Tall el-Hammam was one of the most powerful cities in the south of the Levant some 3600 years ago. But that changed (literally) in one fell swoop, scientists have discovered.

Archaeologists love to poke around Tall el-Hammam, an archaeological site in Jordan. “It’s an incredibly important area culturally,” said researcher James Kennett. The various layers of soil carefully unearthed by archaeologists tell the story of a strategically located city that was inhabited for thousands of years in a row and over that long period was repeatedly built up and destroyed again, either by wars or natural disasters such as earthquakes.

Melted Shards

The archaeological finds also reveal that the city really took off in the middle of the Bronze Age. The city at that time was ten times bigger than Jerusalem. And five times bigger than nearby Jericho. But just above the strata that testify to a bustling, up-and-coming city, archaeologists found something strange. A 1.5 meter thick layer of rubble that differed markedly from the rubble they had seen before and testified to warfare or destructive earthquakes. In that 1.5 meter thick layer of soil, for example, shards of pottery were found, the surface of which had fused into glass. And some building materials found in this soil layer were also partially melted. It indicated that these objects had been exposed to extremely high temperatures; much higher than what could be achieved with the technology of the time. “We found evidence of temperatures above 2000 degrees Celsius,” Kennett said.

Alien Cause

How is that possible? Kennett and colleagues took another look at the soil and sediments from this special layer. And they have to conclude that the destruction that Tall el-Hammam suffered some 3,650 years ago was caused by a space rock that exploded in mid-air.

Tunguska Explosion

According to the researchers, the blast would have been similar to the Tunguska explosion. This explosion took place in 1908, over Siberia. A space rock estimated to be between 56 and 60 meters in size penetrated Earth’s atmosphere, then exploded about 8 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. This released about 12 megatons of energy. The force of the explosion flattened trees for miles around.

Human remains

And a comparable explosion must have caused Tall el-Hammam to be razed to the ground around 1650 BC. Where the Tunguska explosion took place over an almost uninhabited area and claimed one human life, it was different in Tall el-Hammam. Recovered bones indicate that people’s bodies were torn apart by the force of the explosion, the researchers said.

Shocked Quartz

The researchers deduce not only from bone remains and molten shards that an exploding space rock was the culprit. Perhaps the most compelling piece of evidence is so-called shocked quartz. “These are sand grains with cracks in them that can only form under very high pressure. We found shocked quartz in that soil layer and that means that enormous pressure must have been exerted on the quartz crystals, because quartz is one of the hardest minerals.”

In addition to archaeologists, biblical scholars are also very interested in what is found in Tall el-Hamman. Some people think that Tall el-Hammam is the biblical city of Sodom. In the Bible it is said that the city mainly housed sinners and therefore God decided to destroy them. However, at Abraham’s urging, God does not destroy the city until after Abraham’s nephew Lot has left the city. Lot flees to the mountains with his family, meanwhile fire and brimstone rain down from heaven on Sodom and nearby Gomorrah. “All the observations in Genesis are consistent with a cosmic explosion in the sky, but there is no scientific evidence that the destroyed city is really Old Testament Sodom,” Kennett said.

Salty

The explosion of a space rock may also have explained another mystery. The mystery of the salt; In addition to molten shards and building materials, remarkably high concentrations of salt have also been found in the 3,650-year-old soil layers. The salt may have come from the nearby Dead Sea. If that sea was also hit by the explosion, salt crystals from that sea and from the also salty coast may have spread widely and also landed in Tall el-Hammam.

The explosion of a large space rock must have had a huge impact on the area. Not just by the direct destruction of Tall el-Hammam and other nearby towns. But also because of the aftermath of the explosion. Think, for example, of the salt crystals that landed on the previously fertile soil and made it unsuitable for growing the crops that previously grew effortlessly. It may help explain why people left the once bustling area en masse and only returned hundreds of years later.