Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-jtdwj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-31T01:18:05.065Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Analyses of patterns of copper and lead mineralization in human skeletons excavated from an ancient mining and smelting centre in the Jordanian desert: a reconnaissance study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

J. Grattan ,
L. Abu Karaki ,
D. Hine ,
H. Toland ,
D. Gilbertson ,
Z. Al-Saad  and
B. Pyatt
J. Grattan*
Affiliation:
Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of Wales, Aberystwyth SY23 3DB, UK
L. Abu Karaki
Affiliation:
Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan
D. Hine
Affiliation:
Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of Wales, Aberystwyth SY23 3DB, UK
H. Toland
Affiliation:
Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of Wales, Aberystwyth SY23 3DB, UK
D. Gilbertson
Affiliation:
School of Geography, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK
Z. Al-Saad
Affiliation:
Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan
B. Pyatt
Affiliation:
Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Centre, School of Biomedical and Natural Sciences, Nottingham Trent University, Clifton Lane, Nottingham NG11 8NS, UK
*
*E-mail: John.Grattan@aber.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this reconnaissance study, skeletal materials from people, dating from ∼1500 B.P., who lived by or worked at the ancient copper mines and furnaces of the Wadi Faynan in southern Jordan, were analysed using atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS) to determine the intensities of accumulation of copper and lead in their bones. Many of the bones analysed contained concentrations of these metals which are comparable to those of modern individuals who are heavily exposed to metals through contemporary industrial processes.

Patterns of partitioning throughout the skeleton of a number of individuals were also studied. These AAS data suggest that within the human organism there may be some ability to influence the patterns of accumulation of copper within the skeleton. The humerus was frequently found to contain more copper than other bones studied. Within the humerus itself, the medial epicondyle frequently contained the highest concentrations, which may indicate a significant degree of organization or control of the process. These metal concentration data together with their toxicological consequences suggest that the health of the ancient human populations must have been adversely affected by exposure during life to copper in the environment. They also point to the need for further detailed studies of metal partitioning within the bones of the human skeleton.

Keywords

copper miningsmeltingbiomineralizationpollutioncopperleadhuman skeletonpartitioningRomanByzantinehealthdesertpalaeoecologyJordan

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 69 , Issue 5 , October 2005 , pp. 653 - 666
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Adams, R. (2002) From farms to factories: The development of copper production at Faynan, southern Jordan, during the Early Bronze Age. Pp. 21–32 in: Metals and Society (Ottaway, B.S. and Wagner, E.C., editors). British Archaeological Reports, International Series. Archaeopress, Oxford, UK.Google Scholar
Ahlgren, L. and Mattsson, S. (1979) An X-ray fluorescence technique for in vivo determination of lead concentration in a bone matrix. Physics Medicine Biology, 24, 136–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ahlgren, L., Liden, K., Mattsson, S. and Tejning, S. (1976) X-ray fluorescence analysis of lead in human skeleto. in vivo. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health, 2, 82–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Al-Najjar, M., Abu Dayya, A., Suleiman, E., Weisburger, G. and Hauptmann, A. (1990) Tell Wadi Feinan. The first Pottery Neolithic tell in the south of Jordan. Annals of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, 34, 27—56.Google Scholar
Alloway, B.J. and Ayres, D.C. (1993) Chemical Principles of Environmental Pollution. Blackie Academic and Professional, London, 291 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baranowska, I., Czernicki, K. and Aleksandrowicz, R. (1995) The analysis of lead, cadmium, zinc, copper and nickel content in human bones from the Upper Silesian industrial district. Science of the Total Environment, 159, 155–162.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barjous, M.O. (1992) The Geology of the Ash Shawbak area. Map Sheet no. 3151 III. Amman, Geology Directorate, Geological Mapping Division, Bulletin 19, 79 pp.Google Scholar
Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (1991) Canadian Environmental quality criteria for contaminated sites. Report CCME EPC-CS34. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.Google Scholar
Drasch, G.A. (1982) Lead burden in prehistorical, historical and modern bones. The Science of the Total Environment, 24, 199–231.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eusebius (1969) The History of the Church from Christ to Constantine. Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, London, 469 pp. (translated by Williamson, G.A.).Google Scholar
Findlater, G., El-Najjar, M., Al-Shiyab, A., O'Shea, M. and Easthaugh, E. (1998) The Wadi Faynan project: the south cemetery excavation, Jordan 1996. Levant, 30, 69–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeman, P.W.M. and McEwan, L.M. (1998) The Wadi Faynan Survey, Jordan: a preliminary report on Survey in area WF2 in 1997. Levant, 30, 61–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grattan, J.P., Pyatt, F.B., Toland, H.T. and Huxley, S. (2002) ‘Death ··· more desirable than life'? The human skeletal record of ancient copper mining and smelting in Wadi Faynan, South Western Jordan. Toxicology and Industrial Health, 18, 297–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grattan, J.P., Condron, A., Taylor, S., Karaki, L.A., Pyatt, F.B., Gilbertson, D.D. and Saad, Z. (2003a) A legacy of Empires? An exploration of the environmental and medical consequences of metal production in Wadi Faynan, Jordan. Pp. 99–105 in: Geology and Health: Closing the Gap (Skinner, H.C.W. and Berger, A., editors). Oxford University Press, UK.Google Scholar
Grattan, J.P., Huxley, S. and Pyatt, F.B. (2003b) Modern Bedouin exposures to copper contamination: an imperial legacy. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, 55, 108–115CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grattan, J.P., Gillmore, G.K., Gilbertson, D.D., Pyatt, F.B., Hunt, CO., McLaren, S.J., Phillips, P.S. and Denman, A. (2004) Radon and King Solomon's miners, Faynan orefield, Jordanian Desert. The Science of the Total Environment, 319, 99—113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hauptmann, A. (2000) Zur frühen Metallurgie des Kupfers in Fenan/Jordanien. Der Anschnitt Beiheft 11. Deutsches Bergbau Museum, Bochum, Germany, 239 pp.Google Scholar
Hauptmann, A. and Weisburger, G. (1987) Archaeometallurgical and mining-archaeological investigations in the area of Fainan, Wadi ‘Arabah (Jordan). Annals of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, 31, 419–437.Google Scholar
Hauptmann, A., Begemann, F., Heitkemper, E., Pernicka, E. and Schmitt-Steker, S. (1992) Early copper produced at Feinan, Wadi Araba, Jordan: the composition of ores and copper. Archaeomaterials, 6, 1–33.Google Scholar
Hunt, CO., Elrishi, H.A., Gilbertson, D.D., Grattan, J.P., McLaren, S., Pyatt, F.B., Rushworth, G. and Barker, G.W. (2004) Early Holocene environments in the Wadi Faynan, Jordan. The Holocene, 14, 921–930.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, J.D. (1996) Pan's Travail. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, 276 pp.Google Scholar
Karaki, L.O.A. (1999) Skeletal Biology of the People of Wadi Faynan. A Bioarchaeological Study. Unpublished M.A. dissertation, Yarmouk University, Jordan, 114 pp.Google Scholar
Klinger, Y., Avouac, J.P., Abou Karaki, N., Dorbath, L., Bourles, D. and Reyss, J.L. (2000) Slip-rate on the Dead Sea transform fault in northern Araba Valley (Jordan). Geophysical Journal International, 142, 755–768.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knauf, E.A. (1992) Feinan, Wadi. Pp. 780–782 in: The Anchor Bible Dictionary (Freedman, D.N., editor). Doubleday, New York.Google Scholar
Levy, T.E., Adams, R.B., Hauptmann, A., Prange, M., Schmitt-Strecker, S. and Najjar, M. (2002) Early Bronze Age metallurgy: a newly discovered copper manufactory in southern Jordan. Antiquity, 76, 425–437.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levy, T.E., Adams, R.B., Najjar, M., Hauptmann, A., Anderson, J., Brandl, B., Robinson, M.A. and Higham, T. (2004) Reassessing the chronology of Biblical Edom: new excavations and 14C dates from Khirbat en-Nahas (Jordan). Antiquity 78, 865–879.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLaren, S.J., Gilbertson, D.D., Grattan, J.P., Hunt, CO., Duller, G.A.T. and Barker, G.A. (2004) Quaternary palaeogeomorphic evolution of the Wadi Faynan area, southern Jordan. Palaeo geography Palaeo climatology Palaeoecology, 205, 131–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oakberg, K., Levy, T. and Smith, P. (2000) A method of skeletal arsenic analysis, applied to the Chalcolithic copper smelting site of Shiqmim, Israel. Journal of Archaeological Science, 27, 895–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Overstreet, W.C, Grimes, D.J. and Seitz, J.F. (1982) Geochemical orientation for mineral exploration in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. USGS OFR 82-791, 255 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pike, A.W.G. and Richards, M.P. (2002) Diagenetic arsenic uptake in archaeological bone. Can we really identify copper smelters. Journal of Archaeological Science, 29, 607–611.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pyatt, F.B., Barker, G.W., Birch, P., Gilbertson, D.D., Grattan, J.P. and Mattingly, D.J. (1999) King Solomon's miners — starvation and bioaccumulation? An environmental archaeological investigation in southern Jordan. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, 43, 305–308.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pyatt, F.B., Gilmore, G., Grattan, J.P., Hunt, CO. and McLaren, S. (2000) An Imperial legacy? An exploration of ancient metal mining and smelting in Southern Jordan. Journal of Archaeological Science, 27, 771–778.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pyatt, F.B., Amos, D., Grattan, J.P., Pyatt, A.J. and Terrel-Nield, C.E. (2002a) Invertebrates of ancient heavy metal spoil and smelting tip sites in southern Jordan: their distribution and use as bio indicators of metalliferous pollution derived from ancient sources. Journal of Arid Environment, 52, 53—62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pyatt, F.B., Pyatt, A.J. and Grattan, J.P. (2002b) A public health problem? Aspects and implications of the ingestion of copper and lead contaminated food by Bedouin. Environmental Management and Health, 13, 467–470CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pyatt, F.B., Pyatt, A.J., Walker, C., Sheen, T. and Grattan, J.P. (2005) Environmental toxicology: heavy metal content of skeletons from an ancient metalliferrous polluted area of Southern Jordan with particular reference to bioaccumulation and human health. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, 60, 295–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rabb'a, I. (1992) The Geology of the Al Qurayqira (JabalHamra Fadda). Map Sheet 3051 II. Geology Directorate, Amman, Geological Mapping Division, Bulletin 28, 55 pp.Google Scholar
Scheinberg, I.H. (1979) Human health effects of copper. Pp. 17–39 in: Copper in the Environment: Part II, Human Health (Nriagu, J., editor). John Wiley, London.Google Scholar
Schick, R. (1995) The Christian Communities of Palestine from Byzantine to Islamic Rule: An Historical and Archaeological Study. Darwin Press, London, 583 pp.Google Scholar
Skinner, H.C.W. (2000) In praise of phosphates, or why vertebrates chose apatite to mineralise their skeletal elements. Geology International, 42, 232—240.Google Scholar
Wittmers, L.E. Wallgren, J., Allich, A., Aufderheide, A.C. and Rapp, G. (1988) Lead in bone. IV. Distribution of lead in the human skeleton. Archives of Environmental Health, 43, 381–391.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed