New Insights Into Ancient Green Beads Found in Judean Desert

Jerusalem, 4 June, 2025 (TPS-IL) — New research revealed the origins of the copper-coated green beads from the Chalcolithic period – six thousand years ago – found in the Cave of Skulls in the Judean Desert. The study suggests that the green beads were produced in two separate processes – one to produce the beads themselves and the other to add the green coating, each process taking place in a different location. These findings provide new insights into the economic connections between nomadic and settled groups in the southern Levant during the fifth millennium BC.

This is based on a new study by Geological Institute researchers Yehudit Harleben and Naomi Porat, in collaboration with Dr. Uri Davidovich from the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University, which was recently published in the Journal of Archaeological Sciences: Reports. The study reveals the origins of the copper coated green beads from the Chalcolithic period found in the Cave of Skulls in the Judean Desert.

The study focuses on the use of copper in the Late Chalcolithic period, the first period in which metals were used in the southern Levant. So far, copper vessels have been studied primarily, but the current study focuses on an important component that has not received much attention – copper-coated steatite beads (a mineral made of silicon and magnesium) that were discovered at various Chalcolithic sites.

This study examined green and white beads discovered in 1960 in the Cave of Skulls in the Judean Desert, where the largest collection of beads from this period is found. For the first time, the green coating was separated from the beads and examined separately.

Using electron microscopy and lead isotope analysis (LIA), it was found that all the beads were made of heated steatite, and some were coated with copper. The analyses failed to identify the source of the steatite, but pointed to Peynan in Jordan or the Amram Valley, both in the Arava, as possible sources for the copper minerals used to coat the beads.