New finds among the remnants of a settlement in southern Jordan show that a copper-producing society existed there 3,000 years ago, about 300 years earlier than many archaeologists had assumed, according to an international research team. The site’s revised age raises the controversial possibility that, in line with Old Testament accounts, Israel’s King David and his son Solomon controlled copper production in southern Jordan, says archaeologist and team leader Thomas Levy of the University of California, San Diego.
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