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The effect would have been of Biblical proportions: an overheated asteroid exploding into a huge fireball and a shockwave over the Dead Sea.
The discovery and radiocarbon dating of unusual minerals in Jordan suggest exactly that this happened 3700 years ago.
Phillip Silvia, an archaeologist and biblical researcher at Trinity Southwest University, says preliminary results based on crystallized rocks suggest that an enormous aerial meteor has exploded in a 25-km-wide circular plain located north-west of the island. is from the Dead Sea, now called Middle Ghor.
At a presentation at the annual meeting of American schools of eastern research last week, Silvia said excavations at five sites in Middle Ghor showed that the area had been populated for at least 2,500 years. Then, suddenly, the region suffered a collective collapse towards the end of the Bronze Age.
According to him, polls have revealed the remains of 120 additional settlements in Middle Ghor, all of which could have been exposed to an explosive explosion.
Now, "We're discovering the largest Bronze Age site in the region, probably the one in the Sodom Bible itself," says the excavators' website.
A well-watered land
According to Silva, the ruins of the Bronze Age city of Tall el-Hammam, which he and his team have excavated for 13 years, constitute the largest preliminary evidence of a low-level meteor.
Hammam has an elevated acropolis on which a palace complex has been built. It overlooked a largely flat expanse of 200 km 2 of what was probably a small kingdom on the outskirts of the Jordan.
"The site started (at least) in the 4th millennium BC, flourishing for at least a thousand years as an open farming community," the researchers write. "But at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, the relative peace of the region was turned upside down by the relative peace that drove the inhabitants of Tall el-Hammam to build a formidable defense system including a brick wall made of stone and stone. earthen."
The kingdom continued to prosper. Until suddenly, it is not
"It is remarkable that Tall el-Hammam and its neighbors … have suffered a calamity ending civilization, especially theirs, towards the end of the Middle Bronze Age," they write. "While the cities to the west (Jerusalem, Bethel, Hebron), north (Deir & Alla, Pella, Beth Shan) and east (Rabbath-Ammon, Tall al-Umayri, Nebo) continued in the recent bronze age, cities, towns and villages in eastern Jordan did not do so.
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"The phenomenon that has led to the destruction of civilization in the" well-watered plain of Jordan "and which has pushed back the reoccupation for so many centuries is now brought to light through analyzes done by researchers of the" l. impact "of seven participating universities," says the archaeologists website. . "That the most productive farmland in the region, which had sustained flourishing civilizations for at least 3,000 years, suddenly give up and then resist, human habitation for such a long time demanded an investigation."
DEEP IMPACT
Silva says that the shockwave of the asteroid has probably forced a tsunami of Dead Sea brine on what was once a fertile land. Those who survived some 50,000 people living in the area at the time would have been forced to leave.
According to an article published by Silvia and Steven Collins, "says that Tall el-Hammam also says Good story – that the evidence of destruction is in accordance with Genesis 19: 22-28. "
King James Version: Then Yahweh rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah sulfur and fire; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and all that lay on the ground.
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Radiocarbon dating marks the sudden demise of terracotta brick walls – leaving only stone foundations – about 3,700 years ago, he said. According to Silvia, recovered pottery fragments show signs of melting of their glass outer layers.
Zircon crystals in these vitreous films would have formed in the first second of the extreme heat, he added, indicating temperatures as high as the Sun's surface.
"The material evidence of Tall el-Hammam and neighboring sites show signs of a highly destructive thermal event that one would expect from what is described in Genesis 19," reads in the article. ;study. "Soil / ash samples collected in Tall el-Hammam contain evidence of topsoil destruction and sub-soil contamination by Dead Sea salts that would have prevented the cultivation of crops for several centuries after the harvest. ;event."
The discovery of tiny grains of spherical minerals that rained on the ground as a result of the explosion, as well as unusual amounts of platinum-palladium, also confirmed the theory of airborne explosion, according to Silvia.
"A burst of 10 megatons above the northeast corner of the Dead Sea would be enough to cause the physical damage observed 10 km from Tall el-Hammam. Note that this is only half the output of the Tunguska event (in Siberia), which is quite in the "recent" human experience with meteorite explosions, "the study says.
Middle Ghor would remain uninhabited for another 700 years.
"The research results for" 3.7KYRBP Kikkar event "are being compiled for publication and presentation," says the TeHEP website.
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