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Two of the most controversial places for the ancient world seem to continuously be
Sodom and Gomorrah. Christians and non-Christians alike have heard the story of the
destruction of these two cities. The biggest controversy about the cities isn’t even about what
happened or to who, but it is the where! Where are the remains of the cities? There are two
main theories about the locations for Sodom and Gommorah. The topography of the area along
with the biblical accounts, reduces the ability of the cities to be to the east or west because the
Sea of Galilee, River Jordan and Dead Sea area is flanked east and west by mountains. Some
archaeologist and scholars believe that the cities were located to the North of the Dead Sea,
others hold strong convictions that the cities were located to the South of the Dead Sea. Two of
the front runners for this location divide are Steven Collins and Bryant G. Wood.
The Northern location debate is held by Steven Collins. Steven Collins believes that
Sodom is located at what is currently known as Tall el-Hammam. “…everything leads to the
area north of the Dead Sea opposite Bethel and Ai.”1 Bethel and Ai were located to the north
west of the dead sea on the plateau, Hill Country. In Contrast, Braynt G. Wood believes that the
city of Sodom is located in the southern plains, south of the Dead Sea on the east side of the
Lisan peninsula. At a location currently called Bab edh-Dhra “Since Bab edh-Dhra is the largest
ancient ruin in the region it stands to reason that is should be identified as Sodom, the most
famous of the Cities of the Plain.”2
Besides using the data in the biblical stories, the archaeologists need to be able to
pinpoint a time frame for the lives of the partriarchs to verify any evidence found at the
excavation sites. Wood and Collins also disagree on the timeframe required for the patriarchs.
1 Collins, Steven. “Where is Sodom?” Biblical Archaeology Review 39.2 (2013):33-38, 40-41, 70.
2 Wood, Bryant G., “The Discovery of the Sin Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.”
3
Wood places them in the Early Bronze age, (ca 3300-2000 BCE). The sites of Bab edh-Drha
have been evidenced as being occupied during the early Bronze age and Wood believes these are
the “only known inhabited towns in the region of the Dead Sea between ca. 3300 and 900 BC.”
Collins, however, says Middle Bronze age for the lives of the patriarchs. This is due to
the idea that “toward the end of the Middle Bronze Age, about 1600 BCE, life on the eastern
kikkar, including Tall el-Hammam and its satellites, suddenly came to an end – while the rest of
the southern Levant continued into and through the Late Bronze Age (c. 1550-1200 BCE)…”3
One of the criteria for evaluating a potential City of Sodom, “is cronology3- Sodom and its sister
cities must date from the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1600 BO), the only possible timeframe for
Abraham and Lot…”4
At Numeira, believed to be Gommorah, the findings, “…suggested here that the tower
collapse and extensive burn layers over the site were caused by an earthquake generated by fault
movement (Donahue 1985: 139).”5 This is similar to what is found at Bab edh-Dhra, “Every
room was filled with ash and burned debris from the dreadful holocaust that overtook the city.”6
Evidence at this site is limited due to its exposure to the elements but it is suggested that, “As
with Bab edh-Dhra, Numeira was violently destroyed at the end of the Early Bronze III period.
The type of pottery lying on the floors of the houses confirms that it met its end at the same time
as Bab edh-Dhra (Rast and Schaub 1980: 45). A thick layer of burnt debris was found in almost
every area excavated (Rast 1981b: 41; 1987b: 47).”7
3 Collins, Steven, “Where is Sodom?” Biblical Archaeology Review. (March/April 2013) 39, no. 2.
4 Collins, Steven. Sodom: The Discovery of a Lost City. 72.
5 Wood, Bryant G., “The Discovery of the Sin Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.”
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid,
4
Similarly, Collins found evidence of mass destruction at the sites at Tall el-Hammam.
The entire city lay in ruin with evidence of a mass hot and violent destruction. “The violent
conflagration that ended the occupation at Tall el-Hammam produced melted pottery, scorched
foundation stones and several feet of ash and destruction debris…”8 The evidence continues to
indicate an extremely hot fire swept through the city by the findings of pottery fragments that
“bubbled up like “frothy” magma, indicating they were burned in a flash heat even far exceeding
2000 degrees farenheight.”9
Dr. Olson agrees that, “Both Bab edh-Dhra and Numeira show signs of violent
destruction at the end of the Early Bronze III period,117 as do the other towns at the
southern end of the Dead Sea.118”10 Which means that we have to dig further into the
additional evidence from the sites and the data in the Bible itself to narrow it down further.
The main question that must be answered when one is involved in biblical archaeology is,
does the physical evidence and biblical data match? Both sites, Tall el-Hammam and Bahb edh-
Dhra, met an untimely similar end, Just at a different time period. Geologist Frederick G. Clapp
found bitumen, petroleum, natural gas and sulfur in the area of Tall el-Hammam. If ignited,
these, “combustables as they came spewing forth from the ground, it would indeed result in a
holocaust such as described in Genesis 19.”11 The findings at both sites of mass burning would
fit into Abrahams account of the seeing the destruction in Gen. 19:28 (ESV), “And he looked
down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and,
8 Collins, Steven, “Where is Sodom?” Biblical Archaeology Review. (March/April 2013) 39, no. 2.
9 Ibid.
10 Olson, Craig. “Which Site Is Sodom? A Comparison of Bab Edh-Dhra and Tall El-Hammam.” 14.
11 Wood, Bryant G., “The Discovery of the Sin Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.”
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behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.”12 Unfortunately, neither
Abrahams account nor his location (Mamre) help give a cardinal direction for the cities.
Another reason both sites fall into the biblical account is due to Gen. 19:1(ESV), “The
two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot
saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth.” This passage tells
us that when trying to identify the sites, the fortifications of the city will be important. Tall el-
Hammam had a massive perimeter, “In 2012, the excavators at TeH found “one of the most
impressive gate systems ever unearthed in the southern Le-vant.”139.”13 Similarly, Wood
notes that Bab edh-Dhra had a perimeter wall and gateway, “The new gate was founded on a
meter of burned destruction debris resulting from the calamity(Rast and Schaub 1980: 28: Rast
1981a: 20).”14
There are many points in favor of Collins research. “Geological studies have shown that
the level of the dead sea was at a low point during the Early Bronze Age (Neev and Emery
1995:62) and thus the shallow basin, or “plain south of the Dead Sea” would have been dry land
and probably cultivated.”15 This all seems to fit with the description of the cities being of the
plain. Biblical descriptions help support Woods idea in Gen. 13:10 (ESV), “And Lot lifted up
his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the
Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom
and Gomorrah.).” Another strength in the argument made by Collins is that there is evidence at
12 All biblical passages noted will be in the The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway
Bibles, 2016).
13 Olson, Craig. “Which Site Is Sodom? A Comparison of Bab Edh-Dhra and Tall El-Hammam.” 16.
14 Wood, Bryant G., “The Discovery of the Sin Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.”
15 Collins, Steven, “Where is Sodom?” Biblical Archaeology Review. (March/April 2013), 39, no. 2.
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the site of Bab edh-Dhra is that two separate destructions happened 14-24 years apart, this is
confirmed by the biblical account of, “…when Abraham left Haran when he was 75 (12:4) and…
[the cities] were destroyed at the time of the coception of Isaac when Abraham was 99 (17:1,
21:5).”16 Other scholars also follow suit for Collins timeframe, including Dr. Olson, “For many
scholars the time frame that fits Abraham’s life best is the Middle Bronze Age (1950-1540
BC)…K.A. Kitchen has listed many lines of external evidence that tie
Abrhama/Isaac/Jacob/Joseph to the overall period circa 1900-1600…”17 The Zondervan
Handbook of Biblical Archaeology also agrees more with Collins’ findings than with Woods,
“The biblical account of the patriarchs in Genesis 12–50 (including Joseph) indicates a Middle
Bronze date from the late third millennium to mid-second millennium BC (2166–1805). This
traditional dating was defended by early-twentieth-century scholars like William F. Albright,
Ephraim Speiser, and Cyrus Gordon, employing archaeological data from the fifteenth-century-
BC archives of Mari and Nuzi. They cited social and cultural customs that had apparent parallels
in the patriarchal narratives and therefore supported the early date for the origin of these
stories.”18
Points in favor of Bryant G. Woods work include, “The reference to bitumen pits in
Genesis 14:10, however, tips the scale in favor of a southern location (Howard 1984). Bitumen (a
natural petroleum product similar to asphalt) was commonly found in the shallow southern basin
of the Dead Sea in antiquity. (Bilkadi 1984; 1994; Clapp 1936a 901-902; 1936b: 341-342).”19
Unfortunately, the evidence against Bab edh-Dhra being the site for Sodom is strong. Dr. Olson
16 Wood, Bryant G., “The Discovery of the Sin Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.”
17 Olson, Craig. “Which Site Is Sodom?M A Comparison of Bab Edh-Dhra and Tall El-Hammam.” 12
18 Randall Price and H. Wayne House. Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology.74.
19 Wood, Bryant G., “The Discovery of the Sin Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.”
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points out, “Third, the fact that Numeira was abandoned by most of its occupants before
its destruction does not fit with the biblical text at all. In Genesis 19, only Lot and his family
are able to flee from Sodom. In fact Numeira is a terrible fit for biblical Gomorrah on oth-er
counts. It was much smaller than even BeD, which was 10-12 acres134 (by contrast, TeH is a
huge site at 90-100 acres).135 Numeira is not particularly close to BeD. It sits 13-15
kilometers away, about 8-9 miles. Furthermore, it existed as a town for a mere 100-150
years.136.20 Collins points out that Woods idea of the earthquake causing the bitumen to be
forced into the air, ignited and falling back to the earth lighting the city ablaze, misses the mark
for what scripture tells us happened, “The clear biblical language states that the fiery matrix
raining down on Sodom and Gomorrah came “out of the heaves,” not “out of the ground, up into
the air, and down again to the plain.”21
After reading the compiled research for Bryant G. Collins and Steven Wood and
comparison from Dr. Olson, I believe that Collins makes the stronger case for Tall el-Hammam
being the site for Sodom. The idea that the sin cities were opposite Bethel and Ai and that they
were east of Bethel and Ai, Gen.13:11 (ESV), “So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley,
and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other.” This places the cities quite
confidently at the location of Tall el-Hammam. Along with the shear size of the city, evidence
that people were still in the city when it was destroyed, and the evidence of an intense fire; it all
fits the biblical accounts reported by Lot and Abraham.
20 Olson, Craig. “Which Site Is Sodom? A Comparison of Bab Edh-Dhra and Tall El-Hammam.” 16.
21 Collins, Steven. “A Response to Bryant G. Wood’s Critique of Collins’ Northern Sodom Theory.”
9
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/7420209/a-response-to-bryant-g-woods-
critique-of-collins-biblical-. Accessed May 21, 2024.
Collins, Steven. “Sodom: The Discovery of a Lost City.” Bible and Spade. 20, no. 3: 70–77.
https://www.galaxie.com/article/bspade20-3-03. Accessed May 22, 2024.
Collins, Steven. “Where is Sodom?” Biblical Archaeology Review. (March/April 2013) 39.no. 2,
Accessed May 20, 2024. https://library-biblicalarchaeology-
org.eu1.proxy.openathens.net/article/where-is-sodom/. Accessed May 19, 2024.
Olson, Craig. “Which Site Is Sodom?M A Comparison of Bab Edh-Dhra and Tall El-Hammam.”
BIBLICAL RESEARCH BULLETIN The Academic Journal of Trinity Southwest
University XIV, no. 1 (2014): 1–18. https://www.studocu.com/en-us/document/studocu-
high-school/history/which-site-is-sodom-a-comparison-of-bab/43906440. Accessed May
21, 2024.
Randall Price and H. Wayne House, Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology (Grand
Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2017).
Wood, Bryant G. “The Discovery of the Sin Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah”. Bible and Spade
12, no. 3 (1999): 67-80.
https://biblearchaeology.org/research/chronological-categories/patriarchal-era/2364-the-
discovery-of-the-sin-cities-of-sodom-and-gomorrah Accessed May 19, 2024.
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