Stephen Collins, an Albuquerque biblical archaeologist, says he has uncovered the definitive site of Sodom and Gomorrah in Jordan.
Collins has excavationed at what is known as Tall el-Hammam and is planning several more. He is the dean of archaeology and biblical history at Trinity Southwest University in Albuquerque.
“It’s not just because we think it might be Sodom but that we can learn how people lived and what kind of crops they were growing and what kind of language if we discover inscriptions,” he said. “We can get a real understanding of 5,000 to 6,000 years ago and how people came and went.”
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(Photo courtesy of Trinity Southwest University)
Armchair Archaeologist 
March 24, 2007 at 8:47 pm
It’s terribly sad that so many bloggers have no real understanding of archaeology as a scientific process, and therefore completely miss the importance of the Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project in terms of its stated purpose: To shed light on the cultural history of the southern Jordan Valley in all represented periods. How can so many miss the fact that this is a cooperative project between our American team and the Jordan Department of Antiquities, in which professional archaeologists from the USA and Jordan work side by side in one of the largest archaeological endeavors presently working in the Near East? This is a well-conceived excavation with meticulous scientific standards. (Some media reports try to be sensational and focus only on the “Sodom” controversy, which stories are usually quite inept and bereft of facts.) For anyone to get side-tracked, even put off!, by my theory that the site is biblical Sodom is to miss the historical importance of our work. My arguments for the location of Sodom are textually solid and geographically sound, and now, archaeologically, quite probably correct. However, that the EB and MB cities at our site may be biblical Sodom should not detract from the excellent scientific work of our professional staff and intrepid volunteers. The directors of other digs in our area are actually quite interested in our site, even its biblical possibilities. It seems that my detractors are only those who know nothing about TeHEP, and who are unwilling to engage me in scholarly interaction and debate in an open forum, which we readily provide. (Many world-class scholars already agree with my theory on Sodom’s location, which theory, by the way, was the dominant one from the 4th century CE until some fallacious reasoning on the subject arose in the Albrightian era). Below is a mini-report on our 2007 season for those who are really interested in the truth.
To Interested Thinkers:
I’ve just returned from seven weeks in the southern Jordan Valley directing the Tall el-Hammam (Sodom) Excavation Project. I think it would be an understatement to say that TeHEP Season Two was a success.
With well over 100 participants, plus local workers, representing at least four continents and including countries like the USA, Jordan, Canada, England, Australia, Russia and Ukraine, TeHEP ’06/’07 was one of the largest digs in Jordan in recent history (at least that’s what we were told by our Jordanian colleagues). I deeply appreciated the support and encouragement of the Jordan Department of Antiquities, four of whom served on my dig staff.
When you add in the local workers we hired for just over three weeks of the season, we looked quite like a busy bunch of ants scurrying over the top of massive Tall el-Hammam, which spreads over a square kilometer at the eastern edge of the Jordan Disk.
Of course, for quite a while now I have put forth the idea that Tall el-Hammam is likely the site of biblical Sodom. That it is in the right place, according to the biblical geography, is impossible to question on the basis of even a cursory textual analysis of Gen 13:1-12. But what about the factors of “right time” and “right stuff” necessary to reasonably nail down such an identification? Well, after TeHEP Season One about a year ago, we stated that the archaeology of the site was leaning quite suggestively in the direction of a pretty straightforward biblical chronology for Sodom.
That chronology goes something like this: founded (at least) during the Early Bronze Age (Gen 10); occupied into the Middle Bronze Age, and destroyed during the MBA (Gen 13-19); not re-occupied for at least several centuries [Moses calls the same area “the valley…where Pisgah overlooks the wasteland” (Num 21:20) during the Late Bronze Age]; perhaps re-occupied much later (after the area recovered from the ecological disaster that had put an end to the Bronze Age civilization of the eastern Jordan Disk during the MBA).
Now, after the completion of TeHEP Season Two, this occupational profile has been established quite firmly.
While Iron Age II is well-represented by at least four, and possibly five, strata, the Late Bronze Age continues to be systematically absent. Still largely theoretical at the end of last season (but many pottery sherds), the presence of a fortified MBA city is now dramatically confirmed in multiple ways, not the least of which is the discovery of a massive MB rampart/fortification system that dwarfs the 3m-thick IA city wall built over it for much of its extent.
Last season we had only gotten a look at the top of this structure, and I speculated then that it looked remarkably like typical MB mudbrick/earthen rampart construction. Then it was just an educated hunch. Now it’s an archaeological fact. We were able to uncover it to a height of about six meters, which effectively exposed eight to nine meters of its sloping outer face. I estimate that to be perhaps half it’s actual height (the rest awaits us next season). But what is showing is pretty impressive, especially when you take a moment to extrapolate how it rings the footprint of the entire upper tall (about 400m east-to-west). The inner/internal construction seems to be a stepped structure of tightly laid mudbrick, faced on the outer slope by a meter or more of compacted earth/clay.
The footprint of the Iron Age city is smaller than that of the MB city. At a cool square kilometer, the EB city’s footprint is the largest at the site. This demonstrates how erroneous information about Tall el-Hammam is in almost every source available. That’s understandable, since we’re the first ones to excavate it, while everybody else was simply guessing. (K. Prag did some probing only on the lower tall about ten years ago while excavating at Tell Iktanu to the south.)
Factually, Tall el-Hammam was THE dominant city in the southern Jordan Valley during the Bronze Age (but unoccupied during the LBA and probably most or all of Iron I) and Iron Age II A, B and C. Isn’t it interesting that Sodom is the only major Bronze Age urban center mentioned in the Bible located on the eastern Jordan Disk, and that Tall el-Hammam is, in fact, the only major Bronze Age urban center on the eastern Jordan Disk? (There are at least five others within eight kilometers, but all a fraction of the size of TeH.) We must face the facts. There is no coincidence here.
From the macro (the massive MB rampart) in Field D to the micro (the classic MB piriform juglet) in Field B, we now know that Tall el-Hammam was a thriving center of civilization during the Middle Bronze Age when it seems to have met a fiery end. This event is attested by a meter of ash and destruction debris in Field B where the MB juglet, along with MB storage jars, were unearthed just a few weeks ago. The site then lay abandoned during the LBA, and probably most or all of Iron Age I, until a flurry of building activities in several phases turned the site into a significant city during IA II A, B and C.
At this point, I am willing to say that if Tall el-Hammam’s identification as biblical Sodom is still denied after an examination of the growing body of evidence to that effect, then the identification of every single biblical site not confirmed by specific epigraphic evidence must me called into question.
That’s it on a thumbnail. So now we have about 700 diagnostic sherds and many whole vessels to “read,” and lots of organic analysis and C14 dating to do over the next several months as we assemble our first Preliminary Report later this year.
I’m also scheduled to present papers on the subject at several conferences this year, including ASOR and NEAS in the fall. And with Tall el-Hammam continuing to cover all the criterial bases relative to Sodom, I’ll continue to argue in that vein until the doubters get hold of their senses.
By the way, I got a chance to present my case “live and on site” to quite a few visiting archaeological dignitaries during the season. In those instances, Tall el-Hammam itself did most of the “talking,” almost defying anyone to deny her preeminence as the dominant Bronze Age city in the region (as Sodom was the dominant Bronze Age city on the eastern Jordan Disk in Genesis). After an on-site tour of Tall el-Hammam, with Gen 13:1-12 firmly in mind, the general response, minimally, was always something like, “Well, it makes perfect sense, doesn’t it.” To which I usually responded, “Welcome to Sodom!”
Steven Collins, Director, The Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project, Jordan; Dean of the College of Archaeology, Trinity Southwest University, Albuquerque, New Mexico USA
March 28, 2007 at 11:56 am
You know what I think. Great article.
ken
July 20, 2007 at 11:04 pm
Sure, all these sites have been found. Gamora is at 31 19 38 N 35 22 36 E just East of Massada down at the Dead Sea. Go to Google Earth and see some of the postings and pics. No church will tell you this because these discoveries never came through them, but check it for yourself, you will be pleasantly surprised.
Greetings in Yehashua,
Aaron
June 20, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Somehow i missed the point. Probably lost in translation 🙂 Anyway … nice blog to visit.
cheers, Cummerbund!!!
October 9, 2008 at 7:54 pm
…almost two years later….so did Tall el-Hammam pass examination as the biblical Sodom?
November 10, 2010 at 1:10 am
So, here we are four years later. Any updates? Is the dig still funded and progressing? Anything published and presented? Very cool work. Todd Tamura
December 22, 2010 at 5:15 am
[…] Elysium and Tartarus. On this note, thought you might find this at the very least interesting. Read the first comment. __________________ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. […]
July 28, 2011 at 10:54 pm
[…] by God due to overtly homosexual behavior. Scholars in recent times attest to the fact that Sodom and Gomorrah were indeed real cities and had indeed been destroyed by some cataclysmic force. Suppose that the ancient astronaut […]
August 7, 2012 at 7:33 pm
The bible makes reference to a blinding flashing burst of intense light: and if the people fleeing
(by premonition warnings) looked back, they do would turn into a pillar of salt…An earthquake releasing gases which ignited into furious all-encompassing flames is believable and probable if such an earthquake happened: but ruling out a destruction
by alien forces using weapons not yet found?!
October 11, 2015 at 11:06 pm
So God doesn’t use the resources He created? Ever?
October 8, 2013 at 8:11 pm
ive been in church and how can yall actually get these pics when half us americans and more people were probably not even born infact i dont even think none of us were born
April 10, 2016 at 12:37 am
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