King Solomon's miners - Starvation and bioaccumulation? An environmental archaeological investigation in southern Jordan

Copper mining and smelting were important activities in various predesert w adis during the Iron Age, Nabatean, Roman, and Byzantine periods in souther n Jordan and major spoil tips together with slag heaps remain as a legacy o f such enterprises. Barley has grown in the area for a prolonged period and currently wild barley plants are affected by toxic cations, which reduce t heir yields. It is considered that such plants provide an adequate model to assess how similar plants would have performed, in terms of productivity, in the past. The population of miners/slaves, guards, etc., would have been subject to bioaccumulation of heavy metals, which conceivably would have l ed to detrimental effects on their health. Inhalation and ingestion of part iculate pollutants cannot be discounted. It is argued that the population m ay have been further weakened as a consequence of food shortage, due to red uced plant productivity, as cereals are important foods for both humans and the animals upon which they are dependent. A sizeable mining community cou ld only have been maintained by large-scale importation of food or a massiv e intensification of agricultural activity, (C) 1999 Academic Press.