Thread by @MarkBoslough

The prestigious international journal @Nature has expanded its scope beyond science and is now publishing papers in the field of Biblical archaeology. A paper published today asks the question "Did God smite the sinners of Sodom with an #asteroid?" nature.com/articles/s4159…

I just skimmed through the paper and see that my model of asteroid airbursts is cited as the mechanism by which God smote this evil city. Here's a screenshot of the paper's Figure 53, which shows a cross-section of a fire-and-brimstone event I simulated.

It must sound like I'm making this up, especially if you recall my April Fool's joke claiming that the Alabama legislature proclaimed that the value of pi is exactly 3 (see snopes.com/fact-check/ala…). But this is Biblical archeology, not Biblical math, & so within @Nature's scope.

Lest you think I'm joking again, the next tweets are direct quotes from this peer-reviewed paper in a section entitled, "Potential written record of destruction" (at this juncture I have to admit that I'm puzzled as to why the first citation is not to the book of Genesis).

"There is an ongoing debate as to whether Tall el-Hammam could be the biblical city of Sodom (Silvia2 and references therein), but this issue is beyond the scope of this investigation. Questions about the potential existence, age, and location of Sodom are not directly related.."

"..to the fundamental question addressed in this investigation as to what processes produced high-temperature materials at Tall el-Hammam during the MBA. Nevertheless, we consider whether oral traditions about the destruction of this urban city by a cosmic object.."

"..might be the source of the written version of Sodom in Genesis. We also consider whether the details recounted in Genesis are a reasonable match for the known details of a cosmic impact event."

To verify this quote, see nature.com/articles/s4159…

What, you might ask, is the "Silvia2" citation? It is:

Silvia, P. J. The Middle Bronze Age civilization-ending destruction of the Middle Ghor. Ph.D. thesis, Trinity Southwest University (2015).

UNM's tech library doesn't have it, but it can be purchased from TSU for $59.95.

The author, Philip J. Silvia, is a professor at Trinity Southwest University. Here's a link, in case you want to buy a copy of reference 2 of today's @Nature paper.

trinitysouthwest.com/product/middle…

Here's a quote from the University's description of ref 2:

"Although it was not the author’s purpose in presenting this data to defend the Biblical story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain.."

".. the evidence, analyses and conclusions presented in this volume clearly support the claim of Dr. Steven Collins that Tall el-Hammam is Sodom."

Ok but wait. Who is Dr. Steven Collins?

Dr. Collins is another professor at Trinity Southwest University and is heavily cited by this paper (6 out of the first 7 citations are to Collins' papers, the only exception being Silvia2).

Let's take a look at Collins1.

Collins, S., Kobs, C. M. & Luddeni, M. C. The Tall al-Hammam Excavations, Volume 1: An Introduction to Tall al-Hammam: Seven Seasons (2005–2011) of Ceramics and Eight Seasons (2005–2012) of Artifacts from Tall al-Hammam. (Penn State Press, 2015).

I don't think UNM's library carries that one either. Searching online turns it up! It's only $89.50 on Amazon.

amazon.com/Tall-al-Hammam…

Prof. Collins has written some other interesting books.

So has Prof. Silvia.

Not too many people know this, but the Campus of Trinity Southwest University is right here in Albuquerque, only 15 minutes from my house. It's in a strip mall, conveniently located between a Chinese takeout place and a nail salon.

Here's a screenshot of the Trinity Southwest University Campus from Google Maps. I envy the students who are so close to Twisters, a local chain, which has great green chile cheeseburgers (fun fact, one Twisters location was used as Pollos Hermanos in Breaking Bad).

Since the TSU campus is only 15 minutes from my house, I thought maybe I could look at those books in the University's library. Unfortunately the door was locked, even on a weekday afternoon. No students in sight. Maybe a religious holiday or something?

I did get a few photos of the entrance to the university's campus today.

This work appears to be based on research led by Professors Silvia and Collins, who coauthored a very similar abstract 3 years ago. It now has many more authors, but inexplicably Prof. Silvia is last and Prof. Collins isn't a coauthor. researchgate.net/publication/32…

This thread is just for context. I haven't even read the paper yet! I will try to say more tomorrow, after I've read it.

Postscript" @alexwitze tweeted, "The paper is in the journal Scientific Reports, not Nature." I apologize for my mistake & if I could edit tweets I would.

Here's a link to the next thread in this series: