Southern Sodom Theory Essay

The question is still pending to this day as to where the real Sodom and Gomorrah or rather the Plain Cities are located and do they really exist. There has been constant controversy over the area of the Dead Sea, a northern finding and a southern finding. The NST according to Steven Collins of the Dead Sea, and the SST according to Bryant Wood
According to Bryant Wood in 2008, his findings from the excavation known as SST or the Southern Sodom Theory, aka Ba’b edh-Dhrà . Steven Collins in 2007 forms another theory the NST or Northern Sodom Theory, aka Tall el-Hamman nestled in the upper region of the Dead Sea .
Both Collins and Wood refer to Genesis 13:13-19 as references for the information that has been discovered so far. Using patriarchs such as Abraham, when he looks down to see the Cities of the Plains from an area known as Hebron, in Gen. 19:28 . Collins and Wood have referred to the Bible and the times of the Patriarchs and their lives including Abraham, Sarah, and Lot. However they see these individuals of Biblical history at different times and settings.
Wood refers to it as the Early Bronze Age or EBA. He references to the time of Lot and Abraham coming to a point of separation Gen. 13:10-13. Another reference that has been located according to wood is the City Gate that Lot sat at
when the Angels came and warned him of the “impending doom” about to take place . There were several other things located as well: two towers that sat on each side of the gate, a sanctuary, and another gate that was believed to have been sealed after an attack . Also on the southern area of the dig were homes or houses and the area was buried under thick burnt ash. The worst discoveries were the skeletal remains of two victims buried under the stones that had collapsed from the towers . The towns or city states have always been listed as Sodom the main city state and Gomorrah as the smaller. Now they are called according to their Tells, as Bab edh-Dhār and Numeria . Originally there were five Biblical Plain Cities known as the Pentapolis . They were listed as Sedon, Amorah, Admah, Zeboiim and Zoar which was not destroyed, because that was the place believed where Lot ran when the Angels descended and destroyed the other four cities .
Wood still stands on the belief that his was the time of 2166-1991 B.C.
for the time of the Patriarchs . There have been several other historians throughout the ages that also agree that the Sin Cities are located in the Southern Region: Josephus. Tacitus . The one thing that stands out about Wood and his findings Sodom and Gomorrah he never did excavate any of the areas listed. He formed his hypotheses on the facts of others that had excavated the areas prior too . He did do surface evaluations and survey, but never actually formed any digs. Wood and Collins, along with other archaeologist, have on several other occasions' excavated digs together, just not this one
.
Steven Collins, a colleague of Wood's and another archaeologist, has worked to prove that the Sodom, city of Sin is on the opposite end of the Dead Sea, the northern end known as the NST . He and his associates have to this date performed more than ten (10) seasons of digs in this area . When Collins first approached the area it had a trench dug right through the center of the Tall, from where the militants had needed a road and so they cut one. Thinking that this had damaged the secrets' that lie beneath he conducted a surface survey and to his discovery it was like having an x-ray machine do all the work for you, it was opened wide open to multiple layers of time periods and history . This gave Collins a bird's eye view of the Late Bronze and Middle Bronze eras and also a very thick layer of ash through the layers that had been cut .
Collins who was on the opposing end of the Dead Sea, the northern end, truly believed that he had found the Sin Cities of the Plains that had thought not to exist for so many centuries. Just as so many other discoveries from the Biblical times have been discovered, this too was no longer a myth, but a reality that could be proved. The area being excavated is now known as the Tall-Hamman, or NST . According to his research and the findings located thus far, it appears to be of the Iron Age II . Collins also uses the references of Abraham and the book of Genesis as a form of geographical guide or map to direct his attention . He uses the Bible like a road map the way in which the Patriarchs traveled and the directions that they took as a way to search out the secrets .
Collins followed his instincts and the knowledge he had gathered and read from other digs. He went to Jordan doing research and came across a map from the ACOR, or American Centre of Oriental Research, that identified other tells . In 2005, this lead him to go see what these tells consisted of and if there were truly anything that could prove to be useful.
In his findings he discovered that from 2000-1550 BC the Middle Bronze age and completely absent was the Late Bronze 1550-1000 BC pottery from this tell that he was excavating . This created a large gap of time in this tell approximately 550 years, which is the very era that Wood bases the tell Ba’b edh-Dhrà as the time frame . In 2013 Collins reiterated what he earlier had stated in lieu of the dates; he states that the Tall was destroyed in 1750-1650 BCE, which was the Middle Bronze Age, not the earlier date of 1600 BC . There was findings of debris and fire at an extreme degree, with everything in its path destroyed almost to nothing . There are rooms still filled with the items found in homes of that era, pottery shards, tables, four spouted lamps, and the list goes on . The list is massive as opposed to that of the SST which still is yet to be fully or more completely excavated.
Both the SST and the NST have many strong narratives to satisfy the findings showing that either could be the lost cities. The SST or Wood with his skeletal remains buried under heaps of ash and burnt beams from the towers along with the 'city gate' . Collins and the excavation still continues today and the findings are more overwhelming that those of the SST, and are scheduled to continue for a few more seasons of digs at the NST . The fact that the NST has more than delivered evidence that strongly suggest that it may very well be the lost City of Sin, yet there are still many more questions that need to be answered before anything is concrete and conclusive.
In conclusion: The overbearing physical evidence of physical proof found and documented from the NST, that has been tested and retested, is hard not to believe that this is indeed the very lost city of the Plains. However, there could be another answer to all the mystery, both cities could be part of the plain cities of the Bible. After all, God destroyed all four (4) of the five (5) cities of the plains, only one left that did not get destroyed was Zoar. To me that is conclusive enough to warrant the fact that both could be the lost Citie(s) of the Plains and not one or the other. If I were to have to pick and choose as to the evidence and the conclusions formed to date, then I would be more inclined to believe that the NST or Tel-Hamman is the very city that all have been searching for. Collins evidence is rather immense and does tell a story of a long ago city that was destroyed by fire and brimstone, just as the Bible states. His digs continue and maybe one day we will all have the very answer that all seek so hard to find.