Bab edh-Dhra

Bab edh-Dhra is an archaeological site on the southeastern plain of the Dead Sea in modern Jordan, proposed by many scholars as the location of biblical Sodom.

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Archaeological Evidence

The site was excavated by Paul Lapp in the 1960s and more extensively by the Expedition to the Dead Sea Plain under Rast and Schaub beginning in 1975. It shows a substantial Early Bronze Age settlement alongside an unusually large associated cemetery, and evidence of sudden destruction by fire at the end of the Early Bronze Age, a thick ash and burn layer with collapsed mudbrick structures, after which the site was not resettled.

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Biblical Connection

Bab edh-Dhra's location southeast of the Dead Sea, its fiery destruction, and its subsequent permanent abandonment have led many conservative scholars to propose it as Sodom. This identification is debated: some, including Steven Collins, instead propose Tall el-Hammam north of the Dead Sea, arguing the biblical "circle of the Jordan" language better fits a site near the Jordan's entry into the Dead Sea. Neither identification is established beyond dispute.

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Dating

The destruction layer is dated by excavators to roughly the end of the Early Bronze Age; some apologetic literature places it closer to 1700 BC. This does not necessarily align with the ~2067 BC date some biblical chronologies assign to Sodom's destruction, a discrepancy that remains open (see Cities of the Plain).