A joint study by TAU and the Hebrew University, involving 20 researchers from different countries and disciplines, has accurately dated 21 destruction layers at 17 archaeological sites in Israel. The biblical accounts of the Egyptian, Aramean, Assyrian, and Babylonian military campaigns against the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah have been verified.
According to the findings, the army of Hazael was responsible for the destruction of several cities. The prevailing theory is that Hazael was the one who destroyed Tel Beth- Shean.
The Edomites destroyed the cities in the Negev in order to take advantage of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.
The study is based on the thesis of Yoav Vaknin, who is a professor at TAU's Institute of Archaeology.
Changes in the magnetic field are tracked by the researchers as they attempt to understand it. They use archaeological findings to record the magnetic field at the time of the fire.
The Hebrew date of the destruction of the First Temple and the City of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army was the 9th of Av, 586 BCE.
The researchers were able to reconstruct the magnetic fields recorded in 21 destruction layers using archaeological findings and historical information. The data was used to create a new tool for dating archaeological sites.
According to Yoav Vaknin, we can either corroborate or disprove hypotheses that certain sites were burned during the same military campaign. We have constructed a variation curve of field intensity over time which can be used as a scientific dating tool.
The destruction of Gath of the Philistines by Hazael was one example given by the researchers. According to various dating methods, Hazael was responsible for the destruction of Tel Rehov, Tel Zayit and Horvat Tevet, but were unable to prove it.
A new study shows that the magnetic fields at all four sites were synchronized at the time of their destruction.
The prevailing hypothesis that Tel Beth-Shean was destroyed by Hazael is false. According to the magnetic data from Beth-Shean, the city along with two other sites in northern Israel may have been destroyed 70-100 years ago.
One of Shoshenq's conquests was Beth-Shean, according to an inscription on a wall of the Temple of Amun in Karnak.
The end of the Kingdom of Judah is one of the most intriguing findings from the new dating method. The last days of the Kingdom of Judah are a topic of debate. Judah was not completely destroyed by the Babylonians according to some researchers.
Jerusalem and frontier cities in the Judean foothills ceased to exist, but other towns in the Negev, the southern Judean Mountains and the southern Judean foothills were unaffected. The magnetic results show that the Babylonians were not solely to blame for Judah's demise.
The sites in the Negev that had survived the Babylonian campaign were destroyed by the Edomites. The Hebrew Bible expresses a lot of hatred for the Edomites because of this betrayal and participation in the destruction of the surviving cities.
The new dating tool is unique because it is based on data from sites that have been destroyed. By combining historical information with archaeological research we were able to base the magnetic method.
The novel archaeomagnetic dating method's scientific principles will be presented in a paper. Prof. Ron Shaar explained that the Earth's magnetic field is important to our existence. Most people don't realize that without it there wouldn't be life on the planet. Both people and animals use it. Currents of liquid iron in the earth's outer core generate the geomagnetic field.
The iron's motion causes the magnetic field to change. Scientists thought that it was stable for decades, but archaeomagnetic research has shown that it is not. Our location in Israel is an ideal place to conduct archaeomagnetic research due to the abundance of archaeological findings. We have reconstructed magnetic fields from hundreds of archaeological items.
The data from Yoav's investigation of historical destruction layers gave us a continuous variation curve that showed rapid, sharp changes in the geomagnetic field. This is great news for archaeologists who want to determine the age of ancient materials and for physicists who want to study the earth's core.
More information: Vaknin, Yoav, Reconstructing biblical military campaigns using geomagnetic field data, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2022). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2209117119. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2209117119 Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Citation: Geomagnetic fields reveal the truth behind Biblical narratives (2022, October 24) retrieved 24 October 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-10-geomagnetic-fields-reveal-truth-biblical.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
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