The barren landscape of Edom glows with a reddish hue, which may be how the Edomites got their name; it means, literally, “the red ones.” Though archaeological excavations in the highlands suggested that Edom did not develop into a state until the late-eighth or seventh century B.C.E., more recent excavation in the copper-rich Edomite lowlands has shown that Edom was a complex society centuries earlier, as reflected in the Bible.