Lot’s wife… or so tradition has it.
All right, all right, no more jokes! “How do you get to Sodom? When you see the signs for Washington, D.C., just hang a left.”
Archaeologist Steven Collins, of Trinity Southwest University, says he’s found a site in Jordan that agrees with the Biblical description and location of Sodom (https://dailycaller.com/2023/07/11/archaeologist-claims-jordan-site-sodom/). The site is full of burned and glazed artifacts and resembles, says Collins, a nuclear test site. The whole place looks like it was “wiped out in the blink of an eye,” he adds.
The archaeological establishment has not endorsed Collins’ claims. He’ll have to keep digging. Josephus tells us that in his time, circa 60 A.D., “Sodom” was a tourist site. The story of the cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, wiped out by God for their wickedness, is found in Genesis 13 and 19.
We don’t know what kind of artifacts Dr. Collins would have to dig up to “prove” that he’s found Sodom. Inscriptions might clinch it; but we don’t know whether the Sodomites of Abraham’s day even had inscriptions. And if they wrote on a perishable material, we wouldn’t find inscriptions.
It’ll be interesting to follow the progress of Collins’ research. And it would be a pleasure to see the naysayers get shown up.
I’ve been following this with interest. Obviously, something pretty drastic had to have happened in that location, and I don’t doubt that they are onto something. Of course, the archaeological establishment will fight this tooth and nail.
If Herschel Shanks were still editing “Biblical Archaeology Review,” I’d have some hope of thorough and unbiased coverage. I’ve let my subscription lapse.
I can’t blame you.
I’m going to see if I can follow his work on this and see how it goes.