Mons Timna
About
Copper had been dug from this desert valley north of the Red Sea since the Chalcolithic era, but Roman engineers reopened the workings in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE with refined smelting techniques the earlier miners never had. A Roman fort at nearby Yotvata guarded the route. By 117 CE the renewed operation was feeding copper into the Roman economy of the province bordering the Gulf of Aqaba.
What happened here
Work goes on underground by lamplight in shifts, and the lamp is also the clock. Galleries follow the ore, propped with timber, drained by wooden screws and bucket wheels worked by hand in stages up the shaft. Ventilation is a second shaft and a fire to draw the air. The labour is convicts, slaves and paid men working side by side on different terms, and the paid men do the skilled cutting. Above ground the ore is crushed, washed in long channels, and smelted, and the smoke kills the vegetation for miles. Mines of any size are imperial property, leased to contractors under written regulations covering shifts, drainage, bath-house charges and who may open a new gallery. Settlements grow around them fast and empty just as fast.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →