Researchers: Asteroid Destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah

A clay tablet that has baffled scientists for 150 years has been identified as a witness's account of the asteroid suspected of being behind the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Researchers who cracked the cuneiform symbols on the Planisphere tablet believe that recorded an asteroid thought to have been more than half a mile across.

The tablet, found by Henry Layard in the remains of the library in the royal place at Nineveh in the mid-19th century, is thought to be a 700 B.C. copy of notes made by a Sumerian astronomer watching the night sky.

He referred to the asteroid as a "white stone bowl approaching" and recorded it as it "vigorously swept along."

Using computers to recreate the night sky thousands of years ago, scientists have pinpointed his sighting to shortly before dawn on June 29 in the year 3123 B.C.

About half the symbols on the tablet have survived and half of those refer to the asteroid. The other symbols record the positions of clouds and constellations. In the past 150 years scientists have made five unsuccessful attempts to translate the tablet.

Mark Hempsell, one of the researchers from Bristol University who cracked the tablet's code, said: "It's a wonderful piece of observation, an absolutely perfect piece of science."

He said the size and route of the asteroid meant that it was likely to have crashed into the Austrian Alps at Köfels. As it traveled close to the ground it would have left a trail of destruction from supersonic shock waves and then slammed into the Earth with a cataclysmic impact.

Debris consisting of up to two-thirds of the asteroid would have been hurled back along its route and a flash reaching temperatures of 400 Centigrade (752 Fahrenheit) would have been created, killing anyone in its path.

Genesis 19

1 And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground; 2 And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant’s house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night. 3 And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat. 4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: 5 And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them. 6 And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, 7 And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. 8 Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. 9 And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. 10 But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. 11 And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door.

12 And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place: 13 For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the LORD; and the LORD hath sent us to destroy it. 14 And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law.

15 And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. 16 And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city. 17 And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. 18 And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my LORD: 19 Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast showed unto me in saving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die: 20 Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live. 21 And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city, for the which thou hast spoken. 22 Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do anything till thou be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

23 The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. 24 Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; 25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. 26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

27 And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD: 28 And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.

29 And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt.

30 And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. 31 And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth: 32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. 33 And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. 34 And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. 35 And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. 36 Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father. 37 And the first born bare a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day. 38 And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Benammi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.

The Middle Times were ending, and the heavens were filled with fire, and The Lord did fight to throw The Daemon out of the heavens.

And the fight was fierce, and the sky was filled with bright flashes of fire, and debris did rain down on the people, and they were frightened.

And The Lord did seem to cast The Daemon out.

And The People did wear clothing, and such armor and helms as they had, to protect them, all painted in the various colors of the desert, so The Daemon might not see them.
And The Daemon did come, as if cast from the heavens, roaring down with a great noise, a frightening wail as had never been heard before.

And The People saw him approach the earth, and they were afraid.

And The People faced The Daemon, and prostrated themselves flat on their bellies; and they turned up their collars, to hide their necks, and they tucked their arms under them, lest the Daemon see their hands; and they bowed their heads, and seemed to kiss the dry desert floor.

But The Daemon knew them, and saw them in the desert, and was displeased, that they had attempted to hide.

And The Daemon released his awful wrath, and The People were terrified.

And those of The People that had displeased The Daemon, by their proximity to him, were instantly consumed by fire, such that all that was left of them, and of their clothes, and of their armor and helms, was a dark stain on the dry, cracked desert floor.

And those that had displeased The Daemon, by casting their eyes on him, were instantly struck blind, never to see again.

And those farther yet from The Daemon, were burned horribly, although they did live, some for a day, some lingering on in awful pain for weeks.
And those farther yet from The Daemon, they thought themselves spared, and that the Daemon might let them live.

And then The Daemon did exhale, in a mighty blast of hot air, so strongly that boulders were tossed across the desert, as a child might skip a rock on a calm lake; and the sick, and the burned, and the wounded, and the dead, were rolled up in the great wave of The Daemons breath, and many were crushed.

And then did The Daemon draw breath, in a wave of air as strong as his mighty exhalation, and more of The People were caught up, and torn, and crushed by the rocks and boulders of the desert.

And then there was a mighty clap, such that many of The People that had survived thus far were struck deaf, and The Daemon was gone.

And in place of The Daemon was a mighty pillar of fire, topped by a huge cloud of smoke, that blacked out the sun, and made the day into night.

And those of The People who had survived, again thought that they had been spared; but many among them did sicken, and their fingernails, and their toenails, and their teeth did fall out, and they did die.

And The People were no more, and only a few, scattered through the desert, did survive.

And the Final Times did begin.

There are several ancient stories bundled up in this one. First of all, the base story is about a woman and her daughters in ancient times.

It was the woman's responsibility to get husbands for her daughters. She unfortunately let her fool of a husband, Lot, take the family to a town full of homosexuals.

I would imagine neolithic groupings around an evening campfire laughed heartily at that one.

Anyway, things got much worse, so they left that town. Since she'd failed in her responsibility of acquiring husbands for the girls she turned into stone. The daughters then were bedded by the husband ~ since that's the penalty set by God for women who don't snare those husbands.

Other stuff was encrypted and packed into the basic story. In later centuries various commentaries were added, and finally, in the 20th century, someone came up with the idea that Sodom and Gomorrah was about "hospitality" and not "sex".

I prefer the feminist angle to all the later stuff. Now we get a mile wide asteroid that zooms over Sumer, cooks Soddom, and finally smacks into a mountain or two in Austria leaving strange formations.

It was working much better when it was just the girls!

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