Tell el-Hammam (also Tall al-Hammam) is an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

in the

Amman Governorate Amman Governorate, officially known as Muhafazat al-Asima (, English language, English translation: the Capital Governorate), is one of the governorates in Jordan. The governorate's capital is the city of Amman, which is also the country's capi ...

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

, in the eastern part of the lower Jordan Valley 11.7 kilometers east of the

Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan (, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn''; , ''Nəhar hayYardēn''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Sharieat'' (), is a endorheic river in the Levant that flows roughly north to south through the Sea of Galilee and drains to the Dead ...

and not far from its mouth. It lies 12.6 kilometers northeast of the

Dead Sea The Dead Sea (; or ; ), also known by #Names, other names, is a landlocked salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east, the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the west and Israel to the southwest. It lies in the endorheic basin of the Jordan Rift Valle ...

. The site has substantial remains from the

Chalcolithic The Chalcolithic ( ) (also called the Copper Age and Eneolithic) was an archaeological period characterized by the increasing use of smelted copper. It followed the Neolithic and preceded the Bronze Age. It occurred at different periods in di ...

Early Early may refer to: Places in the United States * Early, Iowa, a city * Early, Texas, a city * Early Branch, a stream in Missouri * Early County, Georgia * Fort Early, Georgia, an early 19th century fort Music * Early B, stage name of Jamaican d ...

, Intermediate, and

Middle Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

, and from

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

II. There are different attempts at identifying the site with a biblical city. The Hammam Megalithic Field lies nearby. Other archaeological sites in the vicinity include Tall Nimrin, Tall Bleibel, Tall Mustah, Tall Iktanu, Tall Tahouna, Tall Barakat, Tall Kafrayn, and Tall Rama. The site covers an area of approximately 36 hectares, with a small high mound (Upper Tall) rising about 30 meters above the plain and an extensive lower town (Lower Tall) to the southwest. Occupation of the site began in the Late Chalcolithic period (4th Millennium BC) and continued through the Iron Age (1st Millennium BC) into the Hellenistic and Roman periods. The site reached its maximum extent during the Middle Bronze Age when significant fortifications were constructed. Excavations at Tell el-Hammam have been ongoing since 2005, led by Steven Collins of Trinity Southwest University. The site has been the subject of controversy due to claims linking it to the biblical city of Sodom, a hypothesis rejected by mainstream archaeologists.

History

The site was occupied beginning in the Late Chalcolithic period (4th Millennium BC) based on pottery finds. Architectural remains begin in the Early Bronze Age (3rd Millennium BC) and the site was protected by walls, upper and lower, at that time. In the Middle Bronze Age the site reached its maximum extent and fortifications were constructed. Occupation continued through the Iron Age (1st Millennium BC) into the Hellenistic and Roman period. Many scholars have identified the Late Bronze Age settlement at Tell el-Hammam as Abel-Shittim, mentioned in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Stations of the Exodus The Stations of the Exodus are the locations visited by the Israelites following their exodus from Egypt, according to the Hebrew Bible. In the itinerary given in Numbers 33, forty-two stations are listed, although this list differs slightly ...

. In classical antiquity, it has been suggested that it formed part of the city of

Livias Livias was a city in Transjordan in Classical Antiquity. In the writings of Josephus (English translation), the name is presented as Julias. Numerous authors have presented a chain of evidence connecting ''Beth-Haram'' from the Book of Joshua ...

, the main centre or which is thought to have been at Tell er-Rameh, northwest of Tell el-Hammam.

Archaeology

The site covers an area of about 36 hectares of which about 26 hectares are within fortifications, with a small high mound (Upper Tall), which rises to about 30 meters above the plain, and an extensive lower town (Lower Tall) extending to the southwest which is privately owned and currently used for agriculture. The high mound has been impacted by military trenches and roadwork. The upper and lower areas were protected by walls beginning in the

Early Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

. The site reached its maximum extent in the

(termed Intermediate Bronze Age by the excavator).

Claude Reignier Conder Claude Reignier Conder (29 December 1848, Cheltenham – 16 February 1910, Cheltenham) was an English soldier, explorer and antiquarian. He was a great-great-grandson of Louis-François Roubiliac and grandson of editor and author Josiah 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"). In 2011 a small Byzantine bath installation (5 m x 2 m) was indeed discovered at the site. In 1941,

Nelson Glueck Nelson Glueck (June 4, 1900 – February 12, 1971) was an American rabbi, professor, academic and archaeology, archaeologist. He served as president of Hebrew Union College from 1947 until his death, and his pioneering work in biblical archaeolo ...

visited the site (also called Tell el-Hammeh es-Samri according to Glueck) which he associated with biblical Abel haš-Šittum ( Abel-Shittim). On the high mound Glueck found large numbers of Iron Age I-II and a smaller number of Early Bronze and

Late Chalcolithic The Chalcolithic ( ) (also called the Copper Age and Eneolithic) was an archaeological period characterized by the increasing use of smelted copper. It followed the Neolithic and preceded the Bronze Age. It occurred at different periods in diff ...

pottery shards. He noted an Iron Age fortress, oriented southwest by northeast, at the summit. It was enclosed by a 1.2-meter fortress wall measuring 140 meters by 25 meters, with defensive towers at the narrow ends. There appeared to be a 33-meter-by-17-meter inner citadel. He stated the site was about 2.5 kilometers southeast of Tell el-Kefrein. He also indicated that the small (5 meters high and 60 meters in diameter) site of Tell Abu Qarf, lying 0.5 kilometers southwest, appeared to be part of the same settlement complex as Tall el-Hammam. Glueck also examined the dolmens at the nearby Hammam Megalithic Field and Tell Iktanu. The Australian archaeologist Kay Prag briefly surveyed the site on behalf of the British Institute at Amman for Archaeology and History in 1975–1976, while working at nearby Tell Iktanu. Prag returned in 1990 to complete the survey in the lower town finding a 3.5-meter-wide fortification wall faced with large limestone blocks. Noting that the high mound fortress area had been "much bulldozed" the brief excavation effort focused on the lower town in an Early Bronze I area. Between 2006 and 2016, excavations have been conducted at the site, directed by Steven Collins of Trinity Southwest University, an unaccredited biblical inerrantist institution in the United States.

Controversial identification as Biblical Sodom

The most recent excavator links the site to the legendary biblical city of Sodom, a claim rejected both by scientists and by other

biblical literalists Biblical literalism or biblicism is a term used differently by different authors concerning biblical interpretation. It can equate to the dictionary definition of literalism: "adherence to the exact letter or the literal sense", where literal me ...

. In 2016, a team from the University of Oxford noted that the excavations had resulted in significant disruption to the ancient mound, and archaeologists have expressed concern that by linking the site to Sodom the excavators encourage

looting Looting is the act of stealing, or the taking of goods by force, typically in the midst of a military, political, or other social crisis, such as war, natural disasters (where law and civil enforcement are temporarily ineffective), or rioting. ...

and the illegal trade of antiquities, because objects "marketed explicitly to people seeking a tangible connection with the Bible" are in high demand.

Discredited air burst claim

In September 2021, a group of researchers sponsored by the

Comet Research Group The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis (YDIH) proposes that the onset of the Younger Dryas (YD) cool period (stadial) at the end of the Last Glacial Period, around 12,900 years ago was the result of some kind of cosmic event with specific details var ...

, including one member of the Trinity Southwest University excavation team, published a paper claiming that Tell el-Hammam was destroyed cataclysmically by an

airburst An air burst or airburst is the detonation of an explosive device such as an anti-personnel artillery shell or a nuclear weapon in the air instead of on contact with the ground or target. The principal military advantage of an air burst over ...

. Two-thirds of the authors are members of the Comet Research Group, which also claims that the

Younger Dryas The Younger Dryas (YD, Greenland Stadial GS-1) was a period in Earth's geologic history that occurred circa 12,900 to 11,700 years Before Present (BP). It is primarily known for the sudden or "abrupt" cooling in the Northern Hemisphere, when the ...

were caused by a comet impact. The theory was presented in conjunction with the claim that the site may be the source of the biblical story of the destruction of Sodom. This paper was widely criticized as

pseudoscience Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable cl ...

, including by

Mark Boslough Mark Boslough is an American physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, research professor at University of New Mexico, fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and chair of the Asteroid Day Expert Panel. He is an expert in the study of ...

, a physicist cited in the paper.

Elisabeth Bik Elisabeth Margaretha Harbers-Bik (born 1966) is a Dutch microbiologist and scientific integrity consultant. Bik is known for her work detecting photo manipulation in scientific publications, and identifying over 4,000 potential cases of improper ...

, an expert in investigating scientific misconduct, showed that the authors altered many of the images used as evidence. A March 2022 review of the evidence for an impact event states that the proper criteria for showing an airburst have not been met. On February 15, 2023, the following editor's note was posted on this paper: "Readers are alerted that concerns raised about the data presented and the conclusions of this article are being considered by the Editors. A further editorial response will follow the resolution of these issues." On April 24, 2025, ''

Scientific Reports ''Scientific Reports'' is a peer-reviewed open-access scientific mega journal published by Nature Portfolio, covering all areas of the natural sciences. The journal was established in 2011. The journal states that their aim is to assess solely ...

'' issued a formal retraction for the original study, citing errors in methodology, analysis, and data interpretation.

References

External links

Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project
{{Authority control 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