Decapitated Bulls in “Asphalt Lake”

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Bovine-size blocks of bitumen sometimes float to the surface of the Dead Sea during periods of increased seismic activity. Although this has happened rarely in recent years (see photo of one such example), it was a common occurrence in the first century C.E., when Flavius Josephus wrote this descriptive passage about the Dead Sea (known in Latin as Lacus Asphaltitus, or “Asphalt Lake”) in his book The Jewish War:

The natural properties of the Lake Asphaltitis also merit remark. Its waters are, as I said, bitter and unproductive, but owing to their buoyancy send up to the surface the very heaviest of objects cast into them, and it is difficult, even of set purpose, to sink to the bottom. Thus, when Vespasian came to explore the lake, he ordered certain persons who were unable to swim to be flung into the deep water with their hands tied behind them; with the result that all rose to the surface and floated, as if impelled upward by a current of air. Another remarkable feature is its change of color: Three times a day it alters its appearance and throws off a different reflection of the solar rays. Again, in many parts it casts up black masses of bitumen, which float on the surface, in their shape and size resembling decapitated bulls. The laborers on the lake row up to these and catching hold of the lumps haul them into their boats; but when they have filled them it is no easy task to detach their cargo, which owing to its tenacious and glutinous character clings to the boat until it is loosened by the monthly secretions of women, to which alone it yields. It is useful not only for caulking ships, but also for the healing of the body, forming an ingredient in many medicines.

Bovine-size blocks of bitumen sometimes float to the surface of the Dead Sea during periods of increased seismic activity. Although this has happened rarely in recent years (see photo of one such example), it was a common occurrence in the first century C.E., when Flavius Josephus wrote this descriptive passage about the Dead Sea (known in Latin as Lacus Asphaltitus, or “Asphalt Lake”) in his book The Jewish War: The natural properties of the Lake Asphaltitis also merit remark. Its waters are, as I said, bitter and unproductive, but owing to their buoyancy send up to the surface the […]