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Artist’s evidence-based depiction of the blast, which had the power of 1,000 Hiroshimas. Credit: Allen West and Jennifer Rice A giant space rock demolished an ancient Middle Eastern city and everyone in it – possibly inspiring the Biblical story of Sodom. As the inhabitants of an ancient Middle Eastern city now called Tall el-Hammam went about their daily business one day about 3,600 years ago, they had no idea an unseen icy space rock was speeding toward them at about 38,000 mph (61,000 kph). Flashing through the atmosphere, the rock exploded in a massive fireball about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers)...

An Ancient DisasterIn the Middle Bronze Age (about 3,600 years ago or roughly 1650 BCE), the city of Tall el-Hammam was ascendant. Located on high ground in the southern Jordan Valley, northeast of the Dead Sea, the settlement in its time had become the largest continuously occupied Bronze Age city in the southern Levant, having hosted early civilization for a few thousand years. At that time, it was 10 times larger than Jerusalem and 5 times larger than Jericho. “It’s an incredibly culturally important area,” said James Kennett, emeritus professor of earth science at UC Santa Barbara. “Much of where...

Archeologists: Sodom and Gomorrah literally destroyed by fire and brimstone falling from the sky December 11, 2018 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A group of archeologists and other scientists say they have discovered strong evidence that the region of the “Middle Ghor,” where the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are believed to have existed, were in fact destroyed by a meteor that exploded in the sky above, raining down superheated matter and raising temperatures to thousands of degrees, a theory that matches the account of the cities’ destruction contained in the Old Testament Book of Genesis. According to the theory, the meteor...

The airburst "in an instant, devastated approximately 500 km2 [about 200 square miles] immediately north of the Dead Sea, not only wiping out 100 percent of the [cities] and towns, but also stripping agricultural soils from once-fertile fields and covering the eastern Middle Ghor with a super-heated brine of Dead Sea anhydride salts pushed over the landscape by the event's frontal shock waves," the researchers wrote in the abstract for a paper that was presented at the American Schools of Oriental Research annual meeting held in Denver Nov. 14 to 17. Anhydride salts are a mix of salt and sulfates....

Scientists have found that a "superheated blast from the skies" destroyed cities near the Dead Sea 3,700 years ago, which biblical analysts are saying echoes the destruction of Sodom.Science News reported that the new findings were revealed at the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research last week by archaeologist Phillip Silvia of Trinity Southwest University in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The scientists discovered radiocarbon dating and unearthed minerals that instantly crystallized at high temperatures at what used to be cities and farming settlements north of the Dead Sea, suggesting that a massive air-burst, possibly by a meteor, destroyed...

The Dead Sea nearly disappeared about 120,000 years ago, say researchers who drilled more than 1,500 feet below one of the deepest parts of the politically contentious body of water. The discovery looms large at a time when the Dead Sea is shrinking rapidly, Middle Eastern nations are battling over water rights, and experts hotly debate whether the salt lake could ever dry up completely in the years to come. New data from drilled deposits are also helping piece together geological history that slices through Biblical times. Further research may offer opportunities to verify whether earthquakes destroyed the cities of...

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...

It seems that Sodom and Gomorrah were not as “destroyed” as previously thought. The ruins of the biblical city of Sodom reportedly have been discovered by U.S. archeologists in southern Jordan. God punished the wickedness of the citizens by destroying the city with brimstone and fire, the biblical story explains. Only the righteous inhabitants were allowed to escape the destruction and were spared by God. The archeological team, directed by Steve Collins of New Mexico’s Trinity Southwest University, has been working for 10 years in the Jordan Valley. It now believes it has uncovered this magnificent historical site. If confirmed,...

This is a non-political story (but a very cool one nonetheless) which I was first alerted to by John Hawkins at Right Wing News. Archaeologists who have been busily digging into a massive mound in southern Jordan for the last ten years are growing increasingly convinced that they have located the city of Sodom, famously known in the Bible for having been struck down by God due to the sinful ways of its residents. While there aren’t any postcards with “Welcome to Sodom” emblazoned in neon, the ruins are definitely the remains of a massive city-state which thrived from...

Port Royal was called "the richest and wickedest city in the world" or "the Sodom of the New World." Suddenly, JUNE 7, 1692, an earthquake and tsunami sank Port Royal under the sea, followed by violent aftershocks...

Tyler Durden 08/01/2014 As we previously commented, when scientists start using phrases such as "the worst drought" and "as bad as you can imagine" to describe what is going on in the western half of the country, you know that things are bad. However, in recent weeks the dreadful situation in California has gone from bad to catastrophic as the U.S. Drought Monitor reported that more than half of the state is now in experiencing 'exceptional' drought, the most severe category available. And most of the state – 81% – currently has one of the two most intense levels of...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA chief Charles Bolden has advice on how to handle a large asteroid headed toward New York City: Pray. That's about all the United States - or anyone for that matter - could do at this point about unknown asteroids and meteors that may be on a collision course with Earth, Bolden told lawmakers at a U.S. House of Representatives Science Committee hearing on Tuesday. An asteroid estimated to be have been about 55 feet in diameter exploded on February 15 over Chelyabinsk, Russia, generating shock waves that shattered windows and damaged buildings. More than...

The United States was still a young nation when three major earthquakes rocked the central Mississippi River valley in the winter of 1811-1812. Chimneys fell, the earth heaved and church bells rang hundreds of miles away, set off by the powerful vibrations from what is now called the New Madrid Seismic Zone. As farmland rolled and shuddered, the shock waves spread as far as New York and the Carolinas. Now on the 200th anniversary of those devastating quakes, some seismologists are warning that the region should be on guard because of the risk that another "Big One" could strike the...

Date Added:Nov 24 2004Inscribed Bricks Unearthed South of Iran Iran-11/23/2004 In the latest round of archeological excavations at the historical site of Enshan, Fars province, Iranian and American archeologists have unearthed several inscribed bricks and a seal dating back to the mid-Elamite era (1100 BC).Enshan is regarded as one of the capitals of the Elamites and is rich in cultural heritage artifacts ranging from the Elamite to the Achamenid era (3500 BC to 500 AD). Dr. Kamyar Abdi, an instructor of Dartmouth College in the United States told Cultural Heritage News (CHN) agency that in the course of excavations in...

TEHRAN (AFP) -- One of Iran's main historical sites, the ancient Elamite capital of Susa, has been used for the secret nightly dumping of rubbish by the local municipality, a culture official in the area told AFP Tuesday. "We have filed several complaints against the municipality, but it firmly denies its workers have ever done such a thing -- even though they have been frequently spotted by our guards," said the head of the Cultural Heritage Organization in Shush, the modern name for Susa. But the official, Mahdi Qanbari, also complained that the municipality was also planning to build a...

AMMAN — Engineers are making headway in the construction of a two-story historical museum in the Jordan Valley, with project officials estimating its completion in October. “Lot's Museum,” being built some 300 metres from the cave where Lot and his family sought refuge from the devastation of Sodom and Gomorrah, is set to showcase the area's dazzling topography and unique geological facets. Samir Jaradat, the project's contact engineer told The Jordan Times yesterday that the museum's structure is being finalised with plans under way to select the exhibits. Jaradat said a specialised committee comprising antiquity, tourism and geological experts...

As I write this article, the ancient city of Sodom is being excavated on the Northeast tip of the Dead Sea in Jordan. The Site is called the Tell el-Hammam Excavation Project led by Dr. Steven Collins of Trinity Southwest University, College of Archaeology. The project has uncovered evidence of an advanced society replete with Greek architecture, art, and an advanced economy. There is also evidence of a cataclysmic event, similar to a nuclear type explosion, that leveled the city at one point in its history. After the cataclysmic event, perhaps the most significant finding is the similarity of Sodom...

As I write this article, the ancient city of Sodom is being excavated on the Northeast tip of the Dead Sea in Jordan. The Site is called the Tell el-Hammam Excavation Project, led by Dr. Steven Collins of Trinity Southwest University, College of Archaeology. The excavation project has uncovered evidence of an advanced society replete with Greek architecture, art, and an advanced economy. There is also evidence of a cataclysmic event, similar to a nuclear type explosion, that leveled the city at one point in its history. After the cataclysmic event, perhaps the most significant finding is the relation to...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – An experienced archaeologist who has spent a decade searching for the ancient ruins of Sodom is now confident that his team has located the ill-fated biblical city and evidence of its sudden destruction. Dr. Steven Collins is a distinguished professor of Archaeology at Trinity Southwest University in Albuquerque and is also dean of the school’s College of Archaeology & Biblical History. In addition to writing dozens of scholarly books and journal articles, Collins frequently visits the Middle East, where he participates in ongoing archaeological research. Since 2005, Collins has led excavations in the southern Jordan Valley in...

A team of archaeologists working on a 10-year excavation near the Dead Sea believe they have unearthed the remains of the ancient city of Sodom, detailed in the book of Genesis. This startling discovery was not only done by using the Bible to locate the city, much of the findings confirm the Biblical account of a once-thriving, wealthy metropolis that met sudden, swift destruction as it burned to the ground from a super-powerful explosive force. The findings continue the steady stream of ancient evidence that continues to confirm the accuracy of the Holy Bible. Making The Case For Sodom’s Discovery​...