The Color Purple. In Ancient Israel Author: Gary Byers MA Created: 13 May 2021
In January 2021, the Central Timna Valley (CTV) Project published in the online journal
PLOS ONE the results of their excavation of an ancient copper mining and smelting operation in southern Israel, along with an analysis of three specific items found in the excavation. Their report offered to the world – because this respected peer-reviewed research journal is available online to everyone – a special look into the world of the ancient Near East and the Bible.
Timna Copper Purple
Three dyed textile fragments were excavated at a site named “Slave’s Hill” by archaeologists in the 1930s. It is within a copper mining and smelting production district in the Timna Valley of southern Israel – once the territory of the ancient kingdom of Edom. In a shallow depression just above bedrock within a mixed locus of reddish sediments and crushed sandstone, wool yarn
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An oil spill at sea that has dumped tons of tar almost all the way along Israel’s Mediterranean coast forced the authorities on Sunday to close all beaches from Rosh Hanikra in the north to Ashkelon in the south until further notice.
Gila Gamliel, the environmental protection minister, said she hopes the cleanup will end in time for beach season to open on March 20, but neither she nor anybody else can be certain yet of the damage wreaked by the disaster.
Described by a senior Environmental Protection Ministry official as the worst catastrophe he could recall to hit Israel’s coastal sands and rocks because of its wide geographical spread, the spill has killed sea turtles and fish and was possibly responsible for the death of a juvenile fin whale that washed up on Nitzanim beach in the south of the country on Thursday.
Amanda Borschel-Dan is The Times of Israel s Jewish World and Archaeology editor.
Fragment of the rare purple fabric from 1,000 BCE excavated in the Timna Valley. (Dafna Gazit, Israel Antiquities Authority)
Painting of David anointed king by Samuel, wearing royal purple, from the Dura Europos Synagogue, Syria, 3rd century CE (public domain)
Fragment of the rare purple fabric from 1,000 BCE excavated in the Timna Valley. (Dafna Gazit, Israel Antiquities Authority)
Species of murex found on Israeli coasts (right to left): Spiny Dye-Murex (Murex brandaris); Banded Dye-Murex (Murex trunculus), and Red-Mouthed Rock-shell (Murex haemastoma) (Shachar Cohen, courtesy of Zohar Amar)
Mushroom and a half, result of wind erosion, in Timna Park (CC via Wiki Commons)