Kiln
The kiln depicted here (cross-section) conforms to the installation that was excavated in Tell Qasile (in today’s Tel Aviv) and dates back to the 11th century BCE. Copper or other metals were put in pots and smelted in a coal-fired kiln (cf. the two pots at the right of the kiln) until they were liquidized. Blowing the bellows brought air through a channel into the kiln in order to increase the temperature. Since the value of metal was, at the same time, a means of payment, the metal had to be smelted down, so as to proof the purity and thus the trading value of the metal.
Exod 19:18; Job 28:2; Ps 12:6; 147:18; Jer 6:29; 9:7; Ezek 22:20; 24:11; Zech 11:13; Mal 3:2; Wisd of Sol 3:6; 2 Pet 3:10
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