Evidence of Sodom? Meteor blast cause of biblical destruction, say scientists

Times of Israel ^ | 11/22/2018 | Amanda Borschel-Dam

[Olog-hai]

A multi-disciplinary team of scientists has a new theory for why all human civilization abruptly ended on the banks of the Dead Sea some 3,700 years ago.

According to analyzed archaeological evidence, the disaster of biblical proportions can be explained by a massive explosion, similar to one recorded over 100 years ago in Russia. […]

As reported in Science News, at the recently concluded Denver-based ASOR Annual Meeting, director of scientific analysis at Jordan’s Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project Phillip J. Silvia presented a paper, “The 3.7kaBP Middle Ghor Event: Catastrophic Termination of a Bronze Age Civilization” during a session on Environmental Archaeology of the Ancient Near East.

According to the paper’s abstract, the scientists discovered evidence of a “high-heat” explosive event north of the Dead Sea that instantaneously “devastated approximately 500 km².”

The explosion would have wiped out all civilization in the affected area, including Middle Bronze Age cities and towns.

Silvia told Science News that the blast would have instantly killed the estimated 40,000 to 65,000 people who inhabited Middle Ghor, a 25-kilometer-wide circular plain in Jordan. …

[SaveFerris]

Manchurian Candidate Barack Hussein Obama knew there were other ways of destroying the United States, other than unchecked debt.

And the fools bought right into it. History is either repeating or rhyming. Not saying this is exactly what will happen. I’m just saying it accelerated under the Lying Kenyan and that he was and IS doing the work of his real father, Lucifer. I’m just shocked at how many idiots are praising homosexual marriage and think that “transgender” has any basis in reality except maybe for 0.00003% (or whatever) that may be biological freaks of nature.

Thanks for quoting those verses, BTW.

[Vinnie]

Doesn’t the Great Rift run up into the M E region? Volcanic activity.

[Jmouse007]

Almighty God, who literally spoke everything into existence didn't need to use a meteor. He supernaturally displayed His power and wrath upon Sodom and Gomorrah and all of their remaining inhabitants by raining down fire and brimstone upon the cities utterly destroying the entire site.

It is so tiresome seeing puny little mankind vainly try again and again to deny the supernatural power of Almighty God and explain away His miraculous activities.

[piytar]

Or a nuke — God is, well, God.

[piytar]

Yup. They have tried to explain away the Red Sea opening for Moses as simply an earthquake. Who caused the earthquake to happen at exactly the right time? They have tried to explain the Flood as waters from beneath the Earth rising up. Who caused that to happen? And now they are trying to explain Sodom and Gamorrah as a simple meteor strike. Who caused that?

Pride was the first sin by Lucifer Morningstar (true name Ael, modern nickname Allah). Seems like we’re getting there pretty quick. Sigh.

[PIF]

A multi-disciplinary team of scientists has a new theory for why all human civilization in the Middle East

[SunkenCiv]

The Age of the Dead Sea
by Immanuel Velikovsky

There is a way of calculating the age of the Dead Sea. This interior lake contains concentrated solutions of salts. These salts flow into the sea with the waters of its tributaries. Thermal springs bring salt to the Sea of Galilee, and the Jordan carries them to the Dead Sea, which has no outlet. From the surface of the Dead Sea, in the deep hot rift, the water evaporates, leaving the salts behind. By calculating the amount of salts in the sea and the amount that reaches it annually by way of the Jordan and other streams, as well as from thermal springs on its shores, the approximate age of the Dead Sea can be determined. Such an attempt was partially made. The magnesium salts in the Jordan served as a basis for the calculation. It was reckoned that the present annual rate of influx of magnesium in the water of the Jordan alone, when related to the concentration of magnesium in the Dead Sea, should give a figure of approximately 50,000 years as the age of the sea.(1) The author of this estimate admitted that even this figure is probably too high; the salinity of the Jordan must have decreased with time, for the thermal sources carry more salt when they are young and their temperature is high.

In the above calculation, it was estimated that the Jordan carries six million tons of water daily to the Dead Sea and that it deposits 181 million tons of magnesium annually. However, on an average day more than double that amount evaporates from the Dead Sea,(2) and its surface does not fall, other sources must be making up the difference.

The rivers Zerka (Callirhoe) and Arnon, which flow into the sea from the east, carry salt solutions from many springs. The shores of the Dead Sea abound in highly concentrated thermal springs which contain rich amounts of magnesium. These sources flow directly into the sea, bringing a richer influx of magnesium than the Jordan.(3) In addition there are, on the shores of the Dead Sea, abundant vestiges of thermal springs with rich sediments of salts that are inactive at present.(4) It is highly probable, too, that there are submarine sources in the Dead Sea which may provide magnesium, but they are indeterminable.(5)

When these factors are taken into consideration the age of the Dead Sea, computed on the basis of its magnesium content, must be drastically reduced.

A computation that takes, as its basis, the amount of sodium in the Jordan points to a recent date for the origin of the Dead Sea. The proportion of sodium to magnesium in the water of the Jordan is about 4:1; in the Dead Sea it is 1:2.(6) If the Jordan were the only source of the sodium for the Dead Sea the age of the Dead Sea would be only about 6,000 years. But the thermal sources on the western, eastern, and southern shores contain sodium too; so may the submarine sources, which cannot be evaluated. It is likely, therefore, that the sea has existed for only about four thousand years. When again the fact is taken into account that the thermal sources are usually more concentrated when they first break out and when they are at a higher temperature, it may well be asked why the age of this sea should not be reduced still more. It is probable that deeper levels of water have a greater salt concentration.(7)

Fifty thousand years as the age of the Dead Sea was an unexpectedly low estimate: the rift in which the Dead Sea is situated is considered to be the result of a catastrophe at the beginning of the first glacial period.(8) Now a simple reckoning shows that the saline sea with the Jordan has not existed longer than five thousand years

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Lurker. A nice two-list ping topic, something else to be thankful for. And the weekly Digest ping comes early, hey, it's a long weekend for some.

[SunkenCiv]

In Genesis c14 the four kings of the cities of the plain got their asses handed to them in battle with the King of Elam and his subordinate kings, but then Abram (not yet called Abraham at this point) took "three hundred and eighteen" men, chased down the baggage train, caught them at or in (what later became) Dan, recovering all the booty and his kinsman Lot and his people.

That suggests that the obviously large army of the king of Elam had already left for another breaking and entering job somewhere, OR, that he had to rush back to deal with an uprising, OR, they got killed by some other means. Regardless, 318 men ain't gonna do it, unless it was just there to pick off the limited number of guards at night and recover all the loot. If the King of Elam finds out about it, he's going to be back at some point, but apparently that didn't happen, so some event intervened.

[SunkenCiv]

The other references to at least one of the cities indicate an understanding of their former location, which is mostly underwater.

1 Samuel 013-018, Deuteronomy 034-001, Isaiah 015-005, Jeremiah 048-034, and Nehemiah 011-031.

[SunkenCiv]

Where Is Sodom?
The Case for Tall el-Hammam
by Steven Collins
Biblical Archaeology Review 39:2, March/April 2013
https://members.bib-arch.org/biblical-archaeology-review/39/2/2

Locating Sodom: A Critique of the Northern Proposal
by Bryant G. Wood PhD
Non-Technical - Feb 26, 2016
http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2016/02/26/Locating-Sodom-A-Critique-of-the-Northern-Proposal.aspx

Arguments Against Locating Sodom at Tall el-Hammam
Todd Bolen responds to “Where is Sodom”
02/27/2013
https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/biblical-archaeology-sites/arguments-against-locating-sodom-at-tall-el-hammam/

Sodom & Gomorrah - Scientific Evidence
John Black
19 April, 2013
https://www.ancient-origins.net/human-origins-science/sodom-gomorrah-scientific-evidence-00358

Archeologist, Dr. Steven Collins, and The Tall-el Hammam Excavation
interview by Brian Nixon
August 17, 2016
https://www.crossmap.com/news/archeologist-dr-steven-collins-and-the-tall-el-hammam-excavation-30362

Where Is Sodom?
Genesis 13, archaeology and Biblical geography provide clues
Biblical Archaeology Society Staff
01/04/2018
https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/biblical-archaeology-sites/where-is-sodom/

Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project
https://tallelhammam.com/
https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/6578b338-074b-4141-946a-99fb57892266/09141146-c9ac-4563-b563-84f79d2c6776.jpg

[snip] The Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project (TeHEP) is a joint scientific project between Trinity Southwest University’s College of Archaeology & Biblical History (Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA), Veritas International University’s College of Archaeology & Biblical History (Santa Ana, California, USA) and the Department of Antiquities of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. [/snip]

The Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project (TeHEP)
Season Fourteen
https://trinitysouthwest.com/dig/+https://trinitysouthwest.com/dig/

Steven Collins (archaeologist) - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Collins_(archaeologist)

[SunkenCiv]

Archaeologist and Historian Dr. Steven Collins: In Search of Sodom and Gomorrah

[SunkenCiv]

Collins, Steven. “Tall el-Hammam Is Still Sodom: Critical Data-Sets Cast Serious Doubt on E. H. Merrill’s Chronological Analysis
http://www.tallelhammam.com/uploads/BRB-2013-1-Collins_Answers_Merrill.pdf
https://web.archive.org/web/20130927170737/http://www.tallelhammam.com/uploads/BRB-2013-1-Collins_Answers_Merrill.pdf

BTW, Collins also claims that Thutmose III was pharaoh of the Exodus, and that’s so far gone I won’t bother to talk about it further.

Let My People Go!: Using historical synchronisms to identify the Pharaoh of the Exodus, Trinity Southwest University Press, 2012 ISBN 978-0615687940
http://veniceem.blog.free.fr/index.php?post/2013/04/26/Let-My-People-Go%21%3A-Using-historical-synchronisms-to-identify-the-Pharaoh-of-the-Exodus-e-book
http://img2.imagesbn.com/p/9781466432345_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG

[Thud]

See _Discovering the City of Sodom_ here:

https://www.amazon.com/Discovering-City-Sodom-Fascinating-Testaments-ebook/dp/B008J2BQTA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1542929880&sr=8-1&keywords=Discovering+the+City+of+Sodom%3A

[YogicCowboy]

If God is real, then he can do it any way He chooses.

[sneakers]

Thanks for the links. Bump to view later.

[bert]

The Dead Sea is in or is along the rift as I believe is the Jordan river

[elbook]

I hear theres one headed for SanFranSicko right thim moment ...

[SunkenCiv]

The Great Rift and the Jordan
by Immanuel Velikovsky

But if there was no Dead Sea before the time of the Exodus, whither did the Jordan flow, assuming it was already in existence? The Jordan might not have existed at all, or it could have flowed into the open sea, the Mediterranean. It probably did not flow along the Rift over the Arabah into the Aqaba Gulf of the Red Sea, as no traces of marine life are found at the height of the watershed of Arabah. The barrier between the Dead Sea and the Aqaba Gulf is about 500 meters high. The watershed between the Jordan River and the Kishon River which flows into the Mediterranean, at Mount Gilboa, is 500 meters above the ocean level. The topographical shape of the region of the Beth Shan Valley, stretching from the Jordan towards the Esdraelon Valley, makes the flow of the Jordan into the Mediterranean a far more acceptable conjecture than a presumed flow of the Jordan over the slopes of the mountain of Hor into the Red Sea. Of course, it can be regarded as certain that the geography of the environs of the Red Sea and of the continents in general was quite different before and after the catastrophe that resulted in the formation of the Dead Sea...

Whatever the structural changes of the earth in the catastrophes before that which I describe here, there must have been some time when the Jordan streamed into the valley of Sittim (the name of the plain before the Dead Sea originated) and continued into the Mediterranean, most probably through the Jezreel Valley.

Legendary reminiscences from the patriarchal age indicate that the Jordan existed before the Dead Sea came into being.(4) It appears that the coming out of Paddan-aram to Canaan required the passage of a river. Today the the way from Palestine to the north does not require the crossing of water. But if the Jordan did flow through the Esdraelon Valley into the Mediterranean, it had to flow in a direction opposite to the one in which it flows today.

The plain of Siddim became a sea... The opening of the Great Rift, or its further expansion, accompanied by the overturning of the plain and the origin of the Dead Sea, was a catastrophe that ended an era. In my understanding the end of the Early Bronze Age or the Old Kingdom in Egypt coincided with these events.