The story of the destruction of Sodom is detailed in both the Bible and the Koran. The destruction was rapid and intense.
Is it possible that this story has roots in historical reality? Recent archeological findings published in Nature by researchers of the Comet Research Group indicate that a large meteor may have destroyed the ancient city of Tall el-Hammam, and that this destruction may have gone on to form the basis of the Biblical story of the destruction of Sodom.
Clues within Ruins of Destruction
Walking through the excavation of Tall el-Hammam is a fascinating, yet haunting, voyage. Puzzling findings indicate that the city was destroyed rapidly in a scorching fireball which is hard to explain. Pottery and mudbricks were melted. People were ripped limb from limb, and their bones are found smashed and scattered, buried in layers of ash, charcoal, and pulverized mudbricks. As archeologists dig through the ancient rock, they uncover a tell-tale blackened layer, where the rocks themselves tell the story of intense and widespread fires.
Three layers within the archeological dig indicate that something drastic happened here. The bottom layer is made of pulverized bricks, melted roof clay, charcoal, burned seeds, and scraps of burnt clothing. Above this is a windblown layer of small bits of plaster, charcoal, and limestone spherules. Topping it off is a dark, almost black, layer of ash and charcoal.
The destruction of Sodom by fire and brimstone. Lot's wife is turned to a pillar of salt (Genesis ... [+]
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Perhaps most puzzling are the melted objects found in the ruins of Tall el-Hammam. Melted pottery shards, which melt at temperatures above 1500C. Mudbricks, that melt above 1400C. A host of melted elements and minerals, such as platinum, iridium, and quartz.
There are also clues at the microscopic level. Archeologists also found carbon, likely originating from wood or plants, shocked to form structures like microscopic diamonds.
Almost as if it is peaking out of a layer of ancient pulverized mudbricks, the top of a skull emerges from the rock. It’s buried up to the bridge of its nose - the rest is embedded within a matrix of melted mudbricks. Stained with ash, it now has a brick-red tinge. The right eye socket has been crushed. Around it is a constellation of tiny bone fragments, which show the scar of high temperatures. Most of them are smaller than a penny.
There is more. Archeologists found that the massively thick walls of the city were sheared off. Millions of the mudbricks that made the city simply disappeared, potentially pulverized to microscopic pieces. Another piece of the puzzle - debris, whether it be shards of pottery or melted bricks, always seemed to point to the northeast.
In the cosmic airburst of Tunguska in 1908, fallen trees all lay in the same direction. This ... [+]
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The spherules, tiny sand-sized balls of melted material, are particularly interesting. Some of these consist of calcium carbonate. “Extreme high temperatures (>1500 C) melted limestone plaster applied to the walls (mainly in the Palace area),” says Dr. Christopher Moore, a scientist at the Savannah River Archaeological Research Program at the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology and author on the study. He goes on to explain how these spherules were formed. “Vaporized limestone plaster then quickly cooled in the air to form the numerous calcium carbonate spherules.” Other spherules found were formed of iron or silica.
What could have caused this level of destruction?
Root of Destruction
3,600 years ago, the city of Tall el-Hammam was a bustling metropolis. With a population of about 8,000 people, it was the largest city in the region.
But around 1650 B.C.E, that came to an end.
The researchers of the study looked at several things that could account for the destruction. Warfare seemed unlikely, as there was no other archeological evidence of spearpoints or other weapons. Tornadoes are rare in the area, and it would be difficult to imagine how a tornado could cause the extent of damage seen in human bones. Earthquakes could have led to fires, but could not explain the high-temperature melting of minerals. The authors looked at all sorts of natural disasters, from widespread city fires to volcanism to lightning. Of the 17 types of observations they made, there was only one event that fit all the data - a meteor.
A meteor - either an impact or an airburst, fit the data at Tall el-Hammam.
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This meteor could have hit the city itself or nearby, or could have exploded in the air, like the Tunguska meteor in 1908 over Siberia. Either one could cause the level of destruction seen.
The authors used the online Impact Calculator to simulate a meteor approaching Tall el-Hammam. This meteor likely would have been between 60 and 75 m across, putting it at potentially larger than the bolide that exploded in the Tunguska event. It is unlikely to be much larger than this though, Dr. Allen West of the Comet Research Group, one of the authors of the study, explains. “Otherwise, the object would have hit the ground and created a large crater like Meteor Crater in Arizona.”
Nearby Ruins
Tall el-Hammam was not the only city to be destroyed that day.
22 km to the west lay the city of Jericho. This city was destroyed on a similar timescale as Tall el-Hammam. The city walls, along with buildings, tumbled, and the city burnt to the ground. Storerooms caught fire, causing pottery to burst. Human bones were found shattered and mixed in with the ruin. The main fortification of the city, in the direction of Tall el-Hammam, collapsed. However, no evidence of extremely high temperatures (>1200C), like melted pottery or mudbricks, was found.
Buried in Salt
The entire ancient city had another strange characteristic. It was covered in salt.
“After the excavators would finish for the day, dew would often condense in the excavated walls overnight,” West told me. “When they returned in the morning, the destruction layer often was marked by a white crust of salt that had leached out overnight.”
Where did this salt come from? It seems that the sheer amount of salt is most likely tied to the meteor impact. “Perhaps the impact landed in shallow water of the Dead Sea, which is greater than about 30% salt, and splashed across the valley.” West explains.
Salt from the Dead Sea was scattered over the surrounding area after the impact, rendering it ... [+]
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This salt took the once fertile land and potentially made it sterile, making it near impossible to grow wheat and barley, two of the most important crops of the era. In fact, the entire area was then unoccupied for up to 600 years.
Ties to Sodom?
Is it possible that the destruction of Tall el-Hammam was the historical basis that became the story of Sodom?
Surely, the destruction of Tall el-Hammam would have been memorable. For the unlucky people who lived within the city, it is likely that no one survived. Malcolm A. LeCompte, a researcher on the study from the Center of Excellence in Remote Sensing Education and Research, points out that it is possible that tribesmen, women, and shepherds in nearby fields may have lived to tell the tale, although they may have been blinded or deafened by the explosion. In addition, there may have been some survivors within Jericho.
What about the timing? For now, the timing of the story of Sodom and the destruction of Tall el-Hammam seem to agree. “We can say with a high degree of confidence that the simultaneous destruction of Tall el-Hammam and every other city, town, and village in the Kikkar occurred ca 1650 BCE +/- 30 years,” says Dr. Phil Silvia, an author on the study from Trinity Southwest University, “which is the time of Abraham and Lot.”
"Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord. He ... [+]
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The idea that Tall el-Hammam might have been Sodom goes back to the 18th or 19th centuries. It had fallen out of favor, but is once again slowly gaining steam. Silvia was the one who hypothesized in 2018 that a meteor may have been the culprit.
“The Bible mentions only one eyewitness—Abraham,” Silvia explains to me. “He went up [to the top] and looked down upon Sodom and saw smoke rising from the whole plain like smoke from a furnace.... he probably saw the flash of the airburst the evening before, but it was to dangerous to venture out at night, so he waited until the next morning to investigate.”
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