A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea

Abstract

We present evidence that in ~ 1650 BCE (~ 3600 years ago), a cosmic airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam, a Middle-Bronze-Age city in the southern Jordan Valley northeast of the Dead Sea. The proposed airburst was larger than the 1908 explosion over Tunguska, Russia, where a ~ 50-m-wide bolide detonated with ~ 1000× more energy than the Hiroshima atomic bomb. A city-wide ~ 1.5-m-thick carbon-and-ash-rich destruction layer contains peak concentrations of shocked quartz (~ 5–10 GPa); melted pottery and mudbricks; diamond-like carbon; soot; Fe- and Si-rich spherules; CaCO3 spherules from melted plaster; and melted platinum, iridium, nickel, gold, silver, zircon, chromite, and quartz. Heating experiments indicate temperatures exceeded 2000 °C. Amid city-side devastation, the airburst demolished 12+ m of the 4-to-5-story palace complex and the massive 4-m-thick mudbrick rampart, while causing extreme disarticulation and skeletal fragmentation in nearby humans. An airburst-related influx of salt (~ 4 wt.%) produced hypersalinity, inhibited agriculture, and caused a ~ 300–600-year-long abandonment of ~ 120 regional settlements within a > 25-km radius. Tall el-Hammam may be the second oldest city/town destroyed by a cosmic airburst/impact, after Abu Hureyra, Syria, and possibly the earliest site with an oral tradition that was written down (Genesis). Tunguska-scale airbursts can devastate entire cities/regions and thus, pose a severe modern-day hazard.

No mineralogic or geochemical evidence of impact at Tall el-Hammam, a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea

“…Bunch et al 1 however, fail to demonstrate convincing evidence of impact-shocked minerals in the proposed air burst deposit by not following well-established guidelines and criteria 6 – 13 . And although the authors also report the presence of ultra-high-temperature mineral phases and geochemical enrichments in melts that often are used to distinguish impact glasses from those produced by volcanoes, lightning, and pyrometamorphism, these criteria have little meaning in the context of archeological debris where our ancestors had access to ceramic and smelting technologies.…”

“…The presence of only non-diagnostic features—even if these same features sometimes occur in shock materials—is not sufficient to claim impact. Without unequivocal evidence of shock metamorphism, minerology and geochemistry that cannot be explained by human activities, or definitive remains of an extraterrestrial impactor, the Bunch et al 1 claim that the city’s demise was the result of a cosmic catastrophe cannot be supported.…”

“…Bunch et al 1 also claim that “SEM analyses of HF-etched grains allow for unambiguous visual distinction between glass-filled PDFs and glass-free tectonic lamellae, which are not visible on the surface of sectioned grains” as justification that their features are shock-produced. While HF etching can enhance the appearance of PDFs, true PDFs are always visible optically without etching.…”

“…Additionally, PGE concentrations can be notoriously challenging to measure 28 – 30 unless using either Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INNA), or highly standardized (fire assay) plasma mass spectrometry. Bunch et al 1 use electron microscopy energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS), which has been shown to be inadequate and overestimates Pt abundances by up to a factor of 4 30 . This is particularly problematic at low accelerating voltages, and at the 10 kV voltage used in this study, there is not enough energy to separate the PGE peaks in EDS.…”

“…In their recent Nature Scientific Reports article, Bunch et al 1 present several observations from the geologic and archeologic record and conclude that the destruction of the Bronze Age city Tall el-Hammam was caused by a cosmic air burst. Here, we challenge their mineralogic and geochemical observations.…”