[ The Timna Valley is located in southern Israel in the southwestern Arava/Arabah 30 kilometres north of the Gulf of Aqaba and the city of Eilat. The area is rich in copper ore and has been mined since the 5th millennium BCE. There is controversy whether the mines were active during the biblical united Kingdom of Israel and its second ruler, King Solomon. A large section of the valley, containing ancient remnants of copper mining and ancient worship, is encompassed in a recreation park. In July 2011, the Israeli government approved the construction of an international airport, the Ramon Airport, in the Timna Valley. Copper has been mined in the area since the 6th or 5th millennium BCE. Archaeological excavation indicates that the copper mines in Timna Valley were part of the Kingdom of Edom and worked by the Edomites, described as biblical foes of the Israelites, during the 10th century BCE, the period of biblical King Solomon. Mining continued by the Israelites and Nabataeans through to the 1st and 2nd centuries CE during the Roman period, after the 7th-century Arab conquest, by the Ummayad Caliphate, until the copper ore became scarce.

The copper was used for ornaments, but more for stone cutting, as saws, in conjunction with sand. The recent excavations dating copper mining to the 10th century BCE discovered what may be the earliest camel bones with signs of domestication found in Israel or outside the Arabian peninsula, dating to around 930 BCE; this is seen as evidence by the excavators that the stories of Abraham, Joseph and Esau were written or rewritten after this time, seeing that the Biblical books reference travelling with caravans of domesticated camels. Scientific attention and public interest was aroused in the 1930s, when Nelson Glueck attributed the copper mining at Timna to King Solomon and named the site "King Solomon's Mines"; these were considered by most archaeologists to be earlier than the Solomonic period until an archaeological excavation led by Erez Ben-Yosef of Tel Aviv University found evidence indicating that this area was being mined by Edomites, a group who the Bible says were at war with Israel.

In 1959, Professor Beno Rothenberg, director of the Institute for Archeo-Metallurgical Studies at University College, led the Arabah Expedition, sponsored by the Eretz Israel Museum, the Tel Aviv University Institute of Archaeology. The expedition included a deep excavation of Timna Valley, by 1990 he discovered 10,000 copper mines and smelting camps with furnaces, rock drawings, geological features, temples, an Egyptian mining sanctuary and other artifacts never before found anywhere in the world, his excavation and restoration of the area allowed for the reconstruction of Timna Valley's long and complex history of copper production, from the Late Neolithic period to the Middle Ages. The modern state of Israel began mining copper on the eastern edge of the valley in 1955, but ceased in 1976; the mine was reopened in 1980. The mine was named Timnah after a Biblical chief. Timna Valley is notable for its uncommon stone formations and sand. Although predominantly red, the sand can be yellow, grey, dark brown, or black.

Light green or blue sand occurs near the copper mines. Water and wind erosion have created several unusual formations that are only found in similar climates; the most striking and well-known formation in Timna Valley are Solomon's Pillars. The pillars are natural structures that were formed by centuries of water erosion through fractures in the sandstone cliff until it became a series of distinct, pillar-shaped structures. American archaeologist Nelson Glueck caused a surge of attention for the pillars in the 1930s, he claimed that the pillars were related to King Solomon and gave them the name "Solomon's Pillars". Although his hypothesis lacked support and has not been accepted, the name stuck, the claim gave the valley the attention that helped bring about the excavations and current national park; the pillars are known as the backdrop for evening concerts and dance performances the park presents in the summer. The Mushroom is an unusual monolithic, mushroom-shaped, red sandstone rock formation known as a hoodoo.

The mushroom shape was caused by wind and water erosion over centuries. The Mushroom is surrounded by copper ore smelting sites from between the 14th and 12th centuries BCE; the Arches are natural arches formed by erosion, as well, can be seen along the western cliff of the valley. Arches are not as rare as Solomon's Pillars and the Mushroom, similar structures can be found in elsewhere in the world; the walking trail that goes to the Arches goes past the copper mine shafts. Beno Rothenberg, the main excavator of the Timna Valley area, excavated a small Egyptian temple dedicated to Hathor, the Egyptian goddess of mining, at the base of Solomon's Pillars, it was built during the reign of Pharaoh Seti I at the end of the 14th century BCE, for the Egyptian miners. The shrine housed an open courtyard with a cella, an area cut into the rock to house a statue of the deity. Earthquake damage caused the temple to be rebuilt during the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II in the 13th century BCE, with a larger courtyard and more elaborate walls and floors.

The dimensions of the original shrine were 15 by 15 meters, it was faced with white sandstone, found only at the mining site, several kilometers away. The hieroglyphics and jewelry found in the temple totaled several thousand artifacts, have provided a lot of important information for archaeologists. A rock carving of Ramses III with Hathor is located at the top of a flight of st

The Dronrijp Reprisals were carried out by the German Sicherheitsdienst in the Dutch town of Dronrijp on 11 April 1945. 14 prisoners, including 11 members of the Dutch resistance, were shot in reprisal for the sabotage of a rail line. In the evening of 9 April 1945, only a few days before the town's liberation by the Canadians, the local department of the national resistance organisation Binnenlandse Strijdkrachten received the order to start "sabotaging road and water" to prevent German troops from escaping to Germany. BS member Broer Dijkstra and his sabotage group decided to prepare a disruption of the Leeuwarden-Franeker train line. In the night of 9 to 10 April, they removed the screws of 75 metres of railroad track, causing a Wehrmacht locomotive carrying 26 wagons to derail the night after. Within hours, the Sicherheitsdienst and the Sicherheitspolizei learned about the sabotage by a message from the town hall in Menaldum and noted by the resistance as follows: "At 23.30, in the night of 10 to 11 April, a Wehrmacht train consisting of one locomotive and 26 wagons derailed near a railroad bridge across the Bolswardertrekvaart, South of Dronrijp.

The train left Leeuwarden for Franeker. Over a distance of 75 metres, screws were removed and ties were taken from the track; the locomotive is off the rails with two wagons behind it, two other wagons lay on their sides. The wagons that were not derailed have been taken back to Leeuwarden. No personal accidents. Large amount of material damage." The Sicherheitsdienst was furious and demanded the execution of 20 prisoners in Dronrijp the following day. A secret BS group in Leeuwarden intercepted the order and positioned men near the sabotaged rail line, as they expected the prisoners to arrive by train. However, 14 prisoners from Leeuwarden were transported to Dronrijp in the back of a truck; as soon as they arrived, several British fighters overflew the town, causing the Sicherheitsdienst members to panic. They discovered that the bridge across the Van Harinxmakanaal was opened by the resistance, which blocked the road leading to the rail line. Now the only option was to guide the prisoners down next to the bridge to have them shot right there.

One of the men, Gerard de Jong from Leeuwarden, survived the execution by pretending to be dead until the Germans had disappeared. People from the town, including Ynse Postma, rescued him. De Jong’s luck was helped by the specific instruction from the Sicherheitsdienst for its men not to remove the bodies from the scene. Of the 13 prisoners who died that day, 11 were members of the resistance, their names which are listed below are honoured at a memorial of 11 stone blocks, built in 1949 at the location of the execution. A commemoration service is held every year on the 4th of May, the National Day of the Remembrance of the Dead. Johannes Nieuwland Hendrik Spoelstra Douwe Tuinstra Mark Wierda Klaas Wierda Hyltje Wierda Sybrandus van Dam Heinrich Harder Dirk de Jong Hendrik de Jong Ruurd KooistraThe other two prisoners were Johannes Ducaneaux and Oudger van Dijk, whose activities during the war can be considered quite controversial. Ducaneaux was suspected of being a mole, Van Dijk was a member of the Schutzstaffel.

Their names are therefore not honoured at the memorial. Dronryp, monument bij het Van Nationaal Comité 4 en 5 mei. Retrieved on 19 September 2017. Bosma and Dijkstra, Harrie. Net ferjitte... Niet fergete: Menaldumadeel en het Bildt in de jaren 1940-1945. Uitgeverij van Wijnen, Franeker. ISBN 9051941307

Steven Montgomery is an American artist most associated with large scale ceramic sculpture suggesting industrial objects or mechanical detritus. He received a Bachelor of Philosophy degree from Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan and a Master of Fine Arts from the Tyler School of Art of Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he has been awarded fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, awards for ceramic sculpture at international exhibitions in Korea and Taiwan. He is the first ceramic sculptor to receive a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship and is working as an artist in residence at the National Air And Space Museum in Washington, D. C, his work is included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D. C. and numerous other public and private collections throughout the United States and abroad.

He has had major solo exhibitions at both the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York and at the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art in Sedalia, Missouri. He has lived and worked in New York City since 1980 and is represented by OK Harris Gallery in New York and Jerome Zodo Contemporary in Milan. Arthur C. Danto: "Steven Montgomery belongs in the category of "visionary ceramist"... the visionary ceramist exploits clay for its remarkable plasticity, but the aesthetics of the visionary work is ancillary to the vision it conveys, in which the properties of clay may not figure at all... He is described as a master of trompe l'oeil – an optical deceit that induces a false perceptual belief; the deception consists in believing that we are seeing a reality when we are seeing an imitation that dupes the eye."Donald Kuspit: "The artist's brilliant trompe l'oeil technique helps us forget that his machines are made of clay though he exposes their "guts." The clay erupts – sometimes insidiously and inconspicuously, sometimes with abrupt, explosive force – through the Procrustean façade of the machine construction.

This occurs in work after work: Divergent-C, Static Fuel #3, the astonishing, tour de force, Re-Entrance, among others."Robert C. Morgan: "How he conceives the work in terms of a resonant statement on the human condition is the essential raison d'être by which the work proceeds to move us and provoke us to consider where we are as a civilization and a culture in this rapid-fire era of perpetual transition.... The physicality of the is observable only through an ambulatory relationship to details and to the transitions between the parts; this effect is more pronounced in the large-scale work, Static Fuel and Divergent-C."Jane Adlin, Metropolitan Museum of Art: "They fool you," she said. "When I saw them for the first time, I thought maybe the carburetor-like work was mixed media: the screw heads looked so real." …. She compared Mr. Montgomery's work to that of some contemporary Chinese ceramists in the way they, as she put it, "capture realism." "But I think he stands out as distinctive," she said.

Jonathan Goodman: "The sculpture's fake corrosion serves as a not-so-subtle metaphor for the decomposition not only of buildings but of society in the beginning of the 21st century. As Montgomery comments in an artist's statement,'It is my intention to use machines and their various components to describe impermanence, damage, the transformative property of material and the illusion of industrial strength.' The viewer understands that the artist is constructing an allegory of postindustrial decline, an'immediate environment and a direct observation of a contemporary pulse,' Re-Entrance #2 not only speaks to clay's remarkable ability to imitate other materials, but reinforces our sad recognition that the built world around us is vulnerable.... To the artist's credit, he does not complicate the delivery of his point with sentiment, preferring to give us his vision as it is." "Steven Montgomery," by Wolfram Ladda. Neue Keramic, Jan./Feb. 2005, pp. 8–13. "Is There a New York School of Ceramics?" by John Perreault.

American Ceramics, Vol. 14, No. 2, 2003. Oversea Contemporary Art Classics, by Bai Ming. Hebei Fine Art Publishing House, People's Republic of China, 2003. Pp. 56–61. "Rusted Clay and Video Paint," by Doug MacCash. The New Orleans Times-Picayune, March 8, 2002. Postmodern Ceramics, by Mark Del Vecchio. Thames & Hudson, 2002. Pp. 176, 184, 208. ISBN 9780500237878 "Montgomery's Machines," by Sherry Chayat; the Syracuse Herald American, June 6, 1998. The Artful Teapot, by Garth Clark. Abbeville Press, Incorporated, 1998. ISBN 9780896599239 "Stephen Montgomery's Entropic Machines," by Robert C. Morgan. American Ceramics, February, 1997. Artist's web site "Steven Montgomery: Sculpting Time," NY Arts Magazine / Vol.9 No. 7/8, July/August 2004