A multidisciplinary study was able to date 21 layers of destruction at 17 archaeological sites in the State of Israel, with the help of measuring the direction and strength of the Earth's magnetic field, as they were "recorded" at the time the sites were burned, and to examine how much the biblical stories about the Egyptian, Aramaic, and Assyrian conquest campaigns And the Babylonians against the kingdoms of Judah and Israel were accurate
A scientific breakthrough: a joint study by the Tel Aviv and Hebrew Universities with the participation of 20 researchers from Israel and the world managed to date 21 layers of destruction in 17 archaeological sites in the State of Israel, with the help of measuring the direction and strength of the Earth's magnetic field, as they were "recorded" during the burning of the sites. and verify the biblical stories about the Egyptian, Aramaic, Assyrian and Babylonian conquest campaigns against the kingdoms of Judah and Israel.
The findings of the research show, among other things, that the army of Hazal, the king of Aram-Damascus, in addition to the Philistines, also destroyed Tel Rehov, Tel Zeit and the ruins of Tevet and rule out the possibility that Hazal also destroyed Tel Beit Shean, as was thought until now. This and the findings of the research state that the settlements in the Negev were destroyed by the Reds, who took advantage of the fact that the Babylonians overthrew Jerusalem.
The interdisciplinary research was published in the prestigious journal of the US National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The research is based on the doctoral thesis of Yoav Vakanin, under the guidance of Prof. Erez Ben Yosef and Prof. Oded Lifshitz from the Department of Archeology at Tel Aviv University, and Prof. Ron Shaar from the Department of Earth Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
History is hidden in the Earth's magnetic field
The researchers explain that in order to understand the mechanism that generates the Earth's magnetic field, geophysicists try to trace the changes in the field throughout history. For this they also use archaeological findings which contain magnetic minerals that can record the field when they are heated, for example during a fire. In 2020, researchers were able to measure the field as it was in 586 BC on the basis of a magnificent building that was destroyed by fire by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army in Jerusalem. Now, thanks to archaeological finds that have been uncovered all over the country over decades of research, and historical information that is based on ancient inscriptions and biblical descriptions, the researchers have succeeded in reconstructing the Earth's magnetic field as recorded in 21 layers of destruction in Israel - and have developed a new and reliable scientific tool based on the information for archaeological dating.
Yoav Vakanin explains: "Based on a match or mismatch in the strength of the magnetic field and its direction, we can confirm or rule out the possibility that two sites were burned during one war campaign. Moreover, we built a curve of change of the field strength over time, a curve that is a scientific dating tool - similar to the dating method based on carbon 14". For example, the researchers point out that it was known even before the study that around 830 BC the army of Hazal, the king of Syria and Damascus, destroyed Gat Philistim, a site identified with Tel Tzfit in the lowlands. But at the same time, it was not possible to determine with certainty whether Hazal also destroyed Tel Rehov, Tel Zeit and Horvat Tebat.
In the new study, the researchers were able to identify a perfect statistical match of the magnetic field data at the time of the destruction of these four cities, a finding that greatly strengthens the belief that the other three cities were also destroyed by Hazal. At another site, in Tel Beit Shan, the researchers found a layer of destruction that absorbed a completely different magnetic field, which they claim rules out the possibility that this site was also destroyed by Hazal, as researchers have assumed until now. In addition, the magnetic data indicate that Beit Shean and two other sites in the north were destroyed about 70-100 years before the destruction of Gath, a timing that coincides with the dating of the conquest campaign of Pharaoh Shishak, King of Egypt, a campaign described both in the Bible and in the inscription engraved on the walls of the Temple of Amun In Karnach in Egypt, where the city of Beit Shan is mentioned as one of the cities conquered in this campaign.
A burnt mud brick from Tel Batsh (Biblical Timna) with markings for measuring the magnetic orientation.
A burnt mud brick from Tel Batsh (Biblical Timna) with markings for measuring the magnetic orientation.
What did the last days of the Kingdom of Judah look like?
One of the most interesting findings found thanks to the new dating method concerns the question of the end of the Kingdom of Judah, as Prof. Erez Ben Yosef says: "The question of what the last days of the Kingdom of Judah looked like is an open question in research. Based on the archaeological findings, researchers estimated that the Babylonian destruction was not complete in various parts of the country, and parallel to the destruction of Jerusalem and the border cities in the lowlands, settlements continued to exist in the Negev, in the south of the Judean Mountains and in the south of the lowlands almost unchanged. Now, the magnetic results imply that not only the Babylonians are responsible for the total destruction: decades after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the First Temple, the settlements in the Negev were destroyed, and probably also in the other areas, which were not affected by the Babylonian attack, probably by the Reds who took advantage of the fall of Jerusalem. This betrayal, and the participation of the Edoms in the destruction of the settlements, perhaps explains the intense hatred for Edom in the Bible, as reflected, for example, in the prophecy of Ovadia."
Prof. Oded Lifshitz adds: "The new dating tool is unique in that it is based on magnetic information from several sites, whose exact date of destruction is known from historical sources," he says. "The combination of accurate historical information with advanced and wide-ranging archaeological research makes it possible to base the magnetic method on a reliable chronology." Simultaneously with the publication of the archaeological research in PNAS, the principles underlying the archaeomagnetic dating method will be published in a separate article.
Archaeomagnetic research - a fascinating collaboration
"We use the Earth's magnetic field for navigation, and so do some animals," says Prof. Ron Shaar from the Department of Earth Sciences at the Hebrew University who led the geophysical research and the development of the dating method. "Most people don't know that without it there simply wouldn't be life on the surface of the planet, as the field protects us from cosmic radiation and the solar wind. The field is created in the outer core of the earth, at a depth of 2,900 km, by streams of liquid iron. Because of the chaotic movement of the iron, the field is not constant but changes in time. Until not long ago, it was accepted that for periods of several decades the magnetic field was quite stable. Thanks to archaeomagnetic research, we discovered that this was not always the case, and that the ancient field sometimes changed at an unusual and unexpected pace and intensity. Our location here in Israel is a unique starting point for archaeomagnetic research, thanks to the widespread distribution of well-dated archaeological finds. In the last decade we have measured hundreds of findings, and together with the exact data from the historical destruction layers that Yoav explored, we have created a continuous change curve showing rapid and sharp changes in the geomagnetic field. This is great news both for archaeologists, who can now use the magnetic information to determine the age of ancient materials, and for geophysicists who study the Earth's core."
More of the topic in Hayadan:
