Bryant G. Wood
The names “Sodom and Gomorrah” are bywords in today’s society. Their reputation as centers of wickedness has lasted down through the centuries and even the word “sodomy” has taken its place in the English language as a legal term for unnatural sex acts. To many people, Sodom and Gomorrah are places from the legendary past, more mythical than real. However, it now appears quite likely that these infamous cities have been found.
In true scholary fashion, the two archaeologists who made the discovery are cautious at this point because their results are only preliminary. But, as we shall see from the evidence presented in this study, their suggested identification seems very probable.
Early Attempts to Locate the Cities
Persistent local tradition places Sodom and Gomorrah at the south end of the Dead Sea. At the southwest corner of the Sea is a mountain, largely of crystalline salt, five miles long and over 700 feet high. Its name is Jebel Usdum which, in Arabic, means “Mount of Sodom.” Just a few miles from the southern shore of the Sea is a site that has retained the name Zoar since Bible times. Zoar was one of the five Cities of the Plain, along with Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim.
In 1924 W. F. Albright, in association with Rev. M. Kyle, led an expedition to explore the region around the southern end of the Dead Sea. Following his investigation of the area, Albright concluded that the Cities of the Plain lay under the waters of the southern section of the Dead Sea.
The Dead Sea is divided into two parts by the Lisan, the “Tongue.” North of the Lisan the water is extremely deep, as much
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THE SOUTHERN GHOR AND PROPOSED LOCATIONS OF THE CITIES OF THE PLAIN
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as 1400 feet in some places, while south of the Lisan it is only three to thirty feet in depth. Since it is known that the level of the Dead Sea, which has no outlet, has slowly risen over the years, Albright postulated that the area south of the Lisan was dry land during Abraham’s day when Sodom and Gomorrah were thriving cities.
Albright’s theory was borne out in the spring of 1960 when missionary Ralph E. Baney made a reconnaissance study of the floor of the Dead Sea using Sonar and diving equipment. Baney’s expedition revealed the presence of small trees in growth position at a depth of 23 feet. This means that when the trees were alive, the level (-403 meters) was such that the entire southern basin was exposed.
Since there is good reason to believe that the “Vale of Siddim” (Genesis 14:3) is located under the southern part of the Dead Sea, and no ruins of cities dating to Abraham’s time were found in the immediate vicinity, Albright concluded that the Cities of the Plain were beneath the waters of the Dead Sea never to be seen again. Most scholars have accepted his explanation and this is what is normally found in Bible handbooks. (A notable exception is Emil G. Kraeling in the Rand McNally Bible Atlas, 1956, p. 71). There are, however, a number of arguments against this location, as we shall see when we examine the pertinent biblical texts.
Scholars place Abraham at the end of the Early Bronze (EB) Age (ca. 3000-2000 B.C.) or the beginning of the Middle Bronze (MB) Age (ca. 2000-1550 B.C.). In his exploration of the region, Albright found one site which he could positively date to the EB period and thus to the time of Sodom and Gomorrah. This was Bab edh-Dhra, located at the head of the Lisan which today is in modern Jordan.
Bab edh-Dhra: Settled Community or Pilgrimage Site?
At Bab edh-Dhra Albright found a great fortress, an extensive open-air settlement with enclosures and hearths, as well as a group of fallen monoliths (large blocks of stone) all belonging to the third millennium B.C. The fortress is an elongated enclosure of stone built on the edge of a cliff overlooking the deep ravine of the Wadi1 Kerak from the south. Here, along the edge of a slight rise in the ground, a
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wall of large field stones, seldom or never shaped, was laid. The wall encloses an irregular area, roughly 350 yards long by 110 yards wide. On the ravine side no wall was found, although one may have existed and has since been carried away by landslides. The wall proper is about 13 feet thick, on the average, with an earthen embankment about 16 feet high to protect its outer face.
Inside the wall there are remains of buildings with rectangular walls of field stones. Occupational debris was found along the city wall and near the few buildings. There were also a number of hearths in the area.
Outside the wall, especially on the southern side, the surface of the plain is strewn for hundreds of yards with the foundations of round and square stone enclosures for individual houses, in practically all of which the hearth may still be traced. In and around these foundations are scattered broken potsherds, flint artifacts, loom-weights and spindle-whorls, millstones (whole and broken), and other objects once used by the occupants of the settlement. Around the town Albright noted numerous burial sites, usually indicated by cairns (heaps of stones) or small stone-circles with an average diameter of approximately 13 feet.
A short distance east of Bab edh-Dhra is the group of fallen limestone monoliths, six in number, with broken fragments of a seventh close by. The monoliths, the largest of which is 14 feet high, are entirely isolated and cannot have belonged to any sort of structure. Since limestone is not found in the neighborhood, they must have been dragged for miles. Albright felt that the monoliths represented a group of sacred cult-stones at which religious rites were performed.
Since Albright did not find an extensive layer of occupational debris, he theorized that the site was a place of pilgrimage where annual feasts were celebrated. Because of its proximity to the southern end of the Dead Sea, where he located the Cities of the Plain, Albright concluded that the site must have been used by the occupants of these cities. His theory was reinforced by the fact that occupation at Bab edh-Dhra ceased at about the time the Cities of the Plain were destroyed (ca. 2000 B.C. or a little earlier) and was not occupied again until the Roman period. Thus, there seemed to be some association between Bab edh-Dhra and the Cities of the Plain.
Albright’s theory, however, does not stand in the face of the evidence which he himself uncovered. First of all, the site was heavily
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fortified, which would not have been necessary had the area been used merely for an annual pilgrimage. Secondly, the numerous artifacts found lying about indicated long-term occupation — household utensils, loom-weights and spindle-whorls for spinning, and millstones for grinding grain into flour. This, plus other evidence which we shall see presently, indicates that Bab edh-Dhra was more than a place of pilgrimage. It was a settled community and, what is more, appears to have been one of the Cities of the Plain.
Excavations at Bab edh-Dhra
Between 1965 and 1967 Bab edh-Dhra was excavated by the American Schools of Oriental Research with Paul Lapp as director. Small soundings were made at the townsite, but most of the work was confined to the enormous cemetery south of the city.
Three types of burials were found in the cemetery — cairn burials, charnel houses and shaft tombs. The cairn burial (the latest type) dates to the last quarter of the third millennium. It consists of a shallow pit in which was placed a single skeleton together with some pottery vessels and, in one case at least, a dagger. Stones were then piled up in the pit, forming a heap above the original surface. Only a few of the cairns, which are small in number and widely scattered, were excavated.
To the period preceding the cairn burials belong funerary buildings or charnel houses which Lapp associated with the final phase of the fortified town. These are rectangular mud-brick constructions, varying from 49 feet by 18 feet to 23 feet by 16 feet. They have an entrance in one of their long sides and their floors are paved with pebbles. Each of the excavated charnel houses contained heaps of bones of many individuals. The houses also contained pottery vessels and weapons. In one of them more than 900 vessels were counted.
The third and earliest type of burial in the cemetery is the shaft tomb. Round shafts two to three feet in diameter were sunk to a depth of six or seven feet. Off the bottom of the shaft from one to five chambers were cut, in which the burials were made. In the center of a typical chamber was a heap of bones lying on a mat, with the long bones of several adults and perhaps a child neatly laid on top of the pile. To one side was a line of skulls or skull fragments. Surrounding these and lining the walls were from 10 to 75 pottery vessels, usually nested and stacked. One to two stone cups were common, but never more. Occasionally there were unusual objects
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Charnel house at Bab edh-Dhra. Burials were made here during the final phase of the fortified town.
such as mace heads, vessels with beads in them, or female fertility figurines.
The total size of the cemetery is mind-boggling, archaeologically speaking. In overall extent it is more than five-eighths of a mile in length and at least half that wide. Lapp believed that the cemetery extended even farther, but he was limited in the area he could investigate because of military restrictions. More incredible than its size is the intensity of its use. The archaeologist estimated that if the rest of the cemetery is like the area excavated, it contains a minimum of 20,000 shaft tombs. Conservative estimates place the number of dead in these tombs at over half a million and the number of pottery vessels at two million!
A Survey of the Environs of Bab edh-Dhra
Following the untimely death of Paul Lapp in 1970, the job of publishing the Bab edh-Dhra materials fell to R. Thomas Schaub, religion professor and archaeologist from Pennsylvania State University at Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Walter E. Rast of Valparaiso University, Indiana. As they worked on the material it became
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apparent that there were some basic questions about the site that remained unanswered. How is this great town site and its accompanying massive cemetery to be explained? Did people come from far away places to utilize the area at certain times of the year as suggested by Albright? Did they bring their dead for burial at this place out of some special considerations, such as for rituals? Or was Bab edh-Dhra part of a greater system of EB sites in the area, the others perhaps having been inundated by the encroaching waters of the Dead Sea, as Albright and others have conjectured?
In order to find the answers to these questions, Schaub and Rast undertook a survey of the plain south of Bab edh-Dhra (the “Ghor,” or “valley”). They had some clues that there might be EB settlements in this region. A German scholar who explored this area, Fritz Frank, published photos of tombs at Safi and Feifa which looked very much like those at Bab edh-Dhra. In addition, while visiting a small museum in Kerak in 1972, Schaub and Rast examined some pottery from Feifa which had a striking resemblance to the pottery from Bab edh-Dhra. With these hints, the two archaeologists set out on their survey in late May, 1973, unaware of the sensational discovery they were about to make.
Their first stop was Feifa. Here they examined a number of tombs that had been clandestinely uncovered. They consisted of underground chambers with EB-type burials. An outline of stones suggesting the shape of the tomb could often be seen on the surface
Feifa, looking west towards the Ghor.
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just as at Bab edh-Dhra. After looking at a number of the opened tombs, Schaub and Rast began combing the surface of the whole area, and to their astonishment they found that the tomb outlines were spread over an area extending for at least a mile to the east and more than a half-mile in the north-south direction. In other words, they had discovered another cemetery in the Ghor that could compete with Bab edh-Dhra in its size and usage.
Even more startling, however, was the site to the northwest of the cemetery. Here, on a hilly area of composite limestone, they began to pick up EB pottery, along with Roman and Nabatean types. Along the crest of the hills they found the remains of a large wall encircling the area, with the face of the wall partly visible. A heap of stones, apparently the remains of a tower, is at the western end. On the northern side, a ramp leads down in the direction of a spring in the Wadi Feifa which sustained the population of the ancient town.
A Pattern Emerges
The next break-through came while the pair were exploring a wadi just to the south of Bab edh-Dhra, the Wadi Numeira. Much to their amazement they came upon another site remarkably parallel to Bab edh-Dhra and Feifa. On top of a high, flat-topped outspur they discovered a large rectangular area enclosed by a wall having the earmarks of an EB fortification. On the southwest side, both the inner and outer faces of the wall are still visible.
The whole outspur on the south side has fallen stones, reminiscent of the town site at Bab edh-Dhra. On the east side is a raised heap of stones, perhaps the remains of a tower. Again, EB sherds were found. And finally, Numeira, like the other two sites, is located on the south side of a flowing spring.
It became apparent to the two archaeologists that a pattern was emerging. Each of the EB sites discovered was built on an outspur overlooking a wadi, was enclosed by a stone wall with a tower at one end, and was located next to a perennial spring. Now they knew what to look for!
Schaub and Rast spent their remaining days in the field exploring as closely as possible every wadi and every hillock between the Lisan on the north and the end of the Ghor to the south. At Safi, between Numeira and Feifa, on a spur of limestone overlooking the Wadi Hesa they found EB pottery and stones strewn about that looked like the
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Numeira, looking west towards the Dead Sea.
remains of walls. It is located near a supply of fresh water that flows through the Wadi Hesa. But it was the extensive cemetery they found ringing Safi that identified it as an unmistakable EB site. The tombs again are of the shaft and chamber variety and contain EB pottery. As for the size of the cemetery, it was on a par with those at Bab edh-Dhra and Feifa.
The fifth and final EB sites to be discovered was that of Khanazir at the extreme southern end of the Ghor before one enters the Arabah, the valley that extends to the Gulf of Aqabah at Elat. This is an obvious site of importance and can be viewed from some distance as one comes from the north. There are walls which encircle the site, and a heap of stones on its east side suggests a tower. Some EB pottery fragments were found in the area, along with an unfinished mace-head. The site is just northeast of a spring running in the Wadi Khanazir. Like the other sites, Khanazir is also built on a spur of limestone jutting out from the hills behind. It looks out over the whole lower part of the Ghor below the Dead Sea.
Schaub and Rast cautiously suggest that possibly these five sites have some relation to the five Cities of the Plain mentioned in Genesis. Is it a coincidence that they found only five EB sites, exactly equivalent to the number of the Cities of the Plain? Might there not be more EB sites in this region? Rast doesn’t think so. In his initial report (see Bibliography), he writes, “It is possible that
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Stones on the east side of Khanazir, which may have originally been a tower and gateway. Was this the gate of Sodom where Lot was sitting when the angels came (Genesis 19:1)?
there may be others, but if there are, we were unable to locate them this past summer. This was not for lack of trying, because we examined every wadi and every hillock with any possible signs of occupation.”
One conclusion resulting from this survey is certain — from the size of the three cemeteries found, the area of the southern Ghor supported an enormous population in the EB period. The towns, which were more in the nature of bastions, were evidently joined together in an integrated system to supervise the main work supporting the economy of the area, agriculture. Thus each town must have been responsible for the sector of the plain opposite its town site.
What about the suggestion of Schaub and Rast that these five sites may be the five Cities of the Plain mentioned in Genesis? An examination of the pertinent biblical, archaeological, geographical and geological evidence will tell us whether or not this identification fits the available data.
Lot Chooses Sodom
The flocks and herds of Abraham and his nephew Lot became so great that it was necessary for them to separate in order to obtain adequate pasturage. Genesis 13: 10–13 describes the area Lot chose:
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Lot looked up and saw how well-watered the whole Plain of Jordan was; all the way to Zoar it was like the Garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. This was before the Lord had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. So Lot chose all the Plain of Jordan and took the road on the east side. Thus they parted company. Abram settled in the land of Canaan; but Lot settled among the Cities of the Plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.” (NEB)
The Jordan River lies in the “Great Rift” which is a deep depression stretching from northern Syria through the valley of Lebanon, the Jordan valley, the Arabah, and the Gulf of Aqaba. The rift then continues on through the Red Sea to the upper Nile valley and on into southern Africa. This cleft divides Palestine into the western “Cis-Jordan” and eastern “Trans-Jordan.” The trough is called the Ghor, or “valley”, and descends from an altitude of 300 feet in the north to 1286 feet below sea level at the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth.
South of the Dead Sea is the southern Ghor which extends for about ten miles. From the end of the Ghor, the valley floor gradually rises again in the Wadi el Arabah, or “valley of the desert,” to about 750 feet above sea level and then slopes down again to the shore of the Red Sea.
The “Plain of Jordan” that Lot chose was the southern Ghor, the continuation of the Jordan valley (actually, the Great Rift) south of the Dead Sea. This area was “well-watered.” The Hebrew words translated “well watered” are kullahh, an intensive form of the verb meaning “to be complete,” and mashqeh, from the verb meaning “to give to drink” or “irrigate.” The meaning of kullahh mashqeh then, is to be completely and totally irrigated.
The irrigation of the southern Ghor, combined with the warm climate, resulted in a lush, tropical region that was comparable to the Garden of Eden and the fertile Nile valley in Egypt. It took a strong and efficient organization, however, to establish and maintain this irrigation system. This was the function of the five Cities of the Plain. They are referred to as a group in the Bible and were, in fact, a unified confederation, a pentapolis.
One of the significant finds of Baney’s 1960 underwater exploration was a wall, about three feet high, extending from the outlet of Wadi Isal southwesterly for a considerable distance along the flat bottom of the southern basin. Baney traced the construction for 100
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feet and found that it continues even further. This may be part of the ancient irrigation system of the Cities of the Plain.
Following the destruction of the Cities of the Plain, the irrigation system fell into disuse and the area became generally arid and barren. It was not until the Middle Ages that an organized government again established an irrigation system. The region once more became fertile and it supported extensive plantations of sugar cane and indigo plants used for dye. Today, the Jordanian Government does not irrigate the area and much of it is unproductive. Local farmers have irrigated a few scattered districts, however, so that some crops are still grown in the region.
Protecting the Life-line
The source of water for the EB irrigation system in the plain was the fresh-water streams flowing down from the eastern hills. And it was precisely at the point where these streams enter the Ghor that the Cities of the Plain were located. Thus each city could control and regulate the water flow into its area of responsibility and also protect the source of the water, their precious life-line.
Once the local conditions as described in Genesis 13:10–13 are properly understood, it is readily seen that previous attempts to locate the cities of the plain were unsound. That the cities were not in the plain is supported by the Hebrew construction as well. The phrase “Cities of the Plain” in Genesis 13:12 and 19:29 is in what is called in Hebrew the “construct state.” This means that the word “cities” has a close association with the word “plain.” These cities, then, were associated with, or had some connection with, the plain. If they were in the plain or on the plain, the normal Hebrew construction would call for something other than the construct state.
As pointed out above, a location at or near the source of water for irrigating the plain was necessary to control and protect this valuable natural resource. In addition, a city built on the plain would not have natural defenses for protection. By building their cities on a spur at the edge of a wadi, the EB people not only had natural defenses, but also a commanding view of their area and were thus able to protect it against marauding bands. A well-balanced line of protection for the plain was provided by the five cities as seen by the map. Bab edh-Dhra was located at what must have been in the EB period the southern edge of the Dead Sea, thus protecting the northern extremity of the plain. There are then three nearly equally-spaced
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cities protecting the plain from the eastern highlands. Khanazir protected the extreme southern edge of the plain. No doubt fortified outposts maintained a lookout on the western edge of the plain. As we shall see presently, we know of at least one case where the confederacy was attacked from the west.
Another reason why the cities would not have been built on the plain is that this land was too valuable. Every available acre was needed for growing crops. The land would have been wasted had it been used for living areas and cemeteries. In addition, living conditions are much more comfortable on the higher elevations at the edge of the plain. In summer, the southern Ghor is the hottest part of Palestine. Its location in the extreme south, some 1200 feet below sea level, surrounded by a ring of mountains, results in temperatures as high as 130° in the summer months. Returning to a city located several hundred feet above the plain, where they would be exposed to the cooling breezes from the west, must have seemed delightful to these EB people after working in the hot fields all day.
Four Kings Against Five
The 14th chapter of Genesis is an extremely interesting chapter on which we commented briefly in our Winter 1974 issue (p. 10). The information given in this chapter adds further to our knowledge of the Cities of the Plain.
In typical newspaper reporting style, in verses 1–3 the writer of Genesis 14 first gives a summary of the events he is about to describe.
It was in the time of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Gozim. They went to war against Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, that is Zoar. These kings joined forces in the valley of Siddim, which is now the Dead Sea. (NEB)
Starting with verse 4, the details of the story begin to unfold.
Verses 2 and 8 of this chapter are the only two places in the Bible where all five cities are mentioned together.
Verse 3 has been the source of considerable confusion with regard to the location of the Cities of the Plain. After listing the kings and the cities in verse 2, the Bible states, “These kings joined forces in the valley of Siddim, which is now the Dead Sea” (NEB) or, “All
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these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the Salt Sea” in the KJV. This has been interpreted to mean that the cities were located in the valley of Siddim and that this valley, as indicated by the editorial note, is now under the waters of the Dead Sea. The verb hbr, to be joined or united, refers to the kings and not to the cities. The following preposition, ‘el, translated above as “in” actually denotes “motion towards” or “direction towards.” The sense of the passage, then, is that the kings came united to the valley of Siddim to make a stand against the advancing Mesopotamian kings (compare verse 8).
The noun “Siddim” only occurs in Genesis 14. It comes from the verb sadad which means “to harrow.” Wherever the verb is used in the Bible, it is in an agricultural context (Job 39:10, Isaiah 28:24, and Hosea 10:11). Therefore, the valley of Siddim must have been cultivated land. By the editorial note in verse 3, we can conclude that this section of the plain was opposite Bab edh-Dhra and Numeria and now lies under the southern portion of the Dead Sea. Referring to the map of the campaign of the Mesopotamiam kings on page 78, we see that the kings were coming down along the western side of the Dead Sea toward the plain. Therefore, the kings of the cities mustered their forces and went out to meet the enemy at the point where he would enter their territory — the area just south of the shore of the Dead Sea as it existed at that time, the area called “the valley of Siddim.”
Further proof that the valley of Siddim is now buried beneath the waters of the Dead Sea is given in verse 10: “Now the valley of Siddim was full of bitumen pits (KJV — “slimepits”); and when the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, they fell into them, but the rest escaped into the hill-country” (NEB). Bitumen is naturally occurring asphalt and was used in antiquity for mortar (Genesis 11:3) and waterproofing (Exodus 2:3).
That the southern end of the Dead Sea is a source of bitumen is a well established fact. The historians Diodoros, Strabo, Josephus, and Tacitus wrote of large masses of asphalt coming to the surface of the water in the sector of the Dead Sea below the Lisan. Similar phenomena have been observed in modern times as well.
Destruction of the Cities of the Plain
Because of the gross sin of the people living in the Cities of the Plain, God brought judgment down upon them. This judgment has
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been an object lesson ever since and is referred to often by the prophets and the New Testament writers. By studying the geology of the southern Ghor, the means God used to destroy the Cities of the Plain can be postulated.
At first reading it would seem that the destruction was caused by a volcanic eruption: “Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground” (Genesis 19:24, 25). When consulting geologist Frederick G. Clapp visited the region in 1929 and again in 1934 he found that there was no evidence to indicate that lava or ash eruptions had taken place as recently as 4, 000 years ago. He stated that topographic relationships render it probable that the last outburst in the vicinity took place thousands of years before Abraham’s time.
Clapp found that the region south of the Dead Sea was very unstable, being bordered by fault lines on the east and west (see the figure on page 81). Earthquakes are common in this area. After surveying the geology of the district, Clapp concluded that the cities were destroyed by combustible materials from the earth. He found asphalt and petroleum in the area. Natural gas, which normally accompanies asphalt and petroleum, is also present. These combustible materials could have been forced from the earth by subterranean pressure brought about by an earthquake resulting from the shifting of the bounding faults. If these combustibles were ignited by lightning or some other agency as they came spewing forth from the ground, it would indeed result in a holocaust such as described in Genesis 19. It is significant to note that the five sites tentatively identified as the Cities of the Plain lie at the edge of the Ghor, right along the eastern fault line.
What little information that has been provided thus far by archaeology shows that two of the cities were destroyed by fire. During their survey, Schaub and Rast found evidence that Numeira and Feifa had been burned. They were able to scoop up charcoal directly from the surface at both sites.
Abraham, after having previously spoken with the Lord, knew of the impending judgment. Rising early in the morning he looked toward the Cities of the Plain from his vantage point at Hebron, high on the Mount Judah range west of the Dead Sea. “And behold, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace”
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(Genesis 19:28). Smoke rising from the plain south of the Dead Sea could easily be seen from Hebron. In fact, mist rising from the Dead Sea can be seen almost any day from there. The Hebrew word translated “smoke” in Genesis 19:28 is not the usual word, but one that is used in connection with incense and sacrifice. Also, the word for “furnace” means a furnace or kiln for burning lime, or making bricks. It is clear that something unnatural or extra-ordinary is recorded here. This eye-eitness description fits the theory of a conflagration of petroleum products, for such a conflagration would result in a thick black smoke being forced into the sky by the heat and pressure of the burning materials spewing out of the fissure in the earth.
Who’s on First?
Now that we have established that the available evidence points to these five EB sites as being the Cities of the Plain described in Genesis, is there any way we can determine which is which? Although we can not be positive about the identity of each site, the Bible gives us a number of clues which make tentative identifications possible.
We will start with Zoar since this was the only one of the five cities to survive the calamity. Because Lot wished to flee to Zoar rather than the mountains, the Lord promised, “I will not overthrow this city” (Genesis 19:21). This is further substantiated by Deuteronomy 29:23 where Zoar is absent from the list of the Cities of the Plain that were destroyed. Of the five cities, Zoar is the only one that is later referred to in the Bible as still existing (Deuteronomy 34:3, Isaiah 15:5 and Jeremiah 48:34). Later historians occasionally spoke of Zoar and the name has survived to this day in connection with the remains of successive towns around the mouth of the Wadi Hesa. It was near these remains that the EB site was found by Schaub and Rast. We can be fairly confident, then, that the EB site at Safi was ancient Zoar.
Another clue is the fact that the four destroyed cities are always mentioned in pairs. In Deuteronomy 29:23 the names Sodom and Gomorrah are connected by the Hebrew conjunction waw, as are the names Admah and Zeboiim. Sodom and Gomorrah appear together as a pair in many passages throughout the Bible. Admah and Zeboiim appear together again in Hosea 11:8. It would seem logical, then, that Sodom was located next to Gomorrah and Admah next to Zeboiim. Since Zoar conveniently falls in the center of the five cities,
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one pair of names can be assigned to the two sites north of Zoar and the other pair to the south of Zoar. But which is which?
A third clue in identifying the sites is a description of the Canaanite border given in Genesis 10:19: “And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboiim, even unto Lasha.” Beginning at Sidon on the northern Mediterranean coast, the border is traced south to Gaza and then east to Sodom. If we assume that from Sodom the border is being traced in the northerly direction, and that the cities are named in south-to-north order, we have the identification of each site! The border goes from Sodom to Gomorrah to Admah to Zeboiim. From Zeboiim, the boundary line then goes to Lasha. The exact location of Lasha is not certain. It may be the same as Leshem in Joshua 19:47 and Laishah in Judges 18:29 and thereby may be equated to Dan in northern Israel. At any rate, in order to complete the specification of the Canaanite territory, the border must have proceeded north from Zeboiim.
The placing of the cities in the south-to-north order of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim matches the Sodom-Gomorrah, Admah-Zeboiim pairing noted previously. In addition, Sodom seems to be given prominence among the five cities as this is the one most often mentioned in the Bible. This fits our proposed identification, as the southernmost city would have had to be well fortified and well garrisoned in order to protect the southern boundary of the plain.
Our suggested identification of the five EB sites then is: Khanazir = Sodom, Feifa = Gomorrah, Safi = Zoar, Numeira = Admah, and Bab edh-Dhra = Zeboiim. One final check we can make on our identifications is the length of time it took Lot to flee from Sodom to Zoar. At dawn, the angels hustled Lot and his family out of Sodom (Genesis 19:15). When they arrived in Zoar, the sun had risen over the land (Genesis 19:23). So we can estimate that the journey took a matter of a few hours. The distance from Khanazir to Feifa is about 6 kilometers, or 3.7 miles, and from Feifa to Safi is about 10 kilometers, or 6.2 miles. The total journey, then, was about ten miles. For people fleeing destruction, it would have been no difficulty to cover ten miles in a matter of a few hours. (Except someone who was reluctant to leave, such as Lot’s wife!) In 1934 when Nelson Glueck surveyed this area, it took him three hours to travel from Safi to Feifa and an hour and a half to travel from Feifa to Khanazir.
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Are They or Are They Not the Cities of the Plain?
We can say in summary that all of the evidence we have in hand at this time points to the identification of the EB sites discovered by Schaub and Rast as Sodom, Gomorrah and the Cities of the Plain. Although they are cautious about identifying the ruins as the Cities of the Plain, scholars seem to feel that the conclusion is almost unavoidable. “These are the only candidates we have,” said Schaub in an interview. Professor G. Ernest Wright, of Harvard University, who is also president of the American Schools of Oriental Research, agreed: “As you go around the Dead Sea and look for a historical setting for Genesis 14 and 19, this is the only area it could be,” he said.
In 1974–1975, a team headed by Professors Rast and Schaub plan to excavate the town at Bab edh-Dhra and begin soundings at Numeira. Future excavations at the five sites should provide the additional evidence needed to prove or disprove their identification as the Cities of the Plain.
Life in the Cities of the Plain
If these are the Cities of the Plain, can we begin to draw a picture of what life was like there? We know of their wickedness from the biblical references. Archaeology has given us further insight into the everyday life of the EB people living along the plain south of the Dead Sea.
The foremost characteristic of their society was that they were highly organized. Mention has already been made of the efficient organization that was necessary to build and maintain their complex irrigation system. Further, the cemetery at Bab edh-Dhra graphically illustrates their organizational abilities in that the preparation of burial chambers was systematically planned. The shaft tombs of the first phase (late fourth millenium) were laid out in regular lines so that no space would be wasted. At times, the chambers were overlapped to further conserve space. When this was done, there were remarkably few instances of one shaft tomb chamber cutting into another. Also, different styles of tombs were used in different sections of the cemetery. It seems probable that different communal organizations were assigned different areas of the cemetery. The excavators found no evidence in the cemetery that family life as we know it existed at all at Bab edh-Dhra. Instead, life seems to have been carried on along communal lines.
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We can also assume that the people of the plain were equally as organized in arranging their living quarters. From the information we have, it appears that the stone walls enclosed a bastion or fort (administrative headquarters?) and the majority of the people lived out in the open in the surrounding areas. The allotment of land for a population of tens of thousands of people per city, the administration of buying and selling land, etc., would have required an intelligent bureaucracy. When you add to this the normal problems of urban living — water supply, sanitation, maintaining proper law and order, proper distribution of arable land and/or the food produced thereon, it is readily seen that a well-oiled government machine was necessary.
It also appears that the people of the plain were very prosperous. We can conclude this from several factors — the size of the population, the nature of the burials, and the physical size of the people themselves. From the cemeteries associated with the cities, we know that the plain supported an enormous population for an extremely long period of time. This indicates that the area was prosperous; for if it were not, the people would not have remained in the area for such a long time. Also, the quality of the pottery vessels and other furnishings in the tombs shows a measure of affluence.
During the second campaign at Bab edh-Dhra, Lapp learned from an aged woman that the ancient name of the site was an Arabic name meaning “Tell of the Giants.” Lapp found that, indeed, the skeletal remains indicated that the people of the plain were taller than average. Again, this points to a well-fed, prosperous people.
Occupations and Religious Beliefs
From the little information that is available to us, we can also deduce what some of the occupations of the people were. Most of the people were probably occupied in the main business of the pentapolis — raising crops on the irrigated plain. Some would have cared for the fields, while others would have been employed in maintaining the irrigation system.
Another occupation was that of tomb cutting. Lapp estimated that during the first phase of the cemetery there were approximately 2,500 burials a year, requiring some 40 new chambers a month. If the cutting of a shaft and chamber took two to three men a month, a continuous labor force of nearly a hundred is indicated. That the work was done by professionals is evidenced by the systematic way
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in which the chambers were cut and the consistent standard of workmanship in each cemetery area. Professionals were probably also employed in the building and maintaining of the charnel houses during later phases of the cemetery.
Because of the quality and distribution of the pottery found in the tombs, Lapp concluded that they were made by professional potters. Although very little is known about the religious beliefs of these people, it is apparent from the cemetery that religious cultic personnel were employed also. The cultic organization seemed to follow communal lines and there is evidence of a remarkable degree of sophistication and efficiency.
We can imagine that there were a number of other occupations as well. We know from the biblical account of Abraham and Lot that some people in this area made a living raising flocks and herds. There may have also been spinners and weavers, builders, tentmakers, craftsmen, artisans, etc.
Also from the cemetery at Bab edh-Dhra we can gain a small glimpse into some of the religious beliefs of the people of the plain. From the tremendous efforts that were exerted in the preparation of burial chambers, it is certain that they had a great respect for the dead. This is also demonstrated by their respect of earlier interments when the cutting of chambers required overlapping. It is also seen in the care in which they placed the long bones in parallel fashion over the bone pile and the high quality of most of the tomb furnishings.
Beyond this, it seems clear that there was a belief in some continuity between the living and the deceased. Just as one would not place a loved one on the cold ground, so the piles of bones were placed on a bedding layer or a mat. A chamber with artificial niches suggests that the deceased would need to depart and enter the chamber, albeit as a spirit. Finally, the figurines of fertility found in three of the Phase I tombs suggest either a creativity in the new world of the deceased or that a creative rebirth into the land of the living was affirmed.
Most important is the indication given by the fertility figurines that their beliefs were not merely part of an ancestral cult but affirmed some kind of anthropomorphic deity. The type of figurine involved may be traced onward through the Bronze Age, where it is clear that they represented a goddess of fertility. The belief in this particular goddess with great ears and hooked nose seems to have had an extremely tenacious hold on the people of Palestine.
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Fertility figurine similar to those found in Phase I burials at Bab edh-Dhra.
As further discoveries come forth from these five sites, we will have even more information about the life and ways of the people of the plain. Some of their ways strike close to home already — organization, prosperity, lack of family ties. We can theorize that life on the plain became easy. Because of their efficient, organized methods, food and the other necessities of life became readily available and the people turned to other diversifications to wile away their leisure time. Rather than using this time in a wholesome, constructive manner, they became “wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly.” Perhaps the discoveries in the southern Ghor of Jordan will provide valuable lessons for today!
Significance of the Discoveries
These discoveries are important for a number of reasons. First, Schaub and Rast have come upon an important culture that was flourishing in the Early Bronze Age that scholars did not know existed heretofore. From the evidence of the cemetery at Bab edh-Dhra, it appears that this culture existed continuously for about 1000 years. Changes are going to have to be made in the theories about the history of Palestine during this early period.
Secondly, if the destruction layers of the cities can be accurately dated, then for the first time we will have an historical date for Abraham. This new information may provide the key that is needed for improving our understanding of the difficult area of biblical chronology prior to the time of Solomon.
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Thirdly, and perhaps most important of all, this discovery should cause every serious student of the Bible to stop and think for a moment. Jesus used two examples from the Old Testament in describing the conditions prior to His second coming — the Flood, and the destruction of the Cities of the Plain. “And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. .. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot. . .” (Luke 17:26, 28). Is God trying to tell us something? Will the uncovering of the ruins of the Cities of the Plain and the discovery of Noah’s Ark provide graphic reminders and physical proof of God’s judgment upon sinful man in times past? Will this be God’s last warning to an unbelieving world before He rings down the curtain on this present age? We do not know the answers to these questions — only God does, but our advice is, “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come” (Matthew 24:42).
Scripture references to the Cities of the Plain:
The Plain — Genesis 19:17, 25
The Plain of Jordan — Genesis 13:10, 11
Cities of the Plain — Genesis 13:12, 19:29
Land of the Plain — Genesis 19:28
Vale of Siddim — Genesis 14:3, 8, 10
Sodom — Genesis 10:19, 13:10, 12, 13; 14:2, 8, 10–12, 17, 21, 22; 18:16, 20, 22, 26; 19:1, 4, 24, 28; Deuteronomy 29:23; 32:32; Isaiah 1:9, 10; 3:9; 13:19; Jeremiah 23:14; 49:18; 50:40; Lamentations 4:6; Ezekiel 16:46, 48, 49, 53, 55, 56; Amos 4:11; Zephaniah 2:9; Matthew 10:15, 11:23, 24; Mark 6:11; Luke 10:12, 17:29; Romans 9:29, 2 Peter 2:6; Jude 7; Revelation 11:8.
Gomorrah — Genesis 10:19; 13:10; 14:2, 8, 10, 11; 18:20; 19:24, 28; Deuteronomy 29:23; 32:32; Isaiah 1:9, 10; 13:19; Jeremiah 23:14; 49:18; 50:40; Amos 4:11; Zephaniah 2:9; Matthew 10:15; Mark 6:11; Romans 9:29; 2 Peter 2:6; Jude 7.
Zoar — Genesis 13:10; 14:2, 8; 19:22, 23, 30; Deuteronomy 34:3; Isaiah 15:5; Jeremiah 48:34.
Admah — Genesis 10:19; 14:2, 8; Deuteronomy 29:23; Hosea 11:8.
Zeboiim — Genesis 10:19; 14:2, 8; Deuteronomy 29:23; Hosea 11:8.
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Bibliography
Albright, W. F., “The Archaeological Results of an Expedition to Moab and the Dead Sea,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (BASOR) No. 14 (April 1924), pp. 2-12.
_________, “The Jordan Valley in the Bronze Age,” Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research (AASOR), Vol. VI for 1924–1925 (1926), pp. 13-74.
Baney, R. E., Search for Sodom and Gomorrah, CAM Press, Kansas City, MO, 1962.
Clapp, F. G., “Geology and Bitumens of the Dead Sea Area, Palestine and Transjordan,” Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Vol. 20, (January-December 1936), pp. 881-909.
_________, “The Site of Sodom and Gomorrah,” American Journal of Archaeology (1936), pp. 323-344.
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_________, “Explorations in Eastern Palestine, III,” AASOR XVII-XIX for 1937–1939 (1939), pp. 147-150.
_________, “The Age of Abraham in the Negev,” The Biblical Archaeologist (BA), Vol. XVIII, No. 1 (February 1955), pp. 2-9.
Harland, J. P., “Sodom and Gomorrah — the Location of the Cities of the Plain.” BA, Vol. V, No. 2 (May 1942), pp. 17-32.
_________, “Sodom and Gomorrah — the Destruction of the Cities of the Plain,” BA, Vol. VI, No. 3 (September 1943), pp. 42-54.
_________, “Sodom,” The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. 4 (1962), pp. 395-397.
Kraeling, E. G., Rand McNally Bible Atlas (1956), pp. 70-72.
Kyle, M. G. and Albright, W. F., “Results of the Archaeological Survey of the Ghor in Search for the Cities of the Plain,” Bibliotheca Sacra, Vol. 81 (1924), pp. 276-291.
Lapp, P. W., “The Cemetery at Bab edh-Dhra, Jordan,” Archaeology, Vol. 19, No. 2 (April 1966), pp. 104-111.
_________, “Bab edh-Dhra Tomb 76 and Early Bronze I in Palestine,” BASOR No. 189 (February 1968), pp. 12-41.
_________, “Bab edh-Dhra, Perizzites and Emim,” Jerusalem Through the Ages (1968), pp. 1-25.
Rast, W. E., “New Discoveries in the Environs of Bab edh-Dhra,” American Schools of Oriental Research 1973–74 Newsletter No. 8 (April 1974), pp. 1-7.
Wallace, A., “Sodom and Gomorrah Found?”, Detroit Free Press, June 1, 1974, p. 8-B.
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