Queries & Comments

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Copper Smelters’ Lives

Why Did They Dig Copper?

In Hershel Shanks’s First Person “Life Was Not So Bad for Smelters” (BAR 41:01), he notes that “people have been mining copper [in the Faynan district of Jordan] for 12,000 years, and they have been smelting the extracted copper since the Chalcolithic period, 4,500 years ago.” Why did people mine copper for 7,500 years prior to the Chalcolithic period if they did not, or could not, smelt it into usable material?

Thomas E. Levy responds:

My colleague Dr. Mohammad Najjar and I have been exploring the role of ancient mining and metallurgy on social change in Jordan’s Faynan district since 1997. As part of that work, we have looked at the exploitation of copper in those periods before smelting began (Chalcolithic period, c. 4500–3800 B.C.E.), yet copper was an important mineral to acquire. This began during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) period around 7500 B.C.E. when malachite was mined to be used in bead production and as a pigment. Trace element studies have shown that Faynan copper ore was used as “eye makeup” on the famous PPN statues discovered at Ain Ghazal around 125 miles from Faynan.

Did Jesus Exist?

Did St. Anselum’s Writings Support Jesus’ Existence?

In “Did Jesus Exist?” (BAR 41:01), Professor Mykytiuk concludes: “Other documentary sources are doubtful or irrelevant.” My inquiry is about a reputed statement in a forgotten publication that “… was first found in the writings of St. Anselum of Canterbury in the 11th century …”

I continue to question the authenticity of the document of its alleged situs, and I have no way of researching it. Professor Mykytiuk’s article makes me think perhaps the said document is one of the “other” documents he unturned in his research.

A word from you or him will end my academic quest.

Lawrence Mykytiuk responds:

This Latin “letter,” supposedly from a Roman official named Publius Lentulus, “president of the people of Jerusalem,” whose copies are usually addressed to the Roman senate, presents itself as first written during the reign of Tiberius Caesar. But it is considered a fraud, originally written in about the 13th century A.D., by almost all scholars who investigate the so-called “hidden” writings (apocrypha) which pretend to be from “New Testament” authors and times. Unfortunately, it became popular, and it influenced artists to portray Jesus as a white man of exquisite good looks, in contradiction of Isaiah 53:2, “He 070 had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him” (NIV). Even today, varying forms of this “letter” are quoted by people who have no idea that it’s spurious. See J.K. Elliott, The Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon, 1993), pp. 542–543; Anthony Maas, “Publius Lentulus,” Catholic Encyclopedia (1910) (www.newadvent.org/cathen/09154a.htm); “Letter of Lentulus,” OrthodoxWiki (orthodoxwiki.org/Letter_of_Lentulus).

Arameans at Tel Abel Beth Maacah?

It’s All in the Family

Reference is made to the “love-hate” relationship between the Arameans and Israelites (Robert Mullins and Nava Panitz-Cohen, Archaeological Views, “Looking for Arameans at Tel Abel Beth Maacah,” BAR 41:01). An example of Jacob’s marriages to Laban’s two daughters was given. Obviously, this is not surprising that Jacob would marry Laban’s daughters as they were also of Abraham and Isaac’s tribe, since they were first cousins (Genesis 29:10).

Aram was a son of Shem, just as Arphaxad was (ancestor of Abraham and Nahor [grandfather of Laban]). They were all Shemites at that time and related. No one was called an Israelite until God changed Jacob’s name to Israel.

I look forward to each issue of BAR.

What Is the Forgery Date?

While I enjoy all the back and forth on whether or not an item is authentic or forged, I am missing one piece of information in the discussions. If indeed the items such as the ivory pomegranate inscription (BAR 40:06) or the Yehoash Tablet (BAR 40:04) are forgeries, when were they forged? Fifty years ago? Five hundred years ago? Maybe it’s not an important point for scholars, but for this everyday mom at home, I find it interesting.

Those who contend they are forgeries rarely speculate when the alleged forgeries occurred. It is assumed they are modern.—Ed.

BAR Birthday Buddies

Forty years ago, 1975, I was watching Saturday Night Live, a new TV show, going to see Rocky Horror Picture Show, a new movie and reading this … All three were great things when they were new in 1975.

Copper Smelters’ Lives