At https://www.timesofisrael.com/evidence-of-sodom-meteor-blast-cause-of-bi… .. this is the expected paper promised by SIS member Phil Silvia – just read out at a conference (and already making waves). The Biblical tale of Sodom has intrigued people for generations. Silvia and Collins enlisted some members of the Younger Dryas boundary event team including our friend George Howard of https://cosmictusk.com/tall_el_hammam_sodom_trinity_university_jordan_si… … and it begins by making a link with the Chelyabinsk meteor (in 2013) and the Tunguska blast (back in 1908). A team of archaeologists and scientists are the co-authors of the study and use Tunguska as a model to explain the disappearance of a thriving civilisation (but at a much reduced velocity than Tunguska). This means a smaller object – or an object that exploded somewhat higher in the atmosphere. The site destructions were in the Kikkar Plain (modern Middle Ghor) but the shock wave may have originated over the NE corner of the Dead Sea.The title of the paper is, 'The 3.7ka BP Middle Ghor Event: Catastrophic Termination of a Bronze Age Civilization' which was presented during a session of the 'evironmental and archaeology of the ancient near east' organisation. Science News has reported on it.
The scientists say they have found evidence of a 'high heat' explosive event which struck Tall al-Hammam and its neighbouring towns and villages, decimating 500 square km of the Plain. Cities and towns were wiped out – as in obliterated. The blast was like a nuclear explosion where all the energy is transferred by blast – if you have ever taken part in civil defence training. The blast generates the heat – and the energy. The fertile soil that had sustained civilisation for thousands of years was stripped of its nutrients by the blast making it unsuitable for hundreds of years as far as reoccupation was concerned. Hence, the idea Sodom was cursed – and looked on disfavourably by God. Salts from the Dead Sea washed out over the surrounding area. This was all part of the fall out from the explosion which produced blisteringly hot winds which deposited a rain of mineral grains. According to Science News C14 dating of organic archaeological evidence has shown that mud brick walls disappeared – leaving only the stone foundations.
The study began because of a riddle. The most productive farmland in the region which had supported civilisation for over 3000 years suddenly ceased to be worked and cropped. There was no human activity going on there for a long period of time. Why? They propose that a Tunguska like airburst (a meteor exploding in the lower atmosphere) was to blame. Is this massive conflagration the background to the Biblical story of Sodom's demise (by an angel of the Lord). Genesis 19:24-25 reads, 'then the Lord rained down burning sulphur on Sodom and Gomorrah – from the Lord out of heaven …'. The conflagration at Hammam produced melted pottery, scorched foundation stones, and several feet of ash and destruction debris churned into a dark grey matrix.