Image Details

The semicircular area extending in the center foreground from the base of the hill marks the perimeter of a Ramesside (14th–12th century B.C.) smelting camp. It encloses an area about 250 feet in diameter within which the copper ore, extracted nearby, was refined. Within the smelting camp were large smelting furnaces, small scale crucibles, cisterns and work shops—all the components needed to extract pure copper from the ore.