Univ. of California-San Diego team unearths 5000-year-old copper foundry in Southern Jordan. (Industry News).

An archeological team from the Univ. of California-San Diego (UCSD) has discovered the largest Early Bronze Era foundry in the Middle East, dating back to approximately 2700 BC.

Called Khirbat Hamra Ifdan (KHI), the 70-room complex is located on a well-defended mesa in Southern Jordan, about 30 miles south of the Dead Sea. The foundry used ceramic molds to produce copper-base ingot, axes, hammers and other artifacts that are believed to have spread throughout the Middle and Near East.

The factory was apparently destroyed by an earthquake, leaving the artifacts well preserved, according to UCSD Anthropologist Thomas Levy, who led the expedition with archeologist Russell Adams.

"We really hit the jackpot here," said Levy. "We were extremely lucky to find it as well preserved as it is and not robbed."

The team has excavated thousands of artifacts from the site already, including crucibles, ingot, copper lumps and slag, copper tools and more than 1000 ceramic molds. By comparison, the largest copper production facility previously unearthed (in Hisarlik, Turkey) yielded fewer than 70 molds.

At the 13 smelting facilities at the site, the team discovered approximately 5000 tons of slag, indicating that the complex produced several hundred tons of copper over its lifetime.

"The architecture of the settlement was very well planned, with small alleyways and very well defined storage complexes," said Levy.

The bulk of the copper was molded into ingot, indicating that an extensive trade system must have been in place to distribute it throughout the area.

"This is by far the largest evidence of copper production during this period," said Levy.

The team has excavated an area of about 1500 sq yd that was dedicated exclusively to copper production. Using a sophisticated surveying system based on satellite mapping, the researchers have been able to plot the progress of copper through the 70 rooms, courtyards and alleyways of the facility.

"The evidence from KHI is significant because it provides, for the first time, detailed evidence of this expansion in the production and use of metals from the perspective of a production center rather than from the consumer or endusers," said Adams.

The site was discovered by a British road engineer in the early 1970s, but no excavations were carried out.

In 1990 and 1992, Adams did some limited digging at the site as part of a broader survey on the region, but was forced to leave when Iraq invaded Kuwait. Adams realized the site's potential importance and organized a larger expedition with Levy. The group has been working at the site since 1999.