Scientists say asteroid destroyed this ancient civilization in Jordan 3,700 years ago

Jordan

Published: 2018-11-24 19:15

Last Updated: 2024-03-18 11:13


Tall el-Hammam was established around 4th millennium BCE. (Impactoevangelistico.net)
Tall el-Hammam was established around 4th millennium BCE. (Impactoevangelistico.net)

Scientists now believe that the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah - believed to have been located on the northeastern edge of the Dead Sea - have been destroyed by a large asteroid 3,700 years ago.

Archaeologists have discovered minerals near those ancient sites in the Bronze Age city of Tall el-Hammam in Jordan, which they believe were created by a 10 megaton asteroid explosion.

Archeologist Phillip Silvia and his team, from the Trinity Southwest University, said they "had to investigate" the reason why this fertile land was abandoned during that flourishing time.

Established around 4th millennium BCE, the area was “thriving for at least a thousand years as an open agricultural community,” the professor and his team wrote in their report on the Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project.

They added: “The phenomenon resulting in the destruction of civilisation on ‘the well watered plain of the Jordan’ and repelling reoccupation for so many centuries is now coming to light through analyses performed by ‘impact’ researchers from seven participating universities.

“That the most productive agricultural land in the region, which had supported flourishing civilisations continuously for at least 3000 years, should suddenly relinquish, then resist, human habitation for such a long period of time has begged investigation.

“The physical evidence from Tall el-Hammam and neighbouring sites exhibit signs of a highly destructive concussive and thermal event that one might expect from what is described in Genesis 19.

“The soil/ash samples gathered from Tall el-Hammam contain evidence of topsoil destruction and subsoil contamination with Dead Sea salts that would have prevented the cultivation of crops for many centuries following the event.”

You can learn more about the Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project by clicking here