, due to intensive early Islamic exploitation that destroyed or obscured earlier remains. Production residues and artefacts from al-Qurayya indicate copper smelting from the Bronze Age. At Taymāʾ, copper-base artefacts from Bronze Age graves are possible Levantine imports, although there is evidence for the local production and use of copper by the Iron Age. Material culture connections link north-west Arabian polities with so-called ‘Midianite’ copper production at Timna and other well-known mining sites in the southern Arabah (Israel/Jordan).

Copper-base artefacts are known in small numbers from Bronze Age southwest Arabia, with analyses supporting possible contemporary local metal extraction or connections to metal sources across the southern Red Sea. Archaeological surveys in southern Saudi Arabia have recorded copper smelting sites of the subsequent South Arabian period (see Chronology of South Arabia), coinciding with a dramatic expansion of evidence for metal use at 1st millennium BCE sites in Yemen. Copper-base metallurgy in the region, and at culturally-affiliated sites such as Sumhuram (Oman), is characterised by the use of distinctive copper-tin-lead alloys to produce a range of items, including large scale statuary (see Sculpture). Further to the north, copper-base items from Qaryat al-Faw (Saudi Arabia) exhibit strong stylistic influences from the Mediterranean world.

Lloyd Weeks

References and suggested reading

• Degli Esposti, M. & A. Pavan 2020. Some Reflections on the Ancient Metallurgy of Sumhuram (Sultanate of Oman). Annali, Sezione orientale 80: 179–196. DOI: 10.1163/24685631-12340098.
• Giardino, C. 2018. Magan: The Land of Copper. Muscat: Ministry of Heritage.
• Hauptmann, A. 1985. 5000 Jahre Kupfer in Oman. Band 1: Die Entwicklung der Kupfermetallurgie vom 3. Jahrtausend bis zur Neuzeit (Der Anschnitt, 4). Bochum.
• Liu, S., Th. Rehren, E. Pernicka & A. Hausleiter 2015. Copper processing in the oases of northwest Arabia: technology, alloys and provenance. JAS 53: 492–503. DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2014.10.030.
• Renzi, M., Intilia, A., Hausleiter, A., Rehren, Th. 2016. Early Iron Age Metal Circulation in the Arabian Peninsula: the Oasis of Taymāʾ as Part of a Dynamic Network. PSAS 46: 237–246. https://www.jstor.org/stable/45163430
• Weeks, L.R., Keall, E., Pashley, V., Evans, J., Stock, S. 2009. Lead Isotope Analyses of Bronze Age Copper-base Artefacts from al-Midamman, Yemen: Towards the Identification of an Indigenous Metal Production and Exchange System in the Southern Red Sea Region. Archaeometry 51: 576–597. DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4754.2008.00429.x.