Tall El-Hammam

Tell el-Hammam (also Tall al-Hammam) is an archaeological site in Jordan, in the eastern part of the lower Jordan Valley close to the mouth of the Jordan River. The site has substantial remains from the Chalcolithic, Early, Intermediate and Middle Bronze Age, and from Iron Age II. There are different attempts at identifying the site with a biblical city.

Possible identifications in different periods

* In the Late Bronze Age, the area around Tell el-Hammam is identified by many scholars as Abel-Shittim.
* 1st century CE – Livias ( la, Liviada) under Herod Agrippa, 4 BCE. Traditionally, the Roman city of Livias is identified with the small Tell er-Rameh, although William F. Albright identified Livias/Bethharam with Tell Iktanu, ESE of Tell er-Rameh. Recent excavations at Tell el-Hamman have led to the theory that nearby Tell er-Rameh was the commercial and residential centre of Livias, while the administrative centre was located at Tell el-Hammam. In the Roman, Byzantine, and Umayyad periods (165 BC–AD 750) the site was part of the city of Livias (also known as Julias), an important city in Perea, rebuilt by Herod Antipas.
* Byzantine period – Livias. In 384 CE, the Spanish pilgrim Egeria (Etheria or Aetheria) testified that a presbyter (elder/bishop) had a house in Livias. According to Le Quien Livias was still a see in the 5th and early 6th century. Byzantine administrative records list three bishops from Livias: Letoius, who was at the council of Ephesus in 431 CE; Pancratius, who was at the council of Chalcedon in 451 CE; and Zacharias who attended the council of Jerusalem in 536 CE. Theoteknos, the first theologian to articulate the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary, was the most famous bishop of Livias, officiating sometime between 550 and 650 CE.

History

The site was occupied in the Chalcolithic (), Early Bronze Age (), Middle Bronze Age (), Iron Age II–III (), and Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and Umayyad periods (163 BCE–750 CE). The most substantial findings are from the Early Bronze Age, Intermediate Bronze Age, and Middle Bronze Age.

Chalcolithic

At the bedrock remains of broadhouses were found dating to the Chalcolithic.

Early Bronze Age

In the Early Bronze Age, Tell el-Hammam was the largest city-state in the Southern Levant.

Early Bronze I

The Early Bronze I (3600-3050)
The Chalcolithic broadhouse stone foundations were built over in the Early Bronze I. Apparently, there was continuous occupation from the Chalcolithic into the Early Bronze I.

Early Bronze II

The Early Bronze II (3050-2650)

Early Bronze III

The Early Bronze III (2650-2350) started with a flourishing period that was followed by drier climate from 2500 BC onwards.

Early Bronze IV

The Early Bronze IV (2350-2000) saw the region decline with drought.

Middle Bronze Age

Middle Bronze I

During Middle Bronze Age I (MB I; ~2000–1800 BCE) rainfall was more plentiful, and the level of the Dead Sea rose to about 370 mbsl, at least ~ 50 m higher than its current elevation of 430 mbsl.

Middle Bronze II

The Middle Bronze II (1800-1550) was the main period for Tell el-Hammam. The city was protected by walls enclosing an area of and was divided into an upper and lower city, while the much larger general occupational area around the walled city covered . It can be compared in size with Hazor () and Ashkelon (), while Jerusalem and Jericho were only respectively.

Late Bronze

Like most sites in the Jordan Valley, it was vacant in the Late Bronze Age (). Only some Late Bronze pottery was discovered in a tomb, and a single freestanding LB2a structure in Field UA on the upper tell. The "Late Bronze Gap" (first named by Flanagan at Tall Nimrin) of years is not unique to Tall al-Hammam but characteristic of many of the sites in the Jordan valley (Hebrew ) region, including Tall Iktanu, Tall Kefrein (al-Kefrayn), Tall Nimrin, Tell el-Musṭāḥ, Tall Bleibel (Bulaybil), etc.

Hellenistic period

Early Roman, Byzantine, and Early Islamic

Early Roman, Byzantine, and Early Islamic remains have been excavated between 2005 and 2014. The discoveries included a large Roman bath complex (, ), aqueduct ( exposed), two defensive towers, coins, glass, as well as Roman, Byzantine, and Early Islamic pottery.

Research history

Claude Reignier Conder recorded the site in the nineteenth century and Père Mallon described it in detail in 1932. Both noted remains of a Roman bath complex that have since disappeared, which presumably gave the tell its name ("Hill of the Hot Baths"). The renewed campaign of excavations discovered in 2011 a small Byzantine bath installation (5 m x 2 m), reminiscent of the Roman bath at Ramat HaNadiv (southern Mount Carmel, Israel).

Nelson Glueck visited the site in 1941 and identified Iron Age ruins, which he associated with biblical Abel-Shittim.

Kay Prag briefly surveyed the site in 1975–1976 while she was working at the adjacent Tell Iktanu. She returned in 1990 to conduct a complete survey and excavate parts of the Bronze Age levels.

Since 2005, the site has been excavated by a joint project of the unaccredited Trinity Southwest University (Albuquerque, New Mexico) which states that the Bible speaks "with absolute and authority in all matters upon which it touches." and the creationist Veritas International University's College of Archaeology & Biblical History (Santa Ana, California), headed by young earth creationist Steven Collins.

Air burst claim

A group of researchers sponsored by the controversial Comet Research Group, including one member of the current excavation team, published a paper claiming that Tell el-Hammam was destroyed cataclysmically by an air burst. Two-thirds of the authors are members of the Comet Research Group, which also claims that the Younger Dryas were caused by a comet impact. The theory is presented in conjunction with the claim that the site may be the source of the biblical story of the destruction of Sodom.

Others raised doubts about the claim and showed that the authors altered some of the images used as evidence. The authors initially denied tampering with the photos but eventually published a correction in which they admitted to inappropriate image manipulation. Subsequent concerns that have been brought up in PubPeer have not yet been addressed by the authors, including discrepancies between claimed blast wave direction compared to what the images show, unavailability of original image data to independent researchers, lack of supporting evidence for conclusions, inappropriate citation to young Earth creationist literature, and misinformation about the Tunguska explosion.

An op-ed published in Sapiens Anthropology Magazine called the claim "pseudoscientific", suggested that it could erode scientific integrity, and warned that it may lead to the destruction of the site by looters. It also states that few knowledgeable archaeologists believe that the site represents Sodom or Gomorrah.

Physicist Mark Boslough, a specialist in planetary impact hazards and asteroid impact avoidance, has undertaken a sustained critique in social media and in print of the hypothesis that an air burst was responsible for the destruction of human settlements at Tell el-Hammam. His critique calls attention to a perspective of biblical inerrancy that has been used in claims that an air burst destroyed the biblical town of Sodom.

A review of the evidence for an impact event states that the proper criteria for showing an airburst have not been met.

See also

*Cities of the Ancient Near East
*List of minor biblical places
*Plains of Moab
*Younger Dryas impact hypothesis

References

{{Reflist

External links

Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project

Populated places established in the 5th millennium BC
Populated places disestablished in the 8th century
Archaeological sites in Jordan
Biblical archaeology
Byzantine sites in Asia
Chalcolithic sites of Asia
Populated places in Amman Governorate
Former populated places in Jordan
Livias