02.09.06

Dr. Steven Collins

Searching for Sodom and Gomorrah: Archaeologist speaks at Erskine

Archaeologist Dr. Steven Collins shared his expertise with Erskine College and Seminary students and faculty during a two-day visit this week.

Collins was the featured speaker Wednesday and Thursday on Christianity and Archaeology as part of the yearly Erskine Lecture Series. He also displayed some artifacts in the Bowie Arts Center from past and present archaeological digs.

The archaeologist returned two weeks ago from Jordan, where he is currently director of the Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project, an effort to discover the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Collins spoke twice Wednesday at Bowie Chapel in the seminary, in addition to the display at Bowie Arts, and then addressed a combined group of students Thursday, when he presented a slide show.

He told his first audience Wednesday that people feel two ways about archaeology — they either love it or hate it.

Collins said, however, "once you're hooked, you're hooked."

One of the first questions he answered was why archaeology is important to Christianity.

"All the faith in the world won’t resurrect truth from fiction," Collins said.

There are those who believe that the information included in the patriarchal narratives, beginning with Abraham in Genesis, is mythical or even fiction. But archaeology bears out the truth of the information in the Bible, Collins said.

"Too often we take it and we don’t fight back," he said.

The legitimate discovery of the Cities of the Plain, as Sodom and Gomorrah are called in the Bible, would be compelling evidence that the historical fabric of Genesis is indeed factual, Collins said in a press release.

"Such a discovery would be one of the most important biblically-related archaeological finds in history," he said.

Collins conducted five years of focused research into the location of Sodom and Gomorrah that led to the discovery of a group of ancient sites that are by far the best candidates for the two cities.

Asked later how sure he is that this dig will turn up Sodom and Gomorrah, Collins said, "I'll stake my life on it."

The Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project began in December 2005 and will continue with a six-week excavation season in December 2006 and January 2007.

The excavation is taking place at a site in Jordan near the Dead Sea.           

Collins, dean of the College of Archaeology and Biblical History at Trinity Southwest University in Albuquerque, New Mexico, searched for the location of Sodom and Gomorrah off and on for 10 years.

The key to locating the Cities of the Plain was an intricate analysis of the biblical text, he said.

"The three main biblical criteria for correctly identifying these famous cities are geography, chronology and stratigraphy," Collins said. "The Bible clearly says they were located on the eastern edge of the Jordan Disk, that well-watered circular plain of the southern Jordan Valley just north of the Dead Sea."

He said it is also clear from the text that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed during the Middle Bronze Age, the time of Abraham and Lot. He estimated the Middle Bronze Age to be between 2300 and 1550 B.C.

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