Was Sodom destroyed by a meteor blast?

[ichingcarpenter]

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.

In 1908, a massive blast near Siberia’s Stony Tunguska River flattened some 2,000 square kilometers of uninhabited taiga forestry. Curiously, no crater was discovered and scientists explain the strange phenomena through a meteor explosion some 5-10 km above land.

Now an interdisciplinary team of archaeologists and scientists are using the Tunguska explosion as a model to explain the equally curious end to a thriving civilization that lived for thousands of years in a plain near the Dead Sea.

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.

Likewise, the fertile soil would have been stripped of nutrients by the high heat, and waves of the Dead Sea’s briny anhydride salts would have — tsunami-like — washed over the surrounding area. At the same time, the explosion’s fallout caused blisteringly hot, strong winds, which deposited a rain of mineral grains, which have been found on pottery at Tall el-Hammam.

Five large sites in the region which have also been excavated offered additional evidence of an immediate end to settlement at the same time of the proposed Tall el-Hammam disaster. According to Science News, radiocarbon dating of organic archaeological evidence has shown that structures’ mud-brick walls “suddenly disappeared around 3,700 years ago, leaving only stone foundations.”

Contemporary potsherds’s glazes apparently experienced temperatures high enough to transform them to glass, “perhaps as hot as the surface of the sun,” Silvia told the news source.

Unraveling a mystery
The study was born of a historical riddle: “That the most productive agricultural land in the region, which had supported flourishing civilizations continuously for at least 3,000 years, should suddenly relinquish, then resist, human habitation for such a long period of time has begged investigation,” states the excavation’s website.


Archaeologist Philip Silvia (via LinkedIn)
As listed in the published abstract, Trinity Southwest University’s Silvia was joined by a roster of multi-disciplinary scientists.

The team of scientists from New Mexico Tech, Northern Arizona University, NC State University, Elizabeth City (NC) State University, DePaul University, Trinity Southwest University, the Comet Research Group, and Los Alamos National Laboratories analyzed samples from 12 seasons of Tall el-Hammam excavations to conclude that the most logical explanation for the settlement’s demise was a meteor explosion.

“This paper surveys the multiple lines of evidence that collectively suggest a Tunguskalike, cosmic airburst event that obliterated civilization — including the Middle Bronze Age city-state anchored by Tall el-Hammam — in the Middle Ghor (the 25 km diameter circular plain immediately north of the Dead Sea) ca. 1700 BCE, or 3,700 years before present (3.7kaBP),” write the authors.

“Based upon the archaeological evidence, it took at least 600 years to recover sufficiently from the soil destruction and contamination before civilization could again become established in the eastern Middle Ghor,” they write.

A meteor streaked across the sky of Russia’s Ural Mountains on Friday morning, causing sharp explosions and reportedly injuring hundreds of people, including many hurt by broken glass. (photo credit: AP Photo/Nasha gazeta, www.ng.kz)
A meteor streaked across the sky of Russia’s Ural Mountains in February 2013, causing sharp explosions and reportedly injuring hundreds of people, including many hurt by broken glass. (AP Photo/Nasha gazeta, www.ng.kz)
A biblical explanation
Could this massive disaster offer an explanation for the biblical story of Sodom?

According to a 2013 Biblical Archaeology Review article by TeHEP co-director Dr. Steven Collins, the Tall el-Hammam site is a strong candidate for the biblical city of Sodom due to a multitude of factors. The discovered disaster, and its precise location, which he ties to biblical references of “ha-kikkar” (or idiomatically, the plain).


John Martin’s ‘Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah,’ 1852. (public domain, via Wikipedia)
In the article, among other biblical citations, Collins quotes from Genesis 19:24–25: “Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah — from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus He overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities — and also the vegetation in the land.”

On the ground at the site, Collins witnessed such destruction first-hand. In a vivid description he writes, “The violent conflagration that ended occupation at Tall el-Hammam produced melted pottery, scorched foundation stones and several feet of ash and destruction debris churned into a dark gray matrix as if in a Cuisinart.”

Could it really be that this destruction, hypothetically caused by the proposed meteor explosion and its catastrophic fallout, are the natural causes of the divine wholesale razing of the city recorded in the Bible?

In a jointly authored paper between Silvia and Collins, “The Civilization-Ending 3.7KYrBP Event: Archaeological Data, Sample Analyses, and Biblical Implications,” the authors write, “The physical evidence from Tall el-Hammam and neighboring sites exhibit signs of a highly destructive concussive and thermal event that one might expect from what is described in Genesis 19.”

Further based on studies by atomic energy researcher Samuel Gladstone, the authors write that, “an airburst yield of 10 megatons over the northeast corner of the Dead Sea would be sufficient to produce the physical damage observed 10 km away at Tall el-Hammam. Note that this is only one-half the yield of the Tunguska airburst event (in Siberia), well within ‘recent’ human experience for meteoritic airbursts!” they write.

“The destruction not only of Tall el-Hammam (Sodom), but also its neighbors (Gomorrah and the other cities of the plain) was most likely caused by a meteoritic airburst event,” the authors conclude.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/eviden...ay-scientists/


An exploding meteor may have wiped out ancient Dead Sea communities science news


DENVER — A superheated blast from the skies obliterated cities and farming settlements north of the Dead Sea around 3,700 years ago, preliminary findings suggest.

Radiocarbon dating and unearthed minerals that instantly crystallized at high temperatures indicate that a massive airburst caused by a meteor that exploded in the atmosphere instantaneously destroyed civilization in a 25-kilometer-wide circular plain called Middle Ghor, said archaeologist Phillip Silvia. The event also pushed a bubbling brine of Dead Sea salts over once-fertile farm land, Silvia and his colleagues suspect.

People did not return to the region for 600 to 700 years, said Silvia, of Trinity Southwest University in Albuquerque. He reported these findings at the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research on November 17.

Excavations at five large Middle Ghor sites, in what’s now Jordan, indicate that all were continuously occupied for at least 2,500 years until a sudden, collective collapse toward the end of the Bronze Age. Ground surveys have located 120 additional, smaller settlements in the region that the researchers suspect were also exposed to extreme, collapse-inducing heat and wind. An estimated 40,000 to 65,000 people inhabited Middle Ghor when the cosmic calamity hit, Silvia said.

The most comprehensive evidence of destruction caused by a low-altitude meteor explosion comes from the Bronze Age city of Tall el-Hammam, where a team that includes Silvia has been excavating for the last 13 years. Radiocarbon dating indicates that the mud-brick walls of nearly all structures suddenly disappeared around 3,700 years ago, leaving only stone foundations.

What’s more, the outer layers of many pieces of pottery from same time period show signs of having melted into glass. Zircon crystals in those glassy coats formed within one second at extremely high temperatures, perhaps as hot as the surface of the sun, Silvia said.

High-force winds created tiny, spherical mineral grains that apparently rained down on Tall el-Hammam, he said. The research team has identified these minuscule bits of rock on pottery fragments at the site.

Examples exist of exploding space rocks that have wreaked havoc on Earth (SN: 5/13/17, p. 12). An apparent meteor blast over a sparsely populated Siberian region in 1908, known as the Tunguska event, killed no one but flattened 2,000 square kilometers of forest. And a meteor explosion over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013 injured more than 1,600 people, mainly due to broken glass from windows that were blown out.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/...ea-communities

[CurEus]

This is very dense reading and I am a native English speaker.
The information as presented aligns very well biblical narratives.....what is not explored is who or what caused the events.......expectedly, scientists will not posit about any influences or actors that may or could have caused this...

We are so very very vulnerable......seems like someone is keeping us safe from harm....conversely some angry "god" is tossing giant rocks at us?

[Bob]

Two cities in olden times are supposedly destroyed by God.

So that something which comes from the heavens, from God and Angels? (assuming the vernacular of the age where it was recorded, in the book of Genesis (19:24) resulted in two cities being removed from the face of the Earth..

It is very important to look at this question of a DEITY interfering with human-kind, and this type of interference consists of a large DESTRUCTION with some type of "morality" statement. Who is some Deity who could dictate to humanity how it will act with it's own members? What right to interact to cause destruction? Or was it a convenient manipulation of a natural event?

These are the questions for my thread - Sodom and Gomorrah - destroyed by God or Asteroid?

3700 years ago, it has been noted by investigators, that the reference to the destruction of the two famed cities of "sin" was destroyed from something that entered Earth's atmosphere, from the "heavens" and they called it an ASTEROID.. (quoted from October 2015, 8:00 am EDT article in Tech Times - https://www.techtimes.com/articles/9...ern-jordan.htm)

Here is the SCIENCE side of the QUESTIONS:

The archaeologists said these cities were located northeastern of the Dead Sea, which is now known as Middle Ghor, something that has been heavily debated for quite some time now.

Supporting Evidence

According to the research, minerals found on the site proved that a great, powerful asteroid explosion had occurred and eradicated early humans living there.

Scientists also did carbon dating to estimate when the catastrophic event had transpired in Sodom and Gomorrah.

Archaeologist Philip Silvia of the Trinity Southwest University and his team have been digging the site for over 10 years. They explained that the explosion affected approximately 500 km2, which would have easily splattered all nearby towns and killed around 40,000 to 60,000 people living at the 25-kilometer-wide site.

Humanity, which was perceived to have thrived in the area for 2,500 years before the destruction happened, was not the only one that took the brunt of the blast.

The once-fertile fields were also stripped off nutrients after the scorching Dead Sea brine had spilled over the farmlands.

Some of the glassy outer parts of pots that had zircon crystals also supported the asteroid explosion theory. These were formed after just a second that it had been exposed to high heat.

The archaeologist said that it was "perhaps as hot as the surface of the sun."

The 10-megaton air-burst-like blast was far more destructive than the Hiroshima Bombing, which was placed around 15 to 20 kilotons.

Now we need to look at the Spiritual and reported Historical side of the questions.. Did GOD do it? if so why?

Isn't an old testament God wrathful and vengeful, and a new testament God loving and kind? What changed, who changed it, a different faction? or just ET's fighting for Humanity's soul?

Can we hear a view from the Quran - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lot_in_Islam

[Bob]

A purported tower of salt or Lot's wife turned to a pillar of salt (legend) by the Dead Sea -

Some ground pictures:

[greybeard]

There are buildings throughout the world that show petrified [vitrified] stone (melted)
Sites in Egypt, Peru and Scotland but to name a few.
Certainly a blast from the sun or an asteroid is the possible cause.

Chris

[Eagle Eye]

Quran verses

(21:74) And to Lot We gave judgement and knowledge, and We saved him from the city that was committing wicked deeds. Indeed, they were a people of evil, defiantly disobedient.

(11:81) The angels said, "O Lot, indeed we are messengers of your Lord; [therefore], they will never reach you. So set out with your family during a portion of the night and let not any among you look back - except your wife; indeed, she will be struck by that which strikes them. Indeed, their appointment is [for] the morning. Is not the morning near?"

(11:82) So when Our command came, We made the highest part [of the city] its lowest and rained upon them stones of layered hard clay

[greybeard]

Religion is very much about control.
Was the quotation from the Bible and Quran written after the event?
If so how long after the event?

Chris

[Cardillac]

Hi @Bob-

according to Jim Marrs' research (if I'm recalling this correctly- I can't keep everything in my head) the Summerian word for "salt" could also mean "vapor"-

according to Marrs' research the southern tip of the Dead Sea is still showing signs of radiation where supposedly Sodom and Gommorh existed;

although I personally have many doubts about the Bible's version of history (don't we all?) it could be that in ancient times at least a primitive version of nuclear energy was available (and used) and Lot's wife, because she lagged behind, was vaporised-

there is always much truth to ancient legends;

question is: how MUCH truth?-

be well Bob and all readers-

Larry

[Eagle Eye]

I'm not talking about religion and not debating either. This is about an event spoken in ancient scriptures so I thought to bring some quotes, for information purpose. I have brought the verses from Quran since I have studied the most and I know well where to find what.

[greybeard]

Posted by Iceberg (here)
I'm not talking about religion and not debating either. This is about an event spoken in ancient scriptures so I thought to bring some quotes, for information purpose. I have brought the verses from Quran since I have studied the most and I know well where to find what.

Iceberg
my post was not specifically for you but an open question.
Im not debating your knowledge or the accuracy of your quotes.

I apologize if you think otherwise.

Chris

[greybeard]

The point I was trying to make is that those in power can take a natural event and turn it into the "Wrath of God"
When people are in fear then its easier to control them.
I believe in a loving non judgmental God.
I respect the views of those who believe otherwise.

Chris

[East Sun]

Posted by greybeard (here)
The point I was trying to make is that those in power can take a natural event and turn it into the "Wrath of God"
When people are in fear then its easier to control them.
I believe in a loving non judgmental God.
I respect the views of those who believe otherwise.

Chris

I agree with you completely. You beat me to it. I was writing a similar thing.
There are few things in the Bible we would not agree on I'm sure.

The more we learn the more we realize how little we know.

ES

[Eagle Eye]

My reply was just to try to avoid an endless debate because it was not the point of the thread. I understood you well Greybeard and didn't take anything personaly, just was trying to explain myself what I was writing and why.

[Bob]

The original title of my thread is Sodom and Gomorrah - destroyed by God or Asteroid?

(I didn't want to have this thread merged with a meteorite thread as the "God" question is highly relevant, was it destroyed by a Deity or a Natural Cause of some kind.)

We could ask if it appeared as an ASTEROID (not a meteorite), who directed the Asteroid? If that was possible during that period of history. And was it predicted. If it were predicted, then WHO got that data to LOT for instance? How could LOT have had an extraordinary experience that informed him of an incoming Asteroid?

Who are the beings he was supposed to have contact with, and understanding the descriptions of "those who come from the skies (the Heaven(s)" by the people of that time period, have there been more interactions warning of more Asteroid strikes?

I wanted to see opinions and thoughts covering both aspects, and not be lumped into the older OP which only mentions a few words of this topic, specifically the amount of years ago, or 3700 estimated.

My question focuses on the how could LOT have known, who told him, (and how did they have such knowledge?) and are these "beings" right in meddling with humans' destiny? The so called "moral judgement" issue of taking out Sodom and Gomorrah most certainly is a choice of a somebody, is it not?

I am very much saying THANK YOU to GreyBeard, IceBerg, East Sun and Cardillac for staying on my OP's conceptual questions - "Sodom and Gomorrah - destroyed by God or Asteroid?" (title and questions).

The original thread died out (the new op-1) and a NEW question was brought up by me, very coherently - and our dialogues are very coincident - The questions are looking at we have a bias reference in Genesis, and to hear what the Quran has said about this Event.

An Event of this size should have had back then some survivors somewhere able to provide a more objective observation using their words and understandings at the time.

There is an additional relevance - Earth's interactions with an asteroid field can indeed potentially happen back every 3700 years or so, with planetary movements, or multiple other planetary orbits coming into play to deviate Asteroids.

Are we due for a "big one" that hasn't been seen by the monitoring telescopes? NASA says nothing to worry about for at least 95 years when they project out known orbits by large asteroids. However we have seen time and time again, there are plenty of objects which make it past the few deep space tracking telescopes.

And most certainly, could there be some outside influence such as "God" directing a new asteroid to Earth to make a statement?

These questions get deeply into Science and Spirit/Religion.

We have science saying they have observational telescopes which can give us warnings about really LARGE bodies (Asteroids) potentially evoking a change in our Planet's stability, or habitat, or possibly a large strike to the Moon even which would most likely interfere with tidal stability of the Seas on Earth (leading to potential massive floodings and strandings)...

And we have the potentially bigger question: Did "God" do it or was it just a chance encounter. What makes me suspicious that it wasn't just a chance encounter was Lot's visitors providing the warning..

[Bob]

Posted by Cardillac (here)
Hi @Bob-

according to Jim Marrs' research (if I'm recalling this correctly- I can't keep everything in my head) the Summerian word for "salt" could also mean "vapor"-

according to Marrs' research the southern tip of the Dead Sea is still showing signs of radiation where supposedly Sodom and Gommorh existed;

although I personally have many doubts about the Bible's version of history (don't we all?) it could be that in ancient times at least a primitive version of nuclear energy was available (and used) and Lot's wife, because she lagged behind, was vaporised-

there is always much truth to ancient legends;

question is: how MUCH truth?-

be well Bob and all readers-

Larry

Hi @Cardillac (Larry) and our forum Members and reading public

So we could ask if Lot's wife was "vaporized", or "solidified" and be valid questioning historical accounts. There was reference that the "air burst" caused the extreme amount of salt water to be thrown up, vaporized, and put into the air in the form of a superheated mix.. Searing heat/steam/salt or perfect methods to flash modify a body in the blast field.

Then was it nuclear then? An Atomic weapon of some kind and NOT an Asteroid? The question of Lot's interactions with "visitors" from the Heavens (thereby the locals at the time would attribute visitors which arrived from "above" (Heaven), as "Heavenly" and then 'understand' that the 'visitors' would return to the "Heavens") - - Let's call the visitors ET's and say that they had fore-knowledge that there would be an incoming Asteroid. Why tell the earthers? Why make it a morality play interfering with human-kind's sexual practices?

If it were a nuclear explosion again, how come some Deity determines that it has a "right" to meddle? in human behavior and affairs? Seems to me humans getting off on sex are very pre-occupied with that more-so than building advanced space attack weapons which could threaten a "Deity".. So the question goes a bit deeper, what is the thing with the destruction? Manipulation or accident?

[Bob]

Posted by Iceberg (here)
Quran verses

(21:74) And to Lot We gave judgement and knowledge, and We saved him from the city that was committing wicked deeds. Indeed, they were a people of evil, defiantly disobedient.

(11:81) The angels said, "O Lot, indeed we are messengers of your Lord; [therefore], they will never reach you. So set out with your family during a portion of the night and let not any among you look back - except your wife; indeed, she will be struck by that which strikes them. Indeed, their appointment is [for] the morning. Is not the morning near?"

(11:82) So when Our command came, We made the highest part [of the city] its lowest and rained upon them stones of layered hard clay

This is brilliant, IceBerg catching that similarity. Lot then was contacted by visitors (messengers), of "your" Lord - I find that interesting that they didn't say of "our Lord".. Where or to whom is their (the messengers) allegiance? To me that is important to identify the who, and the authority of the messengers, to understand if they are "following orders" (to contact), or if they are acting independently to convey a message. Are the messengers making a statement? Are they pointing out some vengeance that they disagree with (that "your Lord" is being used..)

A statement of defiantly disobedient is also interesting and telling. The humans most definitely are being interfered with, there is no "prime directive" of no interference present, but some Deity system expecting some sort of compliance by the humans.

[greybeard]

The "God of the Old Testament was very much into "Do what your are told or suffer the consequences--which will be horrific" that's my take on it.
The New Testament a different story altogether---Jesus told of a loving God.
So whatever happened at Sodom was not down to the God of the New Testament.
Begs the question --Natural event or otherwise?
Ancient civilizations were advanced as far as study of the stars went so maybe they were able to predict a meteorite strike and in advance say it is down to God and your disobedience.

Obviously Im just guessing.

Chris

[greybeard]

Please note Mod's that the thread I posted to is "Was Sodom and Gomorrah - destroyed by God or Asteroid? "
Other wise some of my posts would seem off topic.
Not that that is something new, smiling

[Eagle Eye]

I will add some more verses to the topic

[29:28] And Lot, when he said to his people, "Indeed, you commit such immorality as no one has preceded you with from among the worlds.

(29:31) And when Our messengers came to Abraham with the good tidings, they said, "Indeed, we will destroy the people of that Lot's city. Indeed, its people have been wrongdoers."

(29:32) [Abraham] said, "Indeed, within it is Lot." They said, "We are more knowing of who is within it. We will surely save him and his family, except his wife. She is to be of those who remain behind."

(29:35) And We have certainly left of it a sign as clear evidence for a people who use reason.

(29:40) So each We seized for his sin; and among them were those upon whom We sent a storm of stones, and among them were those who were seized by the blast , and among them were those whom We caused the earth to swallow, and among them were those whom We drowned. And God would not have wronged them, but it was they who were wronging themselves.


The conclusions after reading the Quran and based on its arguments. The important things that are repeated over and over is that in most of big places (cities) it has come a warning, to believe in one God alone, while unseen and to not take other dieties beside him, nor to associate anyone or anything to Him. He is alone and everyone and everything else is His creation. Also another big issue was those who transgress within the balance, because the balance is what is guarded with a divine intervention in this world for the purpose of guarding over everyones free will and also keep testing everyones deed. There is no event that happens here or everywhere that will ever threaten God, but everything is being guarded for a purpose. We humans have one great enemy to watch out and this enemy fear God too, so the matter is between our greatest enemy and Us. The path to take is not clear, but the important advices are only to be aware and also grateful and to create the neccesary shield to protect ourselves.

[greybeard]

I know little about the Bible except some quotes of Jesus and the ten commandments.
If God followed those then Sodom and the other city could not have been destroyed by Him. Why would He? All powerful. Why bother?
My own belief more or less in line with the teaching of Jesus

Chris