Thread by @MarkBoslough

Yesterday I posted a “hot take” on a new #BiblicalAchaeology paper claiming that #TallElHammam in the Jordan Valley is Biblical Sodom & was wiped out when a small comet or asteroid exploded over the city. This thread is to provide more background before I critique the content.

First, a correction. I said it was in Nature. It was in Scientific Reports. I learned about it from a colleague who wrote,“I suspect you've seen the recent Nature paper about the airburst in the Jordan Valley. I wonder if we could talk about it?” I failed due diligence.

On Feb 15, 2013, an asteroid blew up over the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia. Since I’d published models of airbursts and had identified them as the most significant asteroid threat, I was invited to travel to Russia for the Nova documentary “Meteor Strike”.

I’d already participated in a number of documentaries, including BBC’s beautifully filmed “Tutankhamun’s Fireball”, where I introduced the concept of contact airbursts, in which the high-temperature products of an asteroid explosion reach the surface.

The previous year I’d helped History Channel’s Universe series with “When Space Changed History.” Though less scientifically rigorous than Nova or BBC, it included a fun scene (19:25) in which we set off an explosive charge to show how impact craters form. dailymotion.com/video/x3l3gg2

After Chelyabinsk, asteroid airbursts became much more interesting to the scientific community. As the most visible researcher of the scientific cosmic curiosity I called “airbursts” I suddenly started getting lots of invitations.

I’d accepted invitations to give plenary lectures at two back-to-back scientific conferences in Denver, but as it happened there was a government shutdown that week. My employer, a national lab, suspended operations and banned employees from attending conferences.

So I took vacation, paid my own way, drove to Denver, stayed at my sister’s condo, and made good on my professional commitments. I also worked, off the clock, to get my simulation on the cover of an upcoming issue of @Nature (see image on 1st tweet). But I got behind on email.

Before I left I had gotten a message from the producers of History Channel’s Universe asking me if I’d help with a new episode called “Mysteries of Sodom and Gomorrah.” They told me it would feature archeologist Steve Collins' discovery of the ancient site of Tall el-Hammam.

According to the invitation, “He [Collins] has strong geographical evidence that links this site to the actual ancient city of Sodom. He will present his theory, and evidence, that the site might have been destroyed by an airburst impact..” This was early October, 2013.

"..I don't know if you're familiar with his work but he mentions you in his recent book, Discovering the City of Sodom. Collins has excavated desert glass similar to what you found in Libya. He's also uncovered glazed Middle Bronze Age pottery fired at 14,000 F.."

".. hundreds of years before the art of glazing. He's found charred, hyperextended human bones in a 4-inch thick ash layer dating back to the time period. And he's even found a chunk of rock that might be a meteorite.”

I immediately forwarded the invitation to an archaeologist colleague, who got back to me the following week with extensive background research on Collins and his work. It was not pretty, and my response was “OMG! Thank you for saving me from making a big mistake..”

“.. I assumed this guy was an academic and legitimate archaeologist, but maybe had gotten into some fringe science. It didn't occur to me that he was coming at it from a Biblical fables perspective. Ironic that he is based in Albuquerque..”

“.. I looked at his website and the address he gives is 5600 Eubank NE. I drive past it every day but have never noticed anything but strip malls and office rentals in that area… I'm having nothing to do with this..” (note, TSU has moved at least once since 2013)

“..You did a lot of work! I think that before I decline to participate I will ask the documentary producer for peer-reviewed published papers on the subject. It might be worth finding out more and if there are no legitimate sources it could be a teaching moment..”

Then to the producer: “I would be very interested in learning more about the evidence for an airburst in Jordon. Do you have any peer-reviewed publications by Dr. Collins that describes this research? Can you scan the relevant parts of the book and send to me, or have him send?”

They sent me some non-peer-reviewed links, but a couple weeks later told me that Collins had backed out of participation, saying “Collins now says he doesn't have the time to be interviewed for our show, and would be more interested if we were producing for PBS or NOVA.”

I responded: “My colleague tells me that the two authors mentioned are not really unbiased. This entire field of Biblical archeology is fraught with problems. See this, for example: world.time.com/2013/01/29/a-f… “

“..It is worth noting that pottery shards from Sodom and Gomorrah would have a much greater market value than shards from some random unidentified site. The History Channel needs to know what it's getting itself into. I suspect they will back out if they start digging deeper.”

But they went ahead with it. Here’s the link. Out of dozens of invitations to appear in documentaries, this is the only one I have declined (at least that I remember). dailymotion.com/video/x1k4f1j

I immediately forwarded the invitation to an archaeologist colleague, who got back to me the following week with extensive background research on Collins and his work. It was not pretty, and my response was “OMG! Thank you for saving me from making a big mistake..”

“.. I looked at his website and the address he gives is 5600 Eubank NE. I drive past it every day but have never noticed anything but strip malls and office rentals in that area… I'm having nothing to do with this..” (note, TSU has moved at least once since 2013)

“..You did a lot of work! I think that before I decline to participate I will ask the documentary producer for peer-reviewed published papers on the subject. It might be worth finding out more and if there are no legitimate sources it could be a teaching moment..”

Then to the producer: “I would be very interested in learning more about the evidence for an airburst in Jordon. Do you have any peer-reviewed publications by Dr. Collins that describes this research? Can you scan the relevant parts of the book and send to me, or have him send?”

They sent me some non-peer-reviewed links, but a couple weeks later told me that Collins had backed out of participation, saying “Collins now says he doesn't have the time to be interviewed for our show, and would be more interested if we were producing for PBS or NOVA.”

I responded: “My colleague tells me that the two authors mentioned are not really unbiased. This entire field of Biblical archeology is fraught with problems. See this, for example: world.time.com/2013/01/29/a-f… "

“..It is worth noting that pottery shards from Sodom and Gomorrah would have a much greater market value than shards from some random unidentified site. The History Channel needs to know what it's getting itself into. I suspect they will back out if they start digging deeper.”

But they went ahead with it. Here’s the link. Out of dozens of invitations to appear in documentaries, this is the only one I have declined (at least that I remember).
dailymotion.com/video/x1k4f1j

Continued here:

https://twitter.com/MarkBoslough/status/1440490620854800385?s=20