Biblical city ruins 7. US archaeologists announced the discovery of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah

A group of archaeologists from Trinity Southwestern University (New Mexico) announced the discovery of the ruins of the ancient biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were destroyed by the will of the Almighty for their sins, Rublev.com reports, citing information from Christian Today.

Supervisor research project Professor Steve Collins said this conclusion was reached after serious research carried out over 10 years at the Tell el-Hammam excavation site.

According to Collins, the ruins of an ancient Bronze Age complex found by archaeologists belong to a large city-state that was unknown to scientists before the start of the project he led.

"An archaeological team has discovered a real one" gold mine"from ancient monumental structures and artifacts," Christian Today quotes him as saying.

According to Collins, comparison of the discovered ruins with the remains of other ancient cities located nearby allows us to talk about the maximum agreement on a number of criteria known about Sodom from the text of the Bible.
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Land of Five Cities

According to the Old Testament, in the time of Abraham, Sodom was a flourishing and rich city, but since the inhabitants “were evil and very sinful” (Genesis, chapter 13, verse 13), “the Lord rained down upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord from heaven and overthrew these cities, and all the surrounding countryside, and all the inhabitants of these cities, and [all] the growth of the earth" (Book of Genesis, chapter 19, verses 24-25).

The Bible tells of the destruction of not two, but four of the five cities located in the area Dead Sea at the end of the 18th century BC. The five city-states of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim and Bela (Zoar) formed a coalition that was ruled by an alliance of four kings of Mesopotamia, who severely punished their vassals for non-payment of tribute.

The Torah says that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was that they starved their poor, carried out unjust justice, and refused hospitality to travelers.

The prophet Ezekiel speaks about this: “This was the iniquity of Sodom, your sister and her daughters: in pride, satiety and idleness, and she did not support the hands of the poor and needy...” (Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, chapter 16, verse 49).

The Bible says that the wrath of the Lord was caused by the sins of the inhabitants of these cities. God announced to Abraham that Sodom would be destroyed, but after Abraham’s prayer, the Lord promised not to destroy the cities if ten righteous people were found in them. There were no righteous people, and after the angels saved the families of righteous Lot and his family, the cities were destroyed by fire from heaven.

The expression "Sodom" ("Sodom and Gomorrah") today allegorically means a place of depravity, where the moral foundations of society are trampled. In modern Russian colloquial language, sodom is also called noise and turmoil, reminds the portal Rublev.ru.

The search for the biblical "city of sin"

According to the Bible, the place where Sodom, Gomorrah and the other three cities were once located was similar to the Garden of Eden. Information about this aroused skepticism among scientists who knew about the lifeless lands adjacent to the Dead Sea and that Mesopotamia and the Jordan Valley did not have communications routes.

In the early 1920s, renowned archaeologist Nelson Gluck discovered traces of an ancient road linking Mesopotamia and the Dead Sea. Then mention of this road was found in the texts of clay tablets from Mari.

For the first time, speculation about the location of the biblical Sodom was made after the discovery of an ancient cemetery consisting of half a million graves in the town of Bab-ed-Dra. This discovery, made by archaeologists in 1960 south of Bab ed-Dra, led to the conclusion that a city with a highly developed culture was located nearby.

Three million clay shards of ancient dishes with remains of wheat, rye, dates, plums, peaches, grapes, figs, pistachios, almonds, olives and other fruits found in the area made it possible to determine that in Bronze Age in these places there was a real Garden of Eden.

Researchers saw further evidence that the discovered cities were the ones the Bible speaks of in a medieval mosaic discovered in 1896 during the construction of the Greek Orthodox monastery of St. George, located in the city of Madaba in Jordan, on the ruins of an old Byzantine church.

The mosaic, known as the Map of Madaba, is a giant 93 square meter map of the Holy Land made of millions of colored pebbles. A fourth part of this mosaic has survived to this day, but among other things, it depicts a certain city, under which there is a signature: “Bela, aka Zoar.” The location of Bela on the map exactly coincides with Safi, one of the five dead cities discovered in the Dead Sea area.

The hypothesis that Sodom and Gomorrah existed not on the western (Israeli) but on the eastern (Jordanian) coast of the Dead Sea was put forward by American scientists in the 90s of the 20th century.

According to the hypothesis accepted by most researchers, biblical Sodom was located on the southwestern coast of the Dead Sea.

Research in recent decades

During 1965-1967 and 1973-1979, five expeditions were carried out, but Sodom was never discovered.

In 2000, members of a British archaeological expedition led by Michael Sanders suggested that they were able to determine the most accurate coordinates of the ruins of Sodom at the bottom of the Dead Sea. The search was conducted in the northeastern waters. This completely refuted the biblical theory that Sodom was located at the southern tip of the Dead Sea. The discovery of British scientists was based on photographic materials from the American aerospace agency NASA, which recorded anomalies at the bottom of the Dead Sea off the coast of Jordan.

In December 2010, a Russian company received permission from the authorities of the Hashemite Kingdom to conduct geological exploration in the area identified as the suspected location of Sodom and Gomorrah. It was located in the vicinity of the ancient city of Bab ed-Dra, where, according to NASA photography, the ruins of cities could be concentrated. After this, a joint Russian-Jordanian archaeological expedition was organized in 2012. Russian company was chosen for the project due to the resilience of its deep-sea equipment to extreme saltwater water of the Dead seas.

As for the reasons for the death of cities, scientists have put forward different versions at different times - from an earthquake to a fall

A group of archaeologists from Trinity Southwestern University (New Mexico) announced the discovery of the ruins of the ancient biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Christian Today reports.

Head of the research project professor Steve Collins(Steve Collins) stated that this conclusion was reached after serious research for 10 years at the excavation site of the ruins at Tell el-Hammam.

“The ruins of an ancient Bronze Age complex that we found are the ruins of a large city-state that was unknown to scientists before the start of our project,” the publication quotes S. Collins.

Steve Collins at the excavation site

“The archaeological team discovered a real “gold mine” of ancient monumental structures and artifacts,” he said.

The professor believes that a comparison of these ruins with the remains of other ancient cities nearby allows us to talk about the maximum agreement on a number of criteria known about Sodom from the text of the Bible.

Land of Five Cities

According to the Bible, in the time of Abraham, Sodom was a flourishing and rich city, but since the inhabitants “were evil and very sinful” (Gen. 13:13), “the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord from heaven, and He overthrew these cities, and all the surrounding countryside, and all the inhabitants of these cities, and [all] the growth of the earth” (Gen. 19:24-25).

The Bible tells of the destruction of not two, but four of the five cities located in the Dead Sea region at the end of the 18th century BC. The five city-states of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim and Bela (Zoar) formed a coalition that was ruled by an alliance of four kings of Mesopotamia, who severely punished their vassals for non-payment of tribute.

The Torah says that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was that they starved their poor, carried out unjust justice, and refused hospitality to travelers.

The prophet Ezekiel speaks about this: “This was the iniquity of Sodom, your sister and her daughters: in pride, satiety and idleness, and she did not support the hand of the poor and needy...” (16:49).

The Bible says that the wrath of the Lord was caused by the sins of the inhabitants of these cities. God announced to Abraham that Sodom would be destroyed; after Abraham’s prayer, the Lord promised not to destroy the cities if ten righteous people were found in them. There were no righteous people, and after the angels saved the families of righteous Lot and his family, the cities were destroyed by fire from heaven.

The expression “Sodom” (“Sodom and Gomorrah”) today allegorically means a place of depravity, where the moral foundations of society are trampled. In modern Russian colloquial language, “sodom” is also called noise and turmoil.

The search for the biblical "city of sin"

According to the Bible, the place where Sodom, Gomorrah and the other three cities were once located was similar to the Garden of Eden. Information about this aroused skepticism among scientists who knew about the lifeless lands adjacent to the Dead Sea and that Mesopotamia and the Jordan Valley did not have communications routes.

In the early 1920s, renowned archaeologist Nelson Gluck discovered traces of an ancient road linking Mesopotamia and the Dead Sea. Then mention of this busy road was found in the texts of clay tablets from Mari.

For the first time, an assumption about the “legacy” of the biblical Sodom was made about a find in the town of Bab edh-Dhra. In 1960, south of Bab ed-Dra, archaeologists discovered an ancient cemetery containing half a million graves. This find allowed us to conclude that a city with a highly developed culture was located nearby.

The 3 million clay shards of ancient dishes with remains of wheat, rye, dates, plums, peaches, grapes, figs, pistachios, almonds, olives and other fruits found in the area made it possible to determine that in the Bronze Age there was a real Garden of Eden in these places.

Researchers saw further evidence that the discovered cities were the very ones spoken of in the Bible in a medieval mosaic discovered in 1896 during the construction of the Greek Orthodox monastery of St. George, located in the city of Madaba in Jordan, on the ruins of an old Byzantine church.

Mosaic map of the Holy Land from the Church of St. George in Madaba

The mosaic, known as the Madaba Map, is a giant 93 square meter map of the Holy Land made of millions of colored pebbles. 25% of this mosaic has survived to this day, but among other things, it depicts a certain city, under which there is a signature: “Bela, aka Zoar.” The location of Bela on the map exactly coincides with Safi, one of the five dead cities discovered in the Dead Sea area.

The hypothesis that Sodom and Gomorrah existed not on the western (Israeli) but on the eastern (Jordanian) coast of the Dead Sea was put forward by American scientists in the 90s of the 20th century.

According to the majority scientists hypothesis, biblical Sodom was located on the southwestern coast of the Dead Sea.

Research in recent decades

During 1965-1967 and 1973-1979, five expeditions were carried out, as a result of which the location of Sodom was never determined.

In 2000, a British archaeological expedition led by scientist Michael Sanders was carried out. Its participants believe that they were able to determine the most accurate coordinates of the ruins of Sodom at the bottom of the Dead Sea. The search was conducted in the northeastern waters, which completely refuted the Bible-based theory that Sodom was at the southern tip of the Dead Sea.

The discovery of British scientists was based on photographic materials from the American aerospace agency NASA, which recorded anomalies at the bottom of the Dead Sea off the coast of Jordan.

In December 2010, a Russian company received permission from the authorities of the Hashemite Kingdom to conduct geological exploration in the area identified as the suspected location of Sodom and Gomorrah. It was located in the vicinity of the ancient city of Bab al-Dra, where, according to NASA photography, the ruins may have been concentrated.

After this, a joint Russian-Jordanian archaeological expedition was organized in 2012. The Russian company was chosen for the project due to the resilience of its deep-sea equipment to the extremely saline water of the Dead Sea.

Regarding the reasons for the death of cities, scientists at different times put forward different versions of death - from an earthquake to the fall of a large meteorite.

Archaeologists, of course, cannot prove that the Bible is completely true, but they often make discoveries that help to better understand or interpret certain biblical events. Many artifacts found by scientists actually confirm the events described in the Book of Books.

1. The Great Flood

There is an opinion among scientists that the source of the story of the biblical Flood was most likely a devastating flood in Mesopotamia. If this is true, then the scale of such a flood was simply exaggerated in the imagination of the authors of this story. During excavations in 1928-1929 in southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), British archaeologist Leonard Woolley discovered a 3-meter layer of silt dating back to 4000 to 3500 BC. in the ancient city of Ur.

Woolley interpreted this as evidence of the biblical flood. Similar evidence has been found at many other sites in the region, but they date back to different years. Floods were common in Mesopotamia. While there is no archaeological evidence for a planetary-scale flood, there is evidence of a catastrophic flood (or several) in Mesopotamia.

2. Genealogy of Abraham

The story of Abraham begins with how he and his family lived in the Mesopotamian city of Ur, from where they moved to Canaan. The second half of Genesis goes into some detail about Abraham's family tree and mentions dozens of names. Modern historians believe that Abraham must have lived sometime between 2000 and 1500 BC. Excavations at Mari, an ancient city on the Euphrates (in modern-day Syria), uncovered the ruins of an impressive royal palace and thousands of tablets that were once part of the royal archives.

After studying tablets from the archive of Mari, which dates from 2300 to 1760 BC, it was discovered that the names found in Abraham's genealogy were used in this area. This finding does not support the validity family tree Abraham, but she says that the story cannot be completely fictional.

3. Abraham's Handmaid

Genesis tells us that Abraham's wife Sarah could not have children. She agreed for Abraham to take a second wife who could bear him a son - an Egyptian maid named Hagar. This practice is confirmed by many texts found by archaeologists. The Alalakh Texts (18th century BC) and even the Code of Hammurabi indicate that this was a generally accepted custom.

The Nuzi tablets, which were found in ancient Hurrian excavations in modern Iraq, date back to the second half of the 15th century BC. These texts mention that a barren wife could provide her husband with a slave so that she would bear him a son.

4. City of Sodom

Genesis describes the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah due to the sins of their inhabitants. A team of archaeologists believe they have discovered the ruins of the ancient city of Sodom, located in Tell el-Hammam, east of the Jordan River. The age of the excavated ruins is consistent with the early historical period of the Bible (3500 - 1540 BC). Its location is not the only reason why the ruins were considered the ancient city of Sodom. Archaeologists believe that the city was suddenly abandoned towards the end of the Middle Bronze Age, which matches the biblical picture of the destruction of Sodom.

5. Silver Scrolls of Ketef Hinnom

The archaeological site of Ketef Hinnom is a complex of a series of rock burial chambers located southwest of the Old City of Jerusalem, on the road to Bethlehem. In 1979, archaeologists made an important discovery at this site: they found two silver plates, rolled up like scrolls. They were inscribed in Old Hebrew. These scrolls are believed to have been used as amulets and date back to the 7th century BC. The texts on these amulets contain the oldest surviving quotations from the Torah.

6. Deir Allah inscriptions

During the Exodus, the Israelites passed through the Sinai Peninsula and reached the kingdoms of Edom and Moab. There is a chapter in Numbers that tells how the king of Moab, concerned about the presence of the Israelites, asked a prophet named Balaam to curse the people of Israel. About 8 km from the Jordan River, a Bronze Age sanctuary called Deir Allah was excavated. An ancient Aramaic inscription was found in the sanctuary, which actually contained the prophetic curse of Balaam. The inscription describes a divine vision, foreshadowing the destruction and punishment of the “malevolent gods” for it.

7. Captivity of the Samaritans

Samaria fell to the Assyrians in 722 BC. Assyrian records state that King Sargon II captured 27,290 prisoners and sent them into exile in various places under Assyrian control, including Halah and Habor. This event is confirmed by the texts of the Book of Kings, as well as some physical evidence. In Mesopotamian excavations, archaeologists found fragments of pottery with the names of the Israelites written on the surface.

8. Assyrian invasion

In 701 BC, the Assyrian king Sennacherib invaded Judea. Many cities fell under the onslaught of his army, including Lachish, which is mentioned in the Book of Kings. After the siege, the city was captured by the Assyrians, and several archaeological finds are entirely consistent with this event. At the site of Lachish, archaeologists discovered arrowheads, siege structures, helmets, and a chain that the defenders used against a siege battering ram. And on the site of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh (Northern Iraq) reliefs and sculptures were found depicting the capture of Lachish.

9. End of Babylonian exile

When the Persian ruler Cyrus the Great captured Babylon in 539 BC, he ordered the release of Jews and other peoples who were held in captivity. This historical episode is described in the Book of Ezra. There are also other historical documents that describe Cyrus the Great's policy of allowing many of the inhabitants of Babylon to return to their homeland. One of the most famous of these documents is the Cyrus Cylinder - a small clay cylinder on which Cyrus ordered a list of his victories and merciful deeds to be engraved in cuneiform.

10. Herod's Palace

Traces of Herod the Great's ambitious building projects are found throughout Palestine. What were believed to be the remains of King Herod's palace were discovered during excavations in an abandoned building in the Old City of Jerusalem, near the Tower of David. The main significance of this find is that it was in this place that the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate sentenced Jesus to death.

And to continue the topic, we decided to remember.

A group of archaeologists from Trinity Southwestern University (New Mexico) announced the discovery of the ruins of the ancient biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were destroyed by the will of the Almighty for their sins.

The head of the research project, Professor Steve Collins, said that this conclusion was made after serious research carried out over 10 years at the Tell el-Hammam excavation site.

According to Collins, the ruins of an ancient Bronze Age complex found by archaeologists belong to a large city-state that was unknown to scientists before the start of the project he led.

“An archaeological team has discovered a real ‘gold mine’ of ancient monumental structures and artifacts,” Christian Today quotes him as saying.

According to Collins, comparison of the discovered ruins with the remains of other ancient cities located nearby allows us to talk about the maximum agreement on a number of criteria known about Sodom from the text of the Bible.

Land of Five Cities

According to the Old Testament, in the time of Abraham, Sodom was a flourishing and rich city, but since the inhabitants “were evil and very sinful” (Genesis, chapter 13, verse 13), “the Lord rained down upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord from heaven and overthrew these cities, and all the surrounding countryside, and all the inhabitants of these cities, and [all] the growth of the earth" (Book of Genesis, chapter 19, verses 24-25).

The Bible tells of the destruction of not two, but four of the five cities located in the Dead Sea region at the end of the 18th century BC. The five city-states of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim and Bela (Zoar) formed a coalition that was ruled by an alliance of four kings of Mesopotamia, who severely punished their vassals for non-payment of tribute.

The Torah says that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was that they starved their poor, carried out unjust justice, and refused hospitality to travelers.

The prophet Ezekiel speaks about this: “This was the iniquity of Sodom, your sister and her daughters: in pride, satiety and idleness, and she did not support the hands of the poor and needy...” (Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, chapter 16, verse 49).

The Bible says that the wrath of the Lord was caused by the sins of the inhabitants of these cities. God announced to Abraham that Sodom would be destroyed, but after Abraham’s prayer, the Lord promised not to destroy the cities if ten righteous people were found in them. There were no righteous people, and after the angels saved the families of righteous Lot and his family, the cities were destroyed by fire from heaven.

The expression "Sodom" ("Sodom and Gomorrah") today allegorically means a place of depravity, where the moral foundations of society are trampled. In modern Russian colloquial language, sodom is also called noise and turmoil, reminds the portal Rublev.ru.

The search for the biblical "city of sin"

According to the Bible, the place where Sodom, Gomorrah and the other three cities were once located was similar to the Garden of Eden. Information about this aroused skepticism among scientists who knew about the lifeless lands adjacent to the Dead Sea and that Mesopotamia and the Jordan Valley did not have communications routes.

In the early 1920s, renowned archaeologist Nelson Gluck discovered traces of an ancient road linking Mesopotamia and the Dead Sea. Then mention of this road was found in the texts of clay tablets from Mari.

For the first time, speculation about the location of the biblical Sodom was made after the discovery of an ancient cemetery consisting of half a million graves in the town of Bab-ed-Dra. This discovery, made by archaeologists in 1960 south of Bab ed-Dra, led to the conclusion that a city with a highly developed culture was located nearby.

Three million clay shards of ancient dishes with remains of wheat, rye, dates, plums, peaches, grapes, figs, pistachios, almonds, olives and other fruits found in the area made it possible to determine that in the Bronze Age there was a real Garden of Eden in these places.

Researchers saw further evidence that the discovered cities were the ones the Bible speaks of in a medieval mosaic discovered in 1896 during the construction of the Greek Orthodox monastery of St. George, located in the city of Madaba in Jordan, on the ruins of an old Byzantine church.

The mosaic, known as the Map of Madaba, is a giant 93 square meter map of the Holy Land made of millions of colored pebbles. A fourth part of this mosaic has survived to this day, but among other things, it depicts a certain city, under which there is a signature: “Bela, aka Zoar.” The location of Bela on the map exactly coincides with Safi, one of the five dead cities discovered in the Dead Sea area.

The hypothesis that Sodom and Gomorrah existed not on the western (Israeli) but on the eastern (Jordanian) coast of the Dead Sea was put forward by American scientists in the 90s of the 20th century.

According to the hypothesis accepted by most researchers, biblical Sodom was located on the southwestern coast of the Dead Sea.

Research in recent decades

During 1965-1967 and 1973-1979, five expeditions were carried out, but Sodom was never discovered.

In 2000, members of a British archaeological expedition led by Michael Sanders suggested that they were able to determine the most accurate coordinates of the ruins of Sodom at the bottom of the Dead Sea. The search was conducted in the northeastern waters. This completely refuted the biblical theory that Sodom was located at the southern tip of the Dead Sea. The discovery of British scientists was based on photographic materials from the American aerospace agency NASA, which recorded anomalies at the bottom of the Dead Sea off the coast of Jordan.

In December 2010, a Russian company received permission from the authorities of the Hashemite Kingdom to conduct geological exploration in the area identified as the suspected location of Sodom and Gomorrah. It was located in the vicinity of the ancient city of Bab ed-Dra, where, according to NASA photography, the ruins of cities could be concentrated. After this, a joint Russian-Jordanian archaeological expedition was organized in 2012. The Russian company was chosen for the project due to the resilience of its deep-sea equipment to the extremely saline water of the Dead Sea.

As for the reasons for the death of cities, scientists have put forward different versions at different times - from an earthquake to the fall of a large meteorite.