Friday 19 June, 2009

Special Report

Dr Collins at Tall el-Hammam

Archaeologist finds increasing evidence for lost ancient city

By Andrew Halloway

An archaeologist claims to have rediscovered the ruins of the biblical city of Sodom that the book of Genesis says God destroyed with “burning sulphur”.

Dr Steven Collins, a professor at Trinity Southwest University in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has looked where other archaeologists have failed to look – and believes he has come up trumps.

In recent years, Collins’ team has uncovered extensive remains from Tall el-Hammam dating to the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1600 BC), precisely the epoch when scholars believe Sodom would have been one of the doomed “cities of the Plain” (Genesis 13-19).

After an occupation gap of several hundred years, the site was rebuilt during the second half of the Iron Age with monumental towers and gate, and may even be the site of Abel-Shittim, one of the final camping sites of Moses and the Israelites before they crossed into Canaan (Numbers 33:49).

Dr Collins based his search on information in the Bible that led him to an area north of the Dead Sea, in Jordan, rather than Israel. As usual, critics who believe the older parts of the Bible are full of myth and legend rather than real history have poured cold water on Collins’ claims. But as his digs have progressed, fewer and fewer seem willing to deny his discoveries, as more evidence is unearthed, year by year.

Collins’ interest in the location of Sodom began in 1996 when he was working on a dig in the West Bank, north of Jerusalem, the site of the city of Ai (another biblical city that cynics thought was fictitious but has been discovered). Collins began to question the traditional view of Sodom’s location, which is south of the Dead Sea.

In an interview with ASSIST News Service, Collins says: “I began to read Genesis 13-19 and realised that the traditional site did not align itself with the geographical profile described in the text.

“Now let me say,” he continues, “that many scholars don’t have a high view of Scripture. Some even frown upon using biblical texts as a tool for location designation. My philosophy is that the text is generally reliable and can – and should be – used (at bare minimum) as a basic guide for a geographical profile.

“When I read how the author of Genesis described the area of Sodom and then looked at the area of the traditional site in the southern region, I said: ‘This cannot be the place. There are too many differences of description’.”

Genesis describes the region where Sodom and Gomorrah were located as “the plain of Jordan”. For a start, the River Jordan does not run south of the Dead Sea – it flows from the north into the Dead Sea, where it ends. But Collins also believes that “the plain of Jordan” refers specifically to “the circular region of the Jordan Valley east of Jericho and north of the Dead Sea. This region is the breadbasket of the area, full of fresh water and farmland.”

Of course, when Abraham and Lot separated, the Bible says Lot chose to settle in the plain of Jordan because it was “well watered, like the Garden of the Lord” (Genesis 13:10). To this day, the area north-east of the Dead Sea is one of the most important agricultural areas of Jordan, providing many fruit and vegetable crops for Jordan and for export. By contrast, the land south of the Dead Sea is arid and barren.

According to Collins: “The traditional ‘Southern Theory’ site of Sodom does not have the geographical parallels described in the Bible text, namely:

1. You can see the whole area from the hills above Jericho (Bethel/Ai)
   
2. It must be a well-watered place
   
3. It has a river running through it (the Jordan) and
   
4. It must follow the travel route of Lot” (who went to the other side of the Jordan, eastward, away from Jericho).
   

Though the traditional site does not have any of these geographical indicators, the site Collins has been excavating in Jordan, Tall el-Hammam, does. Collins found that when he took the literal text of Genesis 13-19 and trusted the geographical references as reliable indicators, he was led to a location that has begun to yield evidence of an ancient city from the time of Abraham and Lot, which was destroyed – and then lay unoccupied for a very long time.

Many archaeologists have dug in locations south of the Dead Sea, but found nothing that could be confirmed as Sodom. Collins explains: “Sadly, many of the scholars had ignored the text in Genesis.”

Collins’ first dig at Tall el-Hammam began in 2002: “We headed off to the area north-east of the Dead Sea and began to look around. What we found amazed us. There were at least ten sites that could possibly be ancient Sodom.

“Sodom is mentioned first in the Bible [in the list of cities in the plain of Jordan] – consistently, thereby giving it prominence as the largest city in that area. So, based upon the text and our previous research, we chose the largest site. Tall el-Hammam was the largest site by a huge margin. And let me tell you, this find at Tall el-Hammam turned out to be much greater than we ever hoped for.”

Tall el-Hammam’s general area is 40 hectares (roughly 100 acres) which is huge by ancient Bronze Age standards.

The findings have been staggering: “Not only do we have the right place geographically speaking, but it falls within the right time frame (the Bronze Age) and it was destroyed during the time of Abraham (the Middle Bronze Age). When you add in the pottery, architecture (it was a fortified city) and the chronological consistency of the region to the biblical text, it is a match made in heaven, so to speak.

“To make it even more intriguing,” he continues, “there is great mystery concerning this site, and all of its associated sites. For some reason there is what I call a ‘historical hole’ regarding the site, meaning, after this cluster of towns was destroyed during Abraham’s time, the area was not re-occupied until much, much later; later than the sites in the regions surrounding this particular cluster.

“It must have been seen as a taboo site of some kind. Something terrible must have happened there that caused people to stay away for so many centuries.” This is consistent with the destruction of Sodom being seen as the judgment of God, as the Bible says.

Collins concludes: “Though we are still digging and uncovering a plethora of material and artefacts, and much research still needs to be conducted, I feel that the evidence for this being the ancient city of Sodom is increasing by the day.”

The rediscovery of Sodom at a time when homosexuality has regained acceptance as a norm in Western culture may be seen by some as having a prophetic edge. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire because homosexual behaviour had become prolific in those cities (Genesis 19:5-7; 12-13) – giving rise to the term ‘sodomy’.

The Bible says, in Jude 7: “Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.”

If our culture continues to defy God’s standards in this way, perhaps we too are sowing the seeds of our own destruction.

_{Footnote: For more about this discovery, see the Trinity Southwest University dig website: www.tallelhammam.com}

Photo: Used with Permission