Comparing Early-Middle Bronze Age Sites to Tal el-Hammam (ancient Sodom)

Today was a free day, yet most of the team decided to take a little venture about 50 km outside of Amman to two sites that date back to Early Bronze and Roman-Byzantine times: The first was Khirbet Iskander (pix below), previously thought to be the only fortified IBA (Intermediate Bronze Age-2340-2000 BC) city in Jordan, which of course we now know is not true.

Tal el-Hammam, where we're excavating, is much bigger during this IBA (and Early Bronze to Iron Age), which means both history books and maps are now being re-written to fit the new discovered facts gleaned from the research of Dr. Steve Collins (Project Director) and his team. The Tal el-Hammam project has incidentally been joined by the Jordanian Dept. of Antiquities as a joint-project, which is good, not only for cooperation of the Jordanian government, but to possibly insure an extension on the license (which has only 3 more seasons left). The site is so large it could easily take another 10 seasons of excavation.

The second site we visited was Dhiban (biblical Dibon). The value of these sites was to be able to compare features, such as Early Bronze Age walls and City Gate, with the same items being excavating at Hammam. They are the same, and corroborate findings and theories postulated at Hammam (common features of that day confirming distinct time periods and chronology of building, etc.).

Although I am only a volunteer and not an expert on the archaeology of these periods and their Biblical implications, which I have to leave to our Dr. Scott Stripling (biblical archaeologist extraordinare), I can provide elementary knowledge and have provided a chat feature if you would like to ask about this expedition. Sign in (with Skype) below to use this chat feature (assuming I'm "online" at the same time):

David Kirschke in Jordan hosted by davidkirschke.

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Day in Decapolis Cities--Jerash & Gadera

Yesterday we went to two of the cities of the ancient Decapolis (10 city confederation in ancient Middle East), where Jesus sent his disciples (and visited Himself). In the region of the Gadarenes (near the Sea of Galilee) we went to Gadera, where he delivered the man who lived in the cave (photo at rt) in the graveyard from demons, who went into the swine and over the cliff (Mark 5). We found the cave in the graveyard where he lived and stood at the cliff where the swine went over (and don't say "someone had deviled ham that day" -lol). Photo to the left shows me in front of the cliff with the Sea of Galilee in the background.

Then we went to Jerash (below), one of the largest of the cities of the Decapolis.














Today in Amman (ancient Philadelphia) we saw the 3,000-year-old wall still standing from when King David took the city, having Uriah the Hittite killed so he could be with his wife, Bathsheba. This all really makes the Bible come alive with new meaning. I'll keep everyone posted here with new material & photos.