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Wadi Faynan Copper Mines
About
Copper had been smelted in this valley south of the Dead Sea since the Chalcolithic, but Rome turned Phaeno into an industrial-scale operation, damming wadis to cool furnace slag by the ton. Watchtowers of dressed stone still guard the approaches to the mines. The site's grim later reputation as an exile camp for condemned Christians was still two centuries away in 117 CE.
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
Nearby
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 →