Searching for Sodom

Sodom, the infamous Old Testament city destroyed in a hail of fire and brimstone, has been found.

At least, that's what archaeologist Steven Collins believes about Tall el-Hammam, a site he has been excavating in Jordan for eight years. His most recent dig began January 31 and ends February 28.

If he's right, then the Old Testament chronologies taught in Bible courses will have to be revised. But is he?

Located nine miles northeast of the Dead Sea, Tall el-Hammam is 100 acres of immense fortifications, with walls and ramparts up to 150 feet thick. No other Bronze Age site in Jordan's Rift Valley comes close in size. Clearly it was an important city—just the kind of Bronze Age capital that Genesis suggests for Sodom.

And its end was apparently cataclysmic. "The latest Middle Bronze Age layer at Tall el-Hammam consists of 1.5 to 3 feet of heavy ash and destruction debris," Collins wrote in Biblical Archaeology Review.

But there's one major problem: The pottery in that destruction layer dates to 1650-1600 B.C. That's a date barely two centuries before the Exodus, according to conventional biblical chronology.

Evangelical Bible scholars believe a much longer period is needed to account for the time of the patriarchs and the Israelites' time in Egypt. Thus, most do not accept Collins's identification.

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http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/february-web-only/searching-for-sodom.html