Site 34 (“Slaves’ Hill”) is a large copper smelting camp located on a mesa in the center of the Timna Valley. Excavations at the site focused on the central slag mounds, metal ritual installations, the gatehouse, and the perimeter wall.
The findings provided an updated chronological framework for Iron Age copper production in the southern Arava, and deepened our understanding of smelting processes in Timna in the early first millennium BCE.
Evidence such as a significant defense system indicates that this was an organized and advanced copper production, managed by a centralized society. The hypothesis is that the site was abandoned following the war campaign of Pharaoh Shoshenq I, which led to the reorganization of production in the Arava Valley.