Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

I guess this thread is closed.

Apparently there is not enough information surviving from bronze age sources
to tell whether or not ancient smelters may have used a heavy petroleum
product in their smelting where smelting was done away from a handy source
of trees for charcoal.

All I know is that the phrase seems to indicate a hot, smokey fire, and the
only fuels I know that give both are heavy crude oils, such as pitch or
bitumen. Hence my opening question.

Still curious, but apparently (shrug) the data is not available.

Karl W. Randolph.