WADI AL-NASB, EGYPT—An Egyptian archaeological mission working at the Wadi Al-Nasb site in the southern Sinai Peninsula unearthed a major ancient metalworking center, according to a report by Ahram Online. Throughout Egyptian history, the region was known to be an essential source of copper and turquoise, but the new work uncovered facilities that suggest large-scale smelting and processing of copper ore also occurred on site as well before more refined products were shipped to the Nile Valley. The team discovered scores of copper ingots, crucibles, tuyere heads, and the foundations of a large workshop with smelting furnaces. While evidence shows that the site was active from the Old Kingdom through the Late Period, it was during the New Kingdom, between the sixteenth and eleventh century b.c., that it developed into one of the most important mining centers in Egypt. “Sinai was not just a mining hub,” said Sherif Fathy, Egypt’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities. “It was a strategic extension of the Egyptian state.” To read about excavations of a mining site in Egypt's Eastern Desert, go to "Miners' Misfortune."
