Reconstructing biblical military campaigns using geomagnetic field data.

DOI
Publisher DOI
PubMed ID
36279453
Abstract
The Hebrew Bible and other ancient Near Eastern texts describe Egyptian, Aramean, Assyrian, and Babylonian military campaigns to the Southern Levant during the 10th to sixth centuries BCE. Indeed, many destruction layers dated to this period have been unearthed in archaeological excavations. Several of these layers are securely linked to specific campaigns and are widely accepted as chronological anchors. However, the dating of many other destruction layers is often debated, challenging the ability to accurately reconstruct the different military campaigns and raising questions regarding the historicity of the biblical narrative. Here, we present a synchronization of the historically dated chronological anchors and other destruction layers and artifacts using the direction and/or intensity of the ancient geomagnetic field recorded in mud bricks from 20 burnt destruction layers and in two ceramic assemblages. During the period in question, the geomagnetic field in this region was extremely anomalous with rapid changes and high-intensity values, including spikes of more than twice the intensity of today's field. The data are useful in the effort to pinpoint these short-term variations on the timescale, and they resolve chronological debates regarding the campaigns against the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the relationship between the two kingdoms, and their administrations.
Date Issued
2022-11
Publication Type
Article
Subject(s)
Subjects
archaeointensity archaeomagnetic dating archaeomagnetic spike archaeomagnetism chronology
Language(s)
en
Author(s)
Vaknin, Yoav
Shaar, Ron
Lipschits, Oded
Mazar, Amihai
Maeir, Aren M
Garfinkel, Yosef
Freud, Liora
Faust, Avraham
Tappy, Ron E
Kreimerman, Igor
Ganor, Saar
Covello-Paran, Karen
Sergi, Omer
Herzog, Zeev
Arav, Rami
Lederman, Zvi
Fantalkin, Alexander
Gitin, Seymour
Ben-Yosef, Erez
Additional Credits
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America - PNAS
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences NAS
ISSN
0027-8424
Access(Rights)
open.access
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