How an asteroid destroyed Sodom
Bible’s Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed by an exploding asteroid, says archaeologists
Was this the end of Sodom? A superheated asteroid exploded in the sky above the Dead Sea 3700 years ago, obliterating the cities below.
The effect would have been of biblical proportions: a superheated asteroid exploding into a massive fireball and shockwave over the Dead Sea.
The discovery and radiocarbon dating of unusual minerals in Jordan suggests exactly this happened some 3700 years ago.
Trinity Southwest University archaeologist and biblical researcher Phillip Silvia says preliminary findings based on crystallised rock suggests a massive airburst meteor blasted a 25km wide circular plain on the northeastern edge of the Dead Sea, now called Middle Ghor.
In a presentation to the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research last week, Silvia said excavations at five Middle Ghor sites showed the area was settled for a stretch of at least 2500 years. Then, all of a sudden, the region suffered a collective collapse towards the end of the Bronze Age.
He says surveys have revealed the remains of a further 120 settlements in Middle Ghor, all of which could have been exposed to a fiery blast.
Now, “We’re unearthing the largest Bronze Age site in the region, likely the site of biblical Sodom itself” the excavators’ website declares.
A WELL-WATERED LAND
Silva says the ruins of the Bronze Age city of Tall el-Hammam, which he and his team have been excavating for the past 13 years, provides the greatest preliminary evidence of a low-altitude airburst meteor.
Hammam features a raised acropolis upon which a palace complex was built. It looked out over the largely flat 200sq km expanse of what was likely a small kingdom on the edges of the River Jordan.
“The site had begun (at least) during the 4th millennium BCE, thriving for at least a thousand years as an open agricultural community,” the researchers write. “But at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BCE, dramatic disruptions in the relative peace of the region occurred, causing the inhabitants of Tall el-Hammam to construct a formidable defensive system that included a stone-and-mud brick city wall.”
The kingdom continued to thrive. Until, suddenly, it didn’t.
Full story at site
Bible’s Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed by an exploding asteroid, says archaeologists
Was this the end of Sodom? A superheated asteroid exploded in the sky above the Dead Sea 3700 years ago, obliterating the cities below.
The effect would have been of biblical proportions: a superheated asteroid exploding into a massive fireball and shockwave over the Dead Sea.
The discovery and radiocarbon dating of unusual minerals in Jordan suggests exactly this happened some 3700 years ago.
Trinity Southwest University archaeologist and biblical researcher Phillip Silvia says preliminary findings based on crystallised rock suggests a massive airburst meteor blasted a 25km wide circular plain on the northeastern edge of the Dead Sea, now called Middle Ghor.
In a presentation to the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research last week, Silvia said excavations at five Middle Ghor sites showed the area was settled for a stretch of at least 2500 years. Then, all of a sudden, the region suffered a collective collapse towards the end of the Bronze Age.
He says surveys have revealed the remains of a further 120 settlements in Middle Ghor, all of which could have been exposed to a fiery blast.
Now, “We’re unearthing the largest Bronze Age site in the region, likely the site of biblical Sodom itself” the excavators’ website declares.
A WELL-WATERED LAND
Silva says the ruins of the Bronze Age city of Tall el-Hammam, which he and his team have been excavating for the past 13 years, provides the greatest preliminary evidence of a low-altitude airburst meteor.
Hammam features a raised acropolis upon which a palace complex was built. It looked out over the largely flat 200sq km expanse of what was likely a small kingdom on the edges of the River Jordan.
“The site had begun (at least) during the 4th millennium BCE, thriving for at least a thousand years as an open agricultural community,” the researchers write. “But at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BCE, dramatic disruptions in the relative peace of the region occurred, causing the inhabitants of Tall el-Hammam to construct a formidable defensive system that included a stone-and-mud brick city wall.”
The kingdom continued to thrive. Until, suddenly, it didn’t.
Full story at site
