Have Sodom and Gomorrah Been Found?

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In the past many scholars have regarded Sodom and Gomorrah—and the Biblical stories in which they appear—as mere legend. Now, however, two highly respected American archaeologists are about to propose that they may have found the remains of the ancient cities.

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Walter E. Rast of Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana and R. Thomas Schaub of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, are excavating two sites near the eastern shore of the Dead Sea in Jordan which they believe are prime candidates for the Biblical cites destroyed because of their citizens’ wickedness.

The principal site, Bab edh-Dhra, lies less than one mile east of the Lisan, the tongue-like peninsula that protrudes into the Dead Sea on the eastern shore. Occupied during the Early Bronze Age (3rd millennium B.C.), Bab edh-Dhra overlooks the Dead Sea from a height of 550 feet; it was no doubt built on a bluff for defense purposes. The site consists of a town and a giant cemetery. One scholar has estimated that the cemetery is composed of more than 20,000 tombs in which over 500,000 people were buried together with over 3 million pottery vessels. A large rectangular structure found inside the town is thought to be a temple. The archaeologists have also uncovered the remains of what they believe to have been the altar associated with the temple.

Bab edh-Dhra was discovered in 1924 during a survey of the Jordan Valley headed by young William Foxwell Albright, whose outstanding scholarly accomplishments were to dominate the world of Biblical archaeology for nearly 50 years, and M. G. Kyle who was president of Xenia Theological Seminary (later Pittsburgh Theological Seminary). The honor of actually discovering the site, however, belongs to Alexis Mallon, S.J.

Although Albright, Kyle, and Mallon all published descriptions of the potsherds they picked up at Bab edh-Dhra, the site received little archaeological attention for the next 40 years. In the mid-1960’s, however, a large quantity of Early Bronze Age pottery began appearing in the antiquities shops of Jerusalem’s Old City. Archaeological detectives traced the source of the pottery to Bab edh-Dhra: The site had obviously been discovered by local bedouin.

Prompt excavation then being necessary, the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem sent an expedition to Bab edh-Dhra in 1965 under the supervision of its director Paul W. Lapp. Lapp excavated at the site for three seasons and published preliminary reports. Before he was able to finish his work, however, he was 029accidently drowned while swimming off the coast of Cyprus.

Then in 1975, excavations were renewed under the direction of Rast and Schaub. They have since been joined by the Smithsonian Institution’s Donald J. Ortner, a physical anthropologist who is studying the human population groups of the Dead Sea area based on the skeletal remains found at the Bab edh-Dhra cemetery.

While surveying the area around Bab edh-Dhra, Rast and Schaub discovered the second site, Numeira, in 1973. Even without excavation, the archaeologists could see that the site had been burned. Spongy charcoal was all over the ground and could be scooped up by hand. Pottery sherds found on the site’s surface easily dated Numeira to the Early Bronze Age, the same period that Bab edh-Dhra was inhabited.

Rast and Schaub have now spent two seasons digging at Numeira, the last in 1979 with Harvard professor Michael D. Coogan acting as supervisor of the Numeira excavation. Based on these excavations, the archaeological team can now pinpoint the occupation of Numeira to a brief 100 year period between 2450 B.C. and 2350 B.C. The town was then consumed in a fiery destruction, the remains of which can still be seen on the site.

Located seven miles south of Bab edh-Dhra, Numeira is a mere two-acre site. Excavations have revealed a number of domestic installations and the existence of some local industry including winemaking. The preservation of a large batch of grapes with skins still on—found in what may have been a winery—seems almost miraculous. The remains of a tower from which the inhabitants could have been warned of approaching danger was also uncovered: A flight of plaster-lined stairs leading to the upper part of the tower was preserved.

In their systematic survey of the area, Rast and Schaub also found three other sites—all showing signs of habitation during the Early Bronze Age—strung along a line south of Bab edh-Dhra and Numeira. These three sites, Safi, Feifa, and Khanazir, like Bab edh-Dhra and Numeira, overlook the Southern Ghor, the circular plain or flatland along the southeast shore of the Dead Sea.^a

These three sites, however, remain untouched by the archaeologists’ spade.

That there are five and only five sites located in the Dead Sea area—each located near a flowing spring; that all five date to the same archaeological period—the Early Bronze Age; and that there is no other evidence of occupation in the area until the Roman period over 2000 years later is not without significance.

Before their destruction, Sodom and Gomorrah had been part of a coalition of five cities which had rebelled against their overlord. The rebellion was suppressed and Lot, who lived in Sodom, was taken captive. When Abram heard this, he took an army of 318 men, rescued Lot and defeated the armies that previously had fought against the coalition of five cities (Genesis 14).

These five Biblical cities are generally referred to as the Cities of the Plain. In addition to Sodom and Gomorrah, they are Admah, Zeboiim and “Belle (that is, Zoar)” (Genesis 14:2). Geographical references in Genesis 14 seem to suggest that the five cities were located in the Dead Sea area. One reference is to “the valley of Siddim—that is, the Salt Sea” (Genesis 14:3). The name of the Dead Sea in Hebrew is Yam Hamelach—Salt Sea.

Many people, including the great W. F. Albright and 033Paul Lapp, have speculated that the shallow, southern end of the Dead Sea was once dry land and that Sodom and Gomorrah might have been located there.

In recent years the level of the Dead Sea has dropped considerably because of the water that has been drained from the Jordan River to the north, which empties into the Dead Sea. During the summer of 1979, a large part of the Dead Sea’s southern basin became exposed. Rast and Schaub took the opportunity to examine and explore the southern floor of the Dead Sea. Their conclusion: “The south end (of the Dead Sea) could not have contained cities at any time during the historical period, at least from 3000 B.C. onward.” According to the archaeologist: “This area would have been not only an improbable, but also an impossible area in which to establish a city.” We now know about many Early Bronze cities, Rast told BAR, and they are all built on high areas.

As a result of this combination of data, Rast and Schaub will soon propose that Bab edh-Dhra and the four other sites may well be the remains of the five Cities of the Plain.

The site of Bab edh-Dhra has a fascination of its own, independent of any Biblical connection. As one of the earliest cities established in Palestine, it offers the archaeologist an opportunity to investigate the urbanization process in Palestine.

The first permanent settlement at Bab edh-Dhra was established in about 3100 B.C., in what archaeologists call the EB (for Early Bronze) IB period. The archaeologists tell us that the Bab edh-Dhra settlers were probably descendants of a more pastoral and nomadic people. The many shaft tombs with burials that precede the settlement period certainly support this belief, Rast says. In Early Bronze II, a wall 10 feet thick made of mud-brick was constructed on a stone foundation around the 10-acre town. Part of this wall was found during Lapp’s excavation. Later, in the Early Bronze III period, a stone wall 23 feet thick protected the town. Both walls appear to have had large towers which added to the city’s defensive potential. The town wall was built in distinct segments between 50 and 75 feet long so that an earthquake would be less likely to destroy the entire wall. At the end of Early Bronze III, however, the town was destroyed.

Inside the town, the archaeologists found not only a number of mud-brick domestic structures, but also what they believe to have been a temple and altar. The large rectangular building thought to be a temple is over 22 feet long and 12 feet wide. The entrance faces the Dead Sea. The roof had been supported by wooden pillars on stone bases: The archaeologists found the charred remains of one large wooden pillar resting on a flat stone pedestal—preserved for almost 4500 years. Some of the wooden ceiling beams were also found. The building had been destroyed by fire at the end of Early Bronze III. Under that edifice, an earlier building constructed on almost exactly the same lines was discovered. This fact provides additional support for identifying the building as a temple because in ancient times sacred areas were often reused and rebuilt. The discovery of a semicircular installation over nine feet in diameter in the building’s courtyard further implies the probability of a sanctuary. Near this hemispherical feature, the archaeologists found flint scrapers which they concluded had been used for butchering animals. In addition, a pottery sherd found nearby contains an impression of a seal whose motif has been interpreted as a cultic dance. Based on this evidence, the archaeologists have concluded that the semicircular construction is in fact an altar, that the adjoining building was a Canaanite temple and that both were used more than 1200 years before the Israelite settlement following the Exodus.

The town of Bab edh-Dhra was destroyed at the end of the Early Bronze III period (about 2300 B.C.). The foundations of some of the buildings were buried under tons of rubble. Beneath the rubble, there is clear evidence of a fiery conflagration. Some Early Bronze IV structures were also found, perhaps built by those who destroyed the Early Bronze III city. And then nothing.

Less than a half-mile southwest of the town site of Bab edh-Dhra, is the mammoth cemetery. The earliest burials occurred around 3200 B.C. even before the town was built. The cemetery was used as a burial ground for over a thousand years. It must have been used not only for the people of the nearby town, but also for the large nomadic 036population which brought their dead there to be buried.

There are three kinds of graves in the extensive cemetery. The oldest and most numerous are the so-called shaft tombs. The shaft tombs were used primarily before the town was settled. These shaft tombs consist of a round shaft about three feet in diameter and six feet deep and one or more burial chambers at the bottom of the shaft. The shafts are dug straight down into the ground. At the bottom of the shaft are from one to five ball-shaped burial chambers which lead off from the shaft itself. The entrance to each burial chamber from the base of the shaft, was closed with a flat blocking stone.

Each burial chamber contains about five people in secondary burial; that is, the bones were re-buried there after a primary burial elsewhere. The skulls are arranged along the walls and the other bones are piled in a heap in the center of the burial chamber. The funerary offerings are mainly pottery vessels, but also include rarer artifacts like clay figurines of the mother goddess, stone jars, maceheads, wooden staffs, sandals, reed mats and baskets, and food remains including whole grapes, barley and a peach pit.

The few shaft tombs with only one chamber at the bottom were used for a primary burial of a single individual who was placed in the center of the chamber. Most of the single chamber shaft tombs date to the period when the town of Bab edh-Dhra was first settled. Some long bones which have been examined by physical anthropologists indicate that the area’s ancient inhabitants were as much as six feet four inches tall.

After the town was settled, the population began to use charnel houses—bone houses—to rebury the bones of their dead. The charnel houses are mostly rectangular mud-brick structures with walls ranging from 10 to 25 feet long. The entrances are in the longer wall. However, some round charnel houses have also been found. A step leads down to the rectangular charnel house floor which is generally paved with pebbles or cobbles. Heaps of partly burned bones, are piled at various places in the charnel houses. One charnel house contained the bones of over 300 people, another of over 200. Although the number of shaft tombs far exceeds the number of charnel houses, many more people were reburied in the charnel houses than in the shaft tombs. The funerary remains in the charnel houses include vast quantities of pottery, and such finds as a crescent-shaped battle axe, gold jewelry, textiles, wooden combs, and metal weapons.

A third type of tomb consists of the primary burial of a single individual in a rectangular cist dug into the limestone which was then covered with stone slabs. A mound or tumulus was built over the grave. These relatively rare tumuli were the graves of the people who destroyed the town of Bab edh-Dhra in about 2350 B.C.

At the other three sites, Safi, Feifa, and Khanazir, there have been no excavations. An interesting sidelight about Safi is its identification on a famous mosaic map in Madaba, an hour’s drive away. The Madaba map was found on the floor of a 6th century A.D. Byzantine church. On it, Safi is identified as Zoar, one of the five Biblical Cities of the Plain. Surrounding the Early Bronze site of Safi is a cemetery which looks to be almost as large as the one at Bab edh-Dhra.

The unexcavated town of Feifa appears to be very similar to Bab edh-Dhra. Even surface evidence reflects the fact that the city was destroyed in a fiery disaster. Spongy charcoal can still be scooped from the surface by hand—this is also true at Numeira. Moreover, adjacent to the town is a huge cemetery almost a mile in either direction that also can compete with the Bab edh-Dhra cemetery both in size and usage.

The fifth site, Khanazir, is at the extreme southern end of the Ghor, just before entering the Arabah, the great valley that extends from the Ghor to the Gulf of Aqabah in the Red Sea. Although a wall clearly encircled the site—a heap of stones suggests a tower in the wall—it is difficult to tell more without excavation. The site was surely an important one during the Early Bronze Age.

There is much still to be learned from these sites. The possibilities are especially intriguing because of the recent heated debate as to whether towns named Sodom, Gomorrah, Zoar, and perhaps other Cities of the Plain are mentioned in the Ebla tablets—which also date from the mid-third millennium.^b

With or without the mention of those names in the Ebla tablets, however, these Dead Sea sites could be highly significant in the ongoing discussion as to whether there was a historical period which can be identified as the Patriarchal Age and, if so, when it should be dated.^c If these five sites are the Cities of the Plain referred to in Genesis, they lend significant support to those who would argue that the Patriarchal Age should be dated to the third millennium. That two such highly respected and serious archaeologists as Rast and Schaub suggest that they may have found the cities mentioned in Genesis 14 will surely add a dimension to the debate.

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Exhibits on Bab edh-Dhra

Several museums throughout the country are exhibiting tomb materials from Bab edh-Dhra.

A display of a shaft tomb may be seen at the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History Washington, D.C., at St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota and at Christ Seminary, St Louis, Missouri.

A display of a tomb chamber is currently on exhibit at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

A charnel house group from Bab edh-Dhra is on exhibit at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

In the past many scholars have regarded Sodom and Gomorrah—and the Biblical stories in which they appear—as mere legend. Now, however, two highly respected American archaeologists are about to propose that they may have found the remains of the ancient cities.