For decades, archaeologists and biblical interpreters have been on a constant quest to find the legendary mines of King Solomon, fighting disbelief from some scholars that they truly existed. But the most recent excavations in southern Jordan indicate the existence of a region where archaeological evidence meets biblical story line.

In the most recent archaeological context, the site of Khirbat en-Nahas brought to light the remnants of a 3,000-year-old society that many experts were convinced it could not have possibly existed during that time. The excavation indicates that the biblical time line matches with the reality of this site, therefore connecting Khirbat en-Nahas with the time when King Solomon is said to have controlled the mines here. Radiocarbon dates have indicated that the smelting activities in the biblical region of Edom are in fact 2 centuries older than previously believed.

Radiocarbon dating on this site reinforces the idea suggested by archaeologist Nelson Glueck seven decades ago, that King Solomon’s mines were located in the northern part of the biblical Edom, the Faynan district, in today’s southern Jordan.

With the new study, “the question of whether King Solomon’s copper mines have been discovered in Faynan returns to scholarly discourse,” scientists write in the study appearing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week.

King Solomon has always been more of a biblical figure rather than a historic character, simply because historians found little evidence to support his existence and reign. The legends on his wisdom, wealth and power are very hard to transpose in history, and archaeologists have found it hard to unearth solid evidence to support the biblical story line.

King Solomon was the last monarch to rule over a prosperous Hebrew territorial organism, before the kingdom was split into the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah. The stories about his wealth are legendary, and based on the recent excavations, plausible.

As the late Bronze Age civilization entered collapse in the eastern Mediterranean, and more complex societies such as Edom and Israel started to emerge in 10th c. BCE, the economic context in the region began to change.

The site of Khirbat en-Nahas (Arabic for “ruins of copper”) is of considerable size, indicating an industrial-scale production here, as Thomas Levy of the University of California San Diego, lead author of the study, explained.

Egyptian artifacts discovered at the site were associated with a disruption in production at the end of the 10th c. BCE, possibly in connection with the military campaign of Pharaof Sheshonq I in the region, also mentioned in the Bible, as he was trying to put a stop to economic activities here.

“We can’t believe everything ancient writings tell us,” Levy said. “But this research represents a confluence between the archaeological and scientific data and the Bible.”

The research on the Khirbat en-Nahas site will continue so as to establish whether King Solomon indeed controlled the industrial activity here. There is a possibility that the mines were in fact controlled by regional leaders, who have not been mentioned in Biblical texts.