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.

Tell el-Hammam
Tall al-Hammam
Shown within Jordan
LocationJordan
RegionAmman Governorate
Coordinates31.8402°N 35.6737°E / 31.8402; 35.6737
History
CulturesChalcolithic, Early Bronze Age, Middle Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age, Roman Age, Byzantine, Umayyad
Tell el-Hammam overlooking the Jordan Valley (2007)

Possible identifications in different periods
  • Early Bronze period – Beth-Haram ( בֵּית הָרָם, הָרָן)[1]
  • Middle Bronze period – Steven Collins, co-director of the current excavation project and professor at two inerrantist US universities, presented the theory that Tell el-Hammam is identified with Sodom of the Hebrew Bible.[2]
  • Late Bronze period – Beth-Haran.[3] The area around Tell el-Hammam, in the Late Bronze Age, is widely identified as Abel-Shittim or Abel hashShittim (Hebrew meaning "Plain of the Acacias"), which is the location of Israel's encampment prior to entering the Promised Land (Numbers 25:1, Deuteronomy 34:9, Joshua 2:1, 3:1). Abel-Shittim became known in later periods as Abila in Peraea.[4]
  • Iron Age – Beth-Haram (Solomonic Administrative city)[5]
  • 1st Cent. BCE – Betharamtha (Βηθαραμθα)– (Herod the Great)[6]
  • 1st Cent CE – Livias (Lat. Liviada Herod Agrippa 4 BC).[7] The traditional location of the Roman city of Livias is identified at the small Tell er-Rameh [8] Although William F. Albright identified Livias/Bethharam with Tall Iktanu [9] 2 ¾ km ESE of Tell er-Rameh. Recent excavation at Tall el-Hamman have led to the theory that Tell er-Rameh nearby was the commercial and residential centre of Livias, while the administrative centre was located at Tall el-Hammam.[10] In the Roman, Byzantine, and Umayyad periods (165 BC–AD 750) the site was part of the city of Livias/Julias, an important city in Perea rebuilt by Herod Anitpas.[11]
  • 1st Cent. CE – Julias (Herod Agrippa 14 AD)[12]
  • Byzantine Period – Livias. In AD 384, the Spanish pilgrim Egeria (Etheria or Aetheria) testified that a presbyter (elder/bishop) had a house in Livias.[13] According to Le Quien [14] Livias was still a see in the fifth and early sixth century. The Byzantine administrative records, list three Bishops from Livias: Letoius, who was at the council of Ephesus in AD 431; [15] Pancratius, who was at the council of Chalcedon in AD 451; and Zacharias who attended the council in Jerusalem in AD 536. [16] Theoteknos, the first theologian to articulate the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary, [17] was the most famous bishop of Livias, officiating sometime between AD 550 and 650.

Starting with the publication of his book Discovering the city of Sodom in 2013 and after fifteen years of excavations of the upper and lower tall, Collins has been arguing that Tall el-Hammam is the site of the biblical city of Sodom.[2] According to professor Eugene H. Merrill, himself a Biblical inerrantist, the identification of Tall al-Hammam with Sodom would require an unacceptable restructuring of his early biblical chronology.[18][19][20]

Etymology

"Tell", sometimes spelled "tall", is the Arabic word for a mound created by successive layers of settlement debris, a term adopted into English for an archaeological mound. "Hammam" is Arabic for bath/bathhouse.[21] Tall el-Hammam translates as "hill of the hot springs". Some translate the name Tall al-Hammam as "Hill of the Hot Baths".[22] There are five hot springs identified around Tall el-Hammam.[23]

Archaeological work

Early surveys

A survey was done in 1975–76, which found some Middle Bronze Age pottery.[24]

In 1990, Kay Prag conducted a survey and some soundings.[25][2]

Excavation since 2005

Since 2005, the site has been excavated by a joint project of the unaccredited Trinity Southwest University (Albuquerque, New Mexico), the Creationist accredited Veritas International University's College of Archaeology & Biblical History (Santa Ana, California), and the Department of Antiquities of Jordan.[26][27]

Current excavations are led by a research team headed by Steven Collins, a professor at the College of Archaeology at the unaccredited Trinity Southwest University in Albuquerque, New Mexico, an institution that states that biblical scripture is the "divinely inspired representation of reality given by God to humankind, speaking with absolute authority in all matters upon which it touches".[28] Collins is also the Professor of Archaeology and Biblical History along with Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at Veritas International University,[29] accredited by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools which requires all accredited schools to have a statement of faith that affirms "the inerrancy and historicity of the Bible" and "the divine work of non-evolutionary creation including persons in God's image".[30]

As a result of the biased studies completed at the site, some confusion has arisen over anomalous findings; some have suggested that odd melting of ceramics and other such high-heat evidence is the result of an intense air burst caused by a meteorite disintegrating over the site during the Bronze Age. Unfortunately, research agendas attempting to reconcile these (possible) findings with biblical events suggests instead that these are of divine origin, corresponding to the stories of Sodom and Gomorrah. Given the strong impetus of religious institutions to offer proof for religious beliefs, the veracity of the evidence for an impact event is suspect.

Periods of settlement

Until 2016, the excavations have brought to light occupation layers from the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, the entire Bronze Age (Early, Intermediate, and Middle, then again from Iron Age 2, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic periods. However, by far the most substantial findings are from the Early Bronze Age (3600–2500 BCE), Intermediate Bronze Age (2500–1950 BCE), and Middle Bronze Age (after 1950 BCE).[31]

The site was occupied in the Chalcolithic (c. 4300-3600 BCE), Early Bronze Age (c. 3600–2500 BCE), Intermediate Bronze Age (2500–1950 BCE), Middle Bronze Age (c. 1950–1550 BCE), Iron Age 2–3 (c. 980–332 BCE) [32] and Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and Umayyad periods (163 BCE–750 CE).[33] Like most sites in the Jordan Valley, it was vacant in the Late Bronze Age (c. 1550–1200 BCE). Only some Late Bronze pottery was discovered in a tomb.[34] and a single freestanding LB2a structure in Field UA on the upper tall.[35] The "Late Bronze Gap" (first named by Flanagan at Tall Nimrin) of c. 550 years is not unique to Tall al-Hammam but characteristic of many of the sites in the Jordan valley (Heb. kikkār) region, including Tall Iktanu, Tall Kefrein (al-Kefrayn), Tall Nimrin,[36] Tall el-Musṭāḥ, Tall Bleibel (Bulaybil), etc.[37]

Middle Bronze Age city

During the Middle Bronze Age, the city was protected by walls enclosing an area of 85 acres (34.4 hectares) and was divided into an upper and lower city, while the much larger general occupational area around the walled city covered 240 acres (97 hectares).[38][39] In the Early Bronze Age Tall el-Hammam was the largest city state in the southern Levant[40] and by the Middle Bronze Age it was only smaller than Hazor (200 acres) and Ashkelon (150 acres). At this time Jerusalem and Jericho were only 12-10 acres respectively.[41]

Early Roman, Byzantine and Early Islamic

Early Roman, Byzantine and Early Islamic remains have been excavated between 2005-2014. The discoveries included a large Roman bath complex (thermae 34.2 m. x 40.6 m. [116.5 ft. x 133 ft.]), aqueduct (165 m. exposed), two defensive towers, coins, glass, and Roman, Byzantine and early Islamic pottery.[42]

See also

References
  1. Brussels E4: Egyptian Execration Text) Brussels E4 (Haram) is generally located at the later Beth Haram, northeast of the Dead Sea. Posener and Mazar identified Beth haram with Tell Ikanu (Adam Zertal Z"l and Shay Bar, The Manasseh Hill Country Survey Volume 4: From Nahal Bezeq to the Sartaba [Leiden: Brill, 2017], 80), however, Haram cannot be located at Tell Iktanu, as there are no Middle Bronze remains on the site, but as there is extensive Middle Bronze occupation at nearby Tell al-Hammam (Kay Prag, “Tell Iktanu and Tell Al-Hammam. Excavations in Jordan,” Manchester Archaeological Bulletin 7 (1992): 15–19), is a better candidate. Margreet L. Steiner and Ann E. Killebrew, The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant: C. 8000–332 BCE, Oxford Handbooks in Archaeology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 47
  2. Collins, Steven; Scott, Latayne C. (2013). Discovering the City of Sodom: The Fascinating, True Account of the Discovery of the Old Testament's Most Infamous City. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4516-8438-4. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
  3. Numbers 32:36
  4. William M. Thomson, The Land and the Book: Lebanon, Damascus, and Beyond Jordan, vol. 3, 3 vols. (New York, NY: Harper & Brothers, 1886), 3:669; Nelson Glueck, Explorations in Eastern Palestine II, AASOR 15 (New Haven, CT: ASOR, 1935), 378; Nelson Glueck, “Some Ancient Towns in the Plains of Moab,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 91 (1943), 15; J. Maxwell Miller and Gene M. Tucker, The Book of Joshua, The Cambridge Bible Commentary of the English Bible (Cambridge, MI: Cambridge University Press, 1974), 199; R. K. Harrison, “Shittim,” ed. Edward M. Blaiklock, New International Dictionary of Biblical Archaeology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1983), 413; Rami G. Khouri, Antiquities of the Jordan Rift Valley (Manchester, MI: Solipsist, 1988), 76; Burton MacDonald, East of the Jordan: Territories and Sites of the Hebrew Scriptures, ed. Victor H. Matthews, ASOR Books 6 (Boston, MA: American Schools of Oriental Research, 2000), 90
  5. 1 Kings 4:7–19
  6. Joshua 13:27 LXX; Numbers 32:36 LXX Josephus Antiquities 18.27; On the history of Betharamtha see Harold W. Hoehner, Herod Antipas: A Contemporary of Jesus Christ (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 1980), 88-89. Hoehner identified Betharamtha with the nearby modern site of Tell er-Rameh close to Tall el-Hammam.
  7. Dina Frangié-Joly, “Umm Hadar: A Fort in the Jordan Valley (Historical and Archaeological Research), Trade Routes and Seafaring in the Near East (2011),” Aram 27, no. 1 & 2 (2015): 105–23. see 107, 109 n.17
  8. Morris Jastrow and Frants Buhl, “Beth–Aram,” in Jewish Encyclopedia (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1906), 119; Siméon Vailhé, “Livias,” in Catholic Encyclopedia, ed. Charles George Herbermann, trans. Mario Anello, vol. 9, 16 vols. (New York: Appleton & Company, 1913), 9:315; Nelson Glueck, “Some Ancient Towns in the Plains of Moab,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 91 (1943): 7–26, see 11; Donner and Clippers 1967, 22; Kay Prag, “A Walk in the Wadi Hesban,” Palestine Exploration Quarterly 123, no. 1 (1991): 48–61. see 60- 61; Herbert Donner, The Mosaic Map of Madaba. An Introductory Guide, Palaestina Antiqua 7 (Kampen: Kok Pharos, 1992), 39; Estee Dvorjetski, Leisure, Pleasure, and Healing: Spa Culture and Medicine in Ancient Eastern Mediterranean, JSJSup 116 (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 202; Fig. 2).
  9. William F. Albright, “The Jordan Valley in the Bronze Age,” Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research 6 (1926): 13–74. see 49
  10. David E. Graves and D. Scott Stripling, “Re-Examination of the Location for the Ancient City of Livias,” Levant 43, no. 2 (2011): 178–200
  11. Josephus Antiquities 20.29; Jewish War 2.168; 2.252; see also Theodosius Top. 19.1; Harold W. Hoehner, Herod Antipas: A Contemporary of Jesus Christ (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 1980).87-91
  12. Josephus Antiquities 18.27; 20.29; Jewish War 2.168; 2.252; 4.438; Harold W. Hoehner, Herod Antipas: A Contemporary of Jesus Christ (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 1980).87-91
  13. John Wilkinson, ed., Egeria’s Travels: Translated with Supporting Documents and Notes, trans. John Wilkinson, 3rd ed. (Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1999)10.8
  14. Michel Le Quien, Oriens christianus in quatuor patriarchatus digestus, in quo exhibentur Ecclesiae patriarchae caeterique praesules totius Orientis (Paris: Typographia Regia, 1740), 3:655
  15. Egeria, Diary of a Pilgrimage, ed. and trans. George E. Gingras (Mahwah, NJ: Newman, 1970), 189 n. 135
  16. Emil Schürer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ (175 BC–AD 135), ed. G. Vermes, F. Miller, and M. Black, Rev (Edinburgh, UK: T&T Clark, 1979), 2:177 n.505.
  17. Antoine Wenger, L’Assomption de la T.S. Vierge dans la tradition byzantine du VIe au Xe siècle. études e documents, Archives de l’Orient Chrétien 5 (Paris: Institut français d’études byzantines, 1955)
  18. Merrill, Eugene H. "Texts, Talls, and Old Testament Chronology: Tall Hammam as a Case Study." Artifax 27, no. 4 (2012): 20–21.
  19. Bolen, Todd (2013-02-27). "Arguments Against Locating Sodom at Tall el-Hammam". Biblical Archaeology Society. Retrieved July 3, 2013.
  20. Contra Collins, Steven. Tall el-Hammam Is Still Sodom: Critical Data-Sets Cast Serious Doubt on E. H. Merrill’s Chronological Analysis" (PDF) Archived 2013-09-27 at the Wayback Machine, Biblical Research Bulletin 13, no. 1 (2013): 1–31.
  21. Gahrsa, Yamina; Mansouri, Fethi (2013). Survival Arabic: Phrasebook & Dictionary. Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4629-1167-7. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  22. Kay Prag, "Preliminary Report on the Excavations at Tell Iktanu and Tall El-Hammam, Jordan 1990", Levant 23 (1991): 57.
  23. David E. Graves and D. Scott Stripling, "Re-Examination of the Location for the Ancient City of Livias", Levant 43, no. 2 (2011): 178–200.
  24. Collins & Scott (2013), p. 96
  25. Prag, Kay (1991). "Preliminary Report on the Excavations at Tell Iktanu and Tell al-Hammam, Jordan, 1990". Levant. 23 (23:1): 55–66. doi:10.1179/lev.1991.23.1.55. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  26. Steven Collins, Khalil Hamdan, and Gary A. Byers, "Tall al-Ḥammām: preliminary report on four seasons of excavation (2006–2009)", Annual of the Department of Antiquities, vol. 53, pp. 385–414, 2009
  27. Steven Collins, and H. al-Jarrah, "Tall al-Hammam season six, 2011: excavation, survey, interpretations and insights.", Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, vol. 55, pp. 581–606, 2011
  28. Doctrinal Position, Trinity Southwest University website, accessed March 10, 2012
  29. http://viu.ves.edu/graduate-post-graduate/
  30. "Accreditation Standards" (PDF). Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. 2009. Retrieved 2008-12-26. page 80, also see: "Biblical Creation. Special creation of the existing space-time universe and all its basic systems and kinds of organisms in the six literal days of the creation week." on page 81
  31. Banks, Rebecca (26 January 2017). "Endangered Archaeology as captured with the Aerial Archaeology in Jordan Project: September 2016 Season: Tell el-Hammam". Oxford: Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East & North Africa (EAMENA) – University of Oxford. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  32. Steven Collins, Carroll M. Kobs, and Michael C. Luddeni, An Introduction to Tall Al-Hammam with Seven Seasons (2005–2011) of Ceramics and Eight Seasons (2005–2012) of Artifacts, vol. 1 (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2015) ISBN 978-1575063690.
  33. Collins, Steven; Hussein, Aljarrah; Byers, Gary A.; Kobs, Carroll M.; Leslie, John; abu-Shmais, Adeib; Haroun, Jehad (2011). "Tall Al-Hammam Season Six, 2011: Excavation, Survey, Interpretations and Insights". Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan. 55: 581.
  34. Collins, Steven; Hussein, Aljarrah; Byers, Gary A.; Kobs, Carroll M.; Leslie, John; abu-Shmais, Adeib; Haroun, Jehad (2011). "Tall Al-Hammam Season Six, 2011: Excavation, Survey, Interpretations and Insights". Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan. 55: 597.
  35. Steven Collins et al., “Tall El-Hammam Season Ten, 2015: Excavation, Survey, Interpretations And Insights,” Biblical Research Bulletin 15, no. 1 (2015): 1–37, see 29.
  36. Flanagan, James W.; McCreery, David W.; Yassine, Khair N. (1994). "Tell Nimrin: Preliminary Report on the 1993 Season". Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan. 38: 207.
  37. Steven Collins, Khalil Hamdan, and Gary A. Byers, “Tall El-Hammam: Preliminary Report on Four Seasons of Excavation (2006–2009),” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 53 (2009): 385–414
  38. Holden, Joseph M.; Geisler, Norman (2013). The Popular Handbook of Archaeology and the Bible. Harvest House Publishers. p. 216. ISBN 978-0-7369-4485-4. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  39. Collins & Scott (2013), p. 157
  40. Leen Ritmeyer "Chart of showing relative sizes of major cities in the Levant" Steven Collins, Carroll M. Kobs, and Michael C. Luddeni, The Tall Al-Hammam Excavations: An Introduction to Tall al-Hammam with Seven Seasons (2005–2011) of Ceramics and Eight Seasons (2005–2012) of Artifacts, vol. 1 (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2015). p. 41
  41. Leen Ritmeyer "Chart of showing relative sizes of major cities in the Levant" Steven Collins, Carroll M. Kobs, and Michael C. Luddeni, The Tall Al-Hammam Excavations: An Introduction to Tall al-Hammam with Seven Seasons (2005–2011) of Ceramics and Eight Seasons (2005–2012) of Artifacts, vol. 1 (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2015). p. 173,174
  42. Graves, David E.; Stripling, Scott (2011). "Re-Examination of the Location for the Ancient City of Livias". Levant. 43 (2): 178–200. doi:10.1179/175638011X13112549593122. S2CID 162399714.
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