Beno Rothenberg

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Beno Rutenberg, 2010

Beno Rothenberg (born October 23, 1914 in Frankfurt am Main ; † March 13, 2012 in Ramat Gan , Israel ) was an Israeli archaeologist , photographer and one of the founders of archaeometallurgy .

Life

Beno Rothenberg was born into an educated and wealthy Jewish family in Frankfurt am Main at the beginning of the First World War . When he was 19, he emigrated to Israel with his family in 1933. He initially studied mathematics and philosophy with the aim of an academic career, but after a few years came to the Hagana in Jerusalem . During the Second World War he served in the Meteorological Service of the Royal Air Force in Egypt. During the Palestine War he was assigned to an armed brigade under Yitzhak Sadeh as a documentary photographer.

Rothenberg was enthusiastic about photography, became one of the first photo journalists and after the war brought out illustrated books about the land of Israel.

Scientific work

With his good powers of observation, Rothenberg often found rock carvings and other prehistoric remains in landscape photographs, which interested him increasingly. A collaboration as a photographer with the archaeologist Nelson Glueck , who was looking for " King Solomon's copper mines" in the Negev, was decisive for his turn to archeology . Rothenberg countered enthusiastic attempts to “prove” biblical locations archaeologically with a sober look at verifiable facts and clear conclusions. In doing so, he made the discovery that was important for his further research life: the vast ancient mining area around Timna with thousands of shafts and smelting sites. This region remained the center of his research for the rest of his life.

Temple of Hathor in Timna
Bronze Age copper mine in Timna

Over a period of 30 years, Beno Rothenberg carried out systematic surveys and excavations near Timna. As an autodidact, he was open to interdisciplinary collaboration. He developed good relationships with the Institute of Archeology in London (today at University College London ) and the Mining Museum in Bochum . Scientific investigations on the ore and slag samples from the excavations could be carried out there. Finally, he founded the Institute for Archaeo-Metallurgical Studies (IAMS) in London in 1973 and established the term archaeometallurgy in the scientific community.

Based on his excavation results, Beno Rothenberg dated the mining activity in Timna to a time well before King Solomon - in the 12th to 11th centuries BC - and ascribed it to Egyptian expeditions. In addition to his work in Timna, he initiated and led the great Arabah expedition , an archaeological and archaeometallurgical research program in central and southern Sinai from 1967 to 1979. This resulted in a new picture of the archeology of Sinai, although many details have not yet been published. Another area of ​​work was in the Spanish province of Huelva , where Rothenberg on the Río Tinto researched the silver mining of Phoenicians and Romans.

The research in the Timna Valley has been continued by Erez Ben-Yosef in the Central Timna Valley Project at Tel Aviv University since 2012 .

Exhibitions

  • In 1971 the British Museum in London showed an exhibition of the archaeological finds and archaeometric research of Timna under the title: Timna; Valley of the Biblical Copper Mines .
  • In 2007 the Erez Israel Museum in Tel Aviv showed an exhibition of photographs by Beno Rothenberg from 1947 to 1957.

Fonts (selection)

  • with Yohanan Aharoni , Avia Hashimshoni: The Desert of God: Discoveries on Sinai. (translated by Lotte Stuart) With 90 photos by Beno Rothenberg. Munich, Zurich 1961
  • Land of Israel. Shock Pub. House, Jerusalem 1962.
  • Sinai - pharaohs, miners, pilgrims and soldiers. Kümmerly & Frey, Bern 1979, ISBN 3-259-08381-3 .
  • with Hans Günter Conrad among others: Antique copper in the Timna valley. 4000 years of mining and smelting in the Arabah (Israel). (Ed .: Association of Friends of Art and Culture in Mining) Verlag Glückauf, Essen 1980, ISBN 3-921533-18-X .
  • with Antonio Blanco-Freijeiro et al: Studies in ancient mining and metallurgy in South-west Spain: explorations and excavations in the Province of Huelva. London 1981, ISBN 0-906183-01-4 .
  • The Egyptian mining temple at Timna. Institute for Archaeo-Metallurgical Studies, University College London 1988, ISBN 0-906183-02-2 .
  • with Hans-Gert Bachmann: The ancient metallurgy of copper. Inst. For Archaeo-Metallurgical Studies, Univ. College London 1990, ISBN 0-906183-03-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Obituary Institute for Archaeo-Metallurgical Studies
  2. ^ Central Timna Valley Project
  3. ^ Erez Israel Museum
personal data
SURNAME Rothenberg, Beno
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli archaeologist, photographer and founder of archaeometallurgy
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH March 13, 2012
Place of death Ramat Gan , Israel