Telegraph; Known as Slaves’ Hill, the site is among thousands of copper mines scattered about the Timna Valley in the Aravah Desert, an area previously thought to have been mined by the ancient Egyptians in the 13th century BC.

The discovery of an Egyptian temple at the heart of the site in the late 1960s seemed to confirm who presided over the ancient industrial area.

But now a team of archaeologists from Tel Aviv University claim to have found items that showed mining activity in fact took place on the hill three centuries later during Solomon’s reign.

Analysis of 11 samples of metals, clothing, fabrics, ceramics and ropes as well as foods, like dates, grapes and pistachios recovered from the Slave’s Hill site and carbon dated at the University of Oxford matched the period.

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