Tall El-Hammam is back in action after missing two years of digging!  Gary Byers and Carroll Kobs give an overview of some of the Iron Age buildings on the Acropolis.  

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No, it isn't a line from a movie, but a quote that might have been said by one of the men from the armies of Sodom and Gomorrah.   The King James Bible translation of Genesis 14:10 is, "And the vale of Siddim was full of slime pits, and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there;".  Other translations use "asphalt" or "tar pits" for the translation of the Hebrew word חֵמָר (hemar).  Dr. Collins and Dr. Byers discuss the proper translation of this word, and how it relates to the true topography of the Dead Sea Valley and to the story of Chedorlaomer's attack on the cities of the Valley of Siddim.   

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Ancient number systems and ancient concepts of time are a challenge to accurately place some of the events in the Old Testament.  Our modern concept of recording dates is very accurate, but ancient people were not nearly as concerned as we are.  Honorific ages were used in telling the stories and exploits of important individuals, and number systems were not always base ten. Dr. Collins and Dr. Byers discuss the ages of the Patriarchs and how this relates to when Abraham lived, and thus when Sodom would have been destroyed.  They give special credit to a new book on the subject of the age of Abraham.  It is titled,  How Old Was Father Abraham?   by Dr. Craig Olson.  

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Dating the time of Abraham has become a controversial issue among Bible believers. The stories in the Bible happened, but dating, when they happened, has been based on a modern interpretation of the ancient peoples' ways of using numbers and speaking about time. Dating the destruction of Sodom is important because it pins Abraham to a specific point in time, from which a lot of events in the Bible can be correctly placed in history.  Dr. Collins talks about the date of the airburst impact that destroyed Tall el-Hammam, the dating of the pottery from the site, and he begins a two-part explanation of how ancient people used a very different way of keeping track of time.

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In this episode, Dr. Collins and Dr. Byers talk about the people of Sodom... and their bones.  The "Necro-scape" at Tall el-Hammam is very large.  There were many towns and villages that surrounded Sodom.  Life was hard, so death was very much part of everyday life.    When we find the physical remains of people, determining how they died can help us understand the history and culture of the civilization.    Burials can give us insight into their rituals.  Bones found in strange contexts can give us insight into what happened to Tall el-Hammam!  

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Pottery sherds are the original 3D puzzles!  When pottery vessels get smashed, sometimes enough pieces can be found that can be put together to give a good idea of what the whole vessel looked like. 

In this episode, Dr. Collins and Dr. Byers show some examples restored at the Archaeological Research Center of the Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project.  

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Ramparts aren't only from The Star-Spangled Banner. They are an important part of ancient fortifications, as well as modern ones. Gateways, too. Genesis 19:1 says that Lot was "sitting in the gateway" of Sodom. In this episode, Dr. Collins and Dr. Byers talk about the fortifications of Sodom.

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Dr. Collins and Dr. Byers discuss some of their favorite dishes!  Not food, but what it is cooked in -- Casseroles!  In particular, they discuss one dubbed "The Flying Casserole".   This one has a very interesting story that reinforces the destruction theory of Tall el-Hammam.

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Like 3D puzzles?  How about having to hunt for all of the pieces?   We have a very interesting one to show you.  It's another pottery vessel from the Palace Area.  How it came to be so scattered about and burned is puzzling, but  Dr. Collins and Dr. Byers offer a very compelling theory!

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What wonderful stories pottery has to tell!  Not only can pottery give us a date for a civilization, it can also be used to give a better understanding of how a civilization lived.  Most of the time it paints a picture of everyday life, how they cooked their meals, what products they stored,  sometimes even what rituals a civilization performed.  

In this episode, Dr. Collins and Dr. Byers discuss how a pot can even give clues as to how a civilization was destroyed! You can learn a lot from a pot!  

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