The Egyptian archaeological mission working at the Wadi al-Nasb site in South Sinai announced on Sunday the discovery of a copper smelting workshop, administrative buildings, and observation points. A statement from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said the find reflected Sinai’s strategic importance in ancient Egyptian times as a major source of copper and turquoise.
Mohamed Ismail Khaled, secretary-general of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, said excavation results showed architectural and industrial evidence confirming the continuity of Egyptian mining activity in Wadi al-Nasb from the Old Kingdom until the Late Period. He noted a flourishing of mining activity during the New Kingdom, with copper smelting workshops, copper alloy ingots of different shapes and sizes, and blowpipe heads found at the site. Khaled said the workshops, ingots, and blowpipe heads indicated an industrial system for manufacturing and casting copper before its transport to the Nile Valley for craft, military, and administrative uses.
According to the ministry, the mission uncovered part of a large central workshop with multiple types of copper smelting furnaces. Finds included tools for preparing ore, pottery crucibles, Egyptian amphorae and vessels, large quantities of coal prepared from local trees, blocks of pure clay for making tuyères, clay blowpipe heads of different sizes, clay tuyères of different sizes, blocks of copper slag, and alloy ingots, including one weighing more than 1 kilogram.
Two sandstone buildings were identified: one at the western entrance of Wadi al-Nasb and another east of its confluence with Wadi al-Sour. They were initially used as observation points and were later converted during the New Kingdom into copper smelting workshops that contained several furnaces. Hisham Hussein, head of the mission and head of the Central Administration for Lower Egypt Antiquities, said cleaning and study work included a third building at the southern edge of Wadi al-Sour that likely served as a control and observation point for Egyptian mining missions and may date to before the New Kingdom.
Written with the help of a news-analysis system.