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. 2021 Sep 20;11(1):18632.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-97778-3.

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

Ted E Bunch  1 , Malcolm A LeCompte  2 , A Victor Adedeji  3 , James H Wittke  1 , T David Burleigh  4 , Robert E Hermes  5 , Charles Mooney  6 , Dale Batchelor  7 , Wendy S Wolbach  8 , Joel Kathan  8 , Gunther Kletetschka  9   10 , Mark C L Patterson  11 , Edward C Swindel  12 , Timothy Witwer  13 , George A Howard  14 , Siddhartha Mitra  15 , Christopher R Moore  16 , Kurt Langworthy  17 , James P Kennett  18 , Allen West  19 , Phillip J Silvia  20
Affiliations

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

Ted E Bunch et al. Sci Rep. .

Erratum in

Retraction in

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.

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Conflict of interest statement

T.E.B., M.A.L., J.H.W., W.S.W., G.H., C.R.M., J.P.K., and A.W. volunteer their time as cofounders and/or directors of the Comet Research Group (CRG), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. CRG received donations from the public and contributed funding for equipment, supplies, and scientific analyses. T.E.B., M.A.L., J.H.W., W.S.W., G.H., C.R.M., J.P.K., and A.W. receive no salaries, compensation, stock, or any other financial benefits from CRG, except that M.A.L., G.H., and A.W. realize tax benefits from donations to CRG. In some cases, co-authors have been compensated for out-of-pocket expenses, such as airfare, that are directly related to the TeH research. P.J.S. volunteers his time and receives no salary from Trinity Southwest University (TSU), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. TSU received donations and contributed support, supplies, equipment, and funding for TeH Excavation Project. P.J.S. was reimbursed by Trinity Southwest University for his hotel room while in Jordan but not for other out-of-pocket expenses. P.J.S. is the author of two books related to TeH. A.W. is the author of a book unrelated to TeH. A.V.A., C.M., D.B., E.C.S., G.K., J.K., K.L., M.C.L.P., R.E.H., S.M., T.D.B., and T.W. received salaries, supplies, equipment, and/or funding for scientific analyses from their respective universities/organizations, which, due to the worldwide publicity, possibly stand to benefit from increased donations and student enrollments. All co-authors have not yet but may receive reimbursements for attending symposia on this research from their respective organizations. All co-authors were involved in various aspects of conceptualization, design, data collection, analysis, the decision to publish, and/or preparation of the manuscript.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Location of Tall el-Hammam. (a) Photo of the southern Levant, looking north, showing the Dead Sea, the site location (TeH), and nearby countries. The Dead Sea Rift, the fault line marking a major tectonic plate boundary, runs through the area. Source of base image: NASA, Space Shuttle. “The Sinai Peninsula and the Dead Sea Rift”. Photo: sts109-708-024, taken 12/16/2009. From the NASA Langley Research Center Atmospheric Science Data Center (nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/astronauts_eyes/sts109-708-024.html). Modified by the authors using Adobe Photoshop CC2014 (adobe.com/products/photoshop.html). (b) West-southwest-facing view of the upper tall showing locations of the palace and temple behind the curve of the upper tall. The Dead Sea is in the background to the left.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Catastrophic leveling of the palace at TeH. (a) Artist’s evidence-based reconstruction of the 4-to-5-story palace that was ~ 52 m long and 27 m wide before its destruction. (b) Artist’s evidence-based reconstruction of palace site on upper tall, along with modern excavation. “MB II” marks the top of 1650-BCE Middle Bronze rubble. Note that the field around the excavation is essentially flat, unlike the view in panel ‘a’. Originally, parts of the 4-story palace were ~ 12 + m tall, but afterward, only a few courses of mudbricks remain on stone foundations, labeled as “wall remnants”. Part of the foundation of the massive wall around the palace is at the bottom. Debris from between sheared walls has been removed by excavation. A comparison of panel ‘a’ to panel ‘b’ shows that millions of mudbricks from the upper parts of the palace and other buildings are missing.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Destruction of the multi-storied palace. Photo showing jumbled rubble of four-story Palace atop Floor 1. Remains of debris from upper stories are labeled as follows. #1 represents broken mudbricks and debris from shattered upper walls. #2 and #3 are voids and layers formed when trapped textiles (rugs and tapestries) burned, leaving only fibrous ash and carbon. ‘Blow-over’ (in blue) is composed of windblown, laminated deposits that sealed the ruined structure for ~ 3600 years, beginning at the time of destruction. #4 marks fragments of white limestone plaster (CaCO3) mixed with carbonate spherules from the palace walls and ceiling. Scale stick has 10-cm markings.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Sedimentary profiles. (a) Map of the city (white dashing line) showing sampling locations, spanning ~ 1100 m. Source of base image: “Tall el-Hammam”. 31° 50.483 N, 35° 40.029 E. Google Earth; CNES/Airbus. Imagery date: 11/26/2019; accessed: 4/4/2021. (b) The wadi; (c) the ring road in Field LA; (d) the palace in Field LS; and (e) the palace in Field UA. In the wadi, yellow arrows mark the level of the 3600-year-old stratum. Inside the city, the arrows mark the location of the charcoal-and-ash-rich dark layer.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Bayesian analysis. Using OxCal v.4.4.4–, the ‘Combine’ computer routine determined that 20 of 26 14C dates are statistically synchronous and likely represent a single event at 1661 ± 21 BCE (1686–1632 BCE), rounded to 1650 BCE. Light gray curves represent unmodeled calibrated ages; dark gray represents modeled calibrated ages. The white dot beneath the curves equals the mean age, also represented by the red dotted vertical line. Progressively longer brackets beneath curves represent 68% and 94% confidence intervals. The program performed two statistical probability tests to test the robustness of the model. Both the Acomb and Chi Sq statistical tests show a high probability, indicating that the modeled age of 1661 ± 21 BCE is likely to be accurate.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Multiple burned layers at Tall el-Hammam. On the upper tall, there are three terminal burn layers: one during the Middle Bronze Age (MB II), another during Late Bronze Age II (LBA), and one higher during the Iron Age (not visible here). Each burn layer represents the end of an archaeological period at the site. Dashed white line encloses LBA burn layer at arrow, representing the burning of a single building at ~ 1400 BCE stacked atop the sheared MB-II walls. “MBA floor” marks the top of the MB II floor beneath the 1.5-m-thick destruction layer dating to 1650 BCE. Two earthquake-related destruction layers (not shown) are buried deeper than the floor of this excavation, one dated ~ 400 years earlier at ~ 2100 BCE and the other even older at ~ 3300 BCE. All these layers are distinctly separate from the MB II destruction layer above bottom arrow, the only layer that contains high-temperature melted materials.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Destruction layer in the palace. (a) Photo of excavation in an exterior food preparation area of the palace. #1 marks MB II debris that was most likely deposited by post-fire erosion. #2 points to charcoal-rich ‘dark layer’ indicating a major fire in the palace. Contains fragments of plaster and limestone spherules. Blue arrows mark its top. #3 points to the cross-section of excavated clay flooring. (b) Close-up photo of the same palace sampling sequence as in panel ‘a’. (c) Photo of broken pots with carbonized grains embedded in MB II 1.5-m-thick debris matrix, mostly composed of pulverized mudbrick and plaster fragments and limestone spherules. Debris matrix is found in the space between all palace walls. Note charcoal inside the broken pot. The end of a scale stick with 10-cm divisions is at upper left. (d) Charred palace roof timber surrounded by 1.5-m-thick charcoal-rich debris matrix of pulverized mudbrick. A scale stick shows 10-cm markings.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Diamonoids (diamond-like carbon) in temple sediment. (a) Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image of clusters of amorphous diamonoids. (b) Bright-field high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) of acid-resistant residue showing the short-range ordering of carbon atoms. (c) Selected-area electron diffraction (SAD) of residue and grid film, confirming that the residue is amorphous carbon. (d) Photomicrograph of diamonoids showing white to clear material on black carbon SEM tab; (e) photomicrograph of the same area as in panel ‘d’ showing that the diamonoids luminesce at ~ 440 nm, typical of cubic diamonds.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Diamond-like carbon embedded in pottery from the palace. (a) Pure carbon aggregate, likely a diamonoid cluster, is embedded in a crater on the melted surface of the pottery. (b)–(f) SEM–EDS elemental maps showing that the particle is composed of carbon with almost no oxygen or other elements; the object is embedded in the Ca–Al–Si pottery matrix.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Melted pottery. (a) Photos of a 7-cm-wide potsherd from a broken storage jar from NE of the palace, showing unmelted inner surface and (b) the darker melted outer surface of the potsherd. The upper-left edge in panel ‘b’ is the outward-curved lip of a storage jar. (c) Potsherd of a 6-cm-wide storage jar from the lower tall, displaying an unaltered inner surface, and (d) the highly vesicular outer surface. (e)–(f) Photos of both edges of the sliced section of sherd in panels ‘a’ and ‘b’ above. (g)–(h) SEM images of the highly vesicular sliced surface of sherd in panels ‘a’ and ‘b’.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Melted mudbrick from the palace. (a) The upper surface of meltglass, showing non-vesicular ‘skin’; (b) broken surfaces of meltglass displaying vesicular texture; (c) upper surface and broken faces of meltglass. Note large unmelted light-colored mineral inclusion. (d)–(f) SEM images of highly vesicular surfaces of broken meltglass. Note bright metallic inclusions in several vesicles.
Figure 12
Figure 12
Meltglass: melted pottery, mudbrick, and roofing material. (a)–(d) Meltglass from 3 sites; no meltglass was found in the wadi and none was found above or below the destruction layer. Depths are in cm above or below the bottom of the destruction layer.
Figure 13
Figure 13
Melted palace roofing clay. (a) Artist’s cutaway depiction of typical roof construction at TeH. The construction involved sequentially plastering multiple layers of clay (~ 10 cm or more in total thickness) over a bed of leaves and straw placed over wood beams. “Melted clay” inset at middle right is a photo of melted roofing clay still displaying horizontal layers of clay plaster. (b) Fragment of melted roofing clay exhibiting ~ 2-mm-diameter tubular holes left after incineration of straw; (c) artist’s depiction, re-creating protruding straw before burning; (d) SEM image is the end-view of the hole left by burned straw embedded in roofing clay; (e) manually constructed EDS-based phase map of the same image, showing composition as determined by SEM–EDS; red represents melted clay matrix, green represents high-silica glass (60–90 wt.% SiO2) formed from melted silicified straw, and blue represents the silica-rich interior of the hole. (f) SEM image is the side-view of the imprint left by burned straw; (g) manually constructed EDS-based phase map of the same image, color-coded as in the previous example. (h) SEM image of leaf imprint into the clay roofing material, showing the ribbed structure of a leaf; (i) photomicrograph of the same object.
Figure 14
Figure 14
Plant imprints in melted roofing clay from the palace. (a) The upper surface of a 19-cm-wide piece of roofing clay, melted and distorted at high temperatures; (b) lower surface of the same object, showing imprints of silicified plant material; (c) closeup of the lower surface with numbered yellow arrows pointing to ribbed imprints of leaves pressed into the bottom of roofing clay (#1 through #3); (d) artist’s depiction, re-creating possible leaf structures before combustion; (e) yellow arrow points not to a plant imprint, but rather to a cylinder-like silica-rich pyromorph of plant stem embedded in roofing clay. From the destruction layer in the palace (Field UA, Square 7GG).
Figure 15
Figure 15
The directionality of mudbricks, potsherds, and grains. (a) 400-kg quern, at left, used for grinding grain, is tipped over with top towards NE. Image view spans ~ 2.5 m. Area #1 shows broken pottery and meltglass piled against quern from SW to NE (arrow). Area #2 contains charcoal, charred grains, ash, and mudbrick fragments, but no potsherds, suggesting that the quern shielded the floor to the NE. The area at the top labeled ‘blow-over’ is evidence that strong winds sealed the deposit with windblown laminated material that includes pulverized mudbrick, charcoal, ash, and fragments of white plaster. The draping of the blow-over indicates debris traveled from SW to NE. The scale stick is in 10-cm intervals. (b) Directional potsherds. Blue, red, and green asterisks (*) represent color-coded potsherds from three different pots. Arrows mark the motion of potsherds from SW to NE, spanning ~ 1 m. Area #1 represents the inverted bottom of the pot with its smaller fragments strewn to the left. Some pots contained charred grains also strewn in a SW-to-NE direction. Radiocarbon dates on charred grains confirm an age of ~ 1650 BCE (3600 cal BP).
Figure 16
Figure 16
High-velocity effects. (a) Photo of an excavated section of the palace wall on upper tall. In the center are the lower courses of the mudbrick wall (#1a, between white dashed lines) and foundation (#1b). Yellow dashed line with arrow indicates wind direction of blow-over to NE. Also, note the lines of white fragments of broken plaster at  two blue arrows (#4), where the curved wall top displays intense wind abrasion. At the right side of the image, #6 marks the limit of modern excavation. The sequence of wall destruction is illustrated in panels ‘b’ to ‘e’ below. (b) An artistic depiction, re-creating the pre-destruction mudbrick wall and foundation highlighted in red (#1). (c) Rubble in red (#2) was blown against the SW-facing side of the wall; material mainly consists of pulverized mudbricks and shattered potsherds. (d) Section of wall higher than several courses of mudbrick was demolished and blown to the NE to form the debris matrix (#3). (e) High-velocity winds blew from SW to NE (arrows), severely abrading the top of the wall, and burying it in debris. Winds produced the laminated ‘blow-over’ (#4), containing small pulverized mudbricks, fragments of white wall plaster, and limestone spherules stripped from interior walls. Settling on top, the ‘dark layer’ (#5) is mostly composed of charcoal and ash from the city-wide fires, along with post-destruction fine particulates.
Figure 17
Figure 17
The directionality of debris across the entire TeH site. Color-coded arrows indicate the type and direction of six types of debris. Red dashed arrow and colored arrows mark the movement from SW to NE across excavations that span an area of ~ 58,000 m2 (~ 480 m long by up to ~ 240 m wide). Created by the authors using Adobe Photoshop CC2014 (adobe.com/products/photoshop.html).
Figure 18
Figure 18
Shocked quartz grain from TeH palace. (a) SEM image of a 750-µm-wide fragment of meltglass breccia from the palace, containing melted and partially melted grains surrounded by Ca–Al–Si meltglass. Shocked quartz grain in red at arrow; other grains are not shocked. (b) Transmitted light photomicrograph using an optical microscope (OM); 155-µm-wide HF-etched quartz grain is same as in panel ‘a’. Lamellae are labeled as Miller-Bravais indices (hkil) (ANIE program). Three sets in lower crystallite are all closely-spaced PDFs crossing the entire crystallite. Blue dotted line marks the boundary of one crystallite in polycrystalline grain, containing only one set of lamellae, the (0001) plane with its pole parallel to the c axis. (c) SEM image of same HF-etched grain displaying visible lamellae, which excludes them as tectonic lamellae. (d) SEM-CL image of same grain showing multiple closely-spaced non-luminescent lamellae (black), indicative of amorphous quartz (AQ). (e) Close-up SEM image of same grain, showing visible lamellae, all of which display short-range feather features (FF) that form at ≥ 7 GPa. (f) SEM-CL close-up image, showing black non-luminescent centers of lamellae, indicative of amorphous quartz. Lamellar spacing is ~ 3–5 µm.
Figure 19
Figure 19
Shocked quartz grains. (a) SEM-CL image of 510-µm-wide grain from the palace. Border of grain and isolated interior regions are non-luminescent black under CL, indicating the presence of melted (amorphous) quartz (AQ). The unshocked quartz body is blue. (b) Transmitted light photomicrograph of same grain under crossed polars. Dark portions of grain are isotropic, indicative of amorphous melted quartz. Two closely spaced PDFs (~ 3 µm apart) are shown. (c) Epi-illuminated photomicrograph of shocked quartz grain from the temple. Two sets of lamellae are labeled; one is a PDF and one a wider-spaced PF. (d) SEM-CL close-up image, showing one set of black non-luminescent lamellae. Irregular black non-luminescent areas at arrows are amorphous quartz bands (AQ) that are isotropic in optical microscopy but not evident using SEM. Two lamellae have 4-µm spacing. (e) SEM-CL image of polycrystalline shocked quartz grain from the temple. Crystallites are marked by blue dotted lines. Two sets of lamellae are indicated, one confined to each crystallite. Large areas of grain appear black and red under CL, suggesting that portions of the exterior and interior of the grain melted and some recrystallized. The unshocked quartz body is blue. (f) SEM-CL image of grain in panel ‘e’; displays red lamellae with black centers, indicating a mix of amorphous quartz (black; AQ), healed quartz (red), and unaltered quartz matrix (blue). Two lamellae are ~ 2 µm apart.
Figure 20
Figure 20
Sets of lamellae in shocked quartz grains. 7 TeH grains/crystallites display 12 sets of lamellae in 5° bins; no lamellae were unindexed. Two grains have a set of lamellae (0001) with its pole parallel to the c axis.
Figure 21
Figure 21
Shocked quartz from known airbursts. (a) SEM image of 140-µm-wide shocked quartz grain from Tunguska airburst. Discontinuous lamellae formed along the (0001) plane. (b) Close-up SEM-CL image of same grain as in panel ‘a’. Lamellae spacing ranges from ~ 0.3 to 5 µm. Black lamellae indicate amorphous quartz (AQ). (c) Epi-illumination photomicrograph of 240-µm-wide shocked quartz grain embedded in trinitite that was ejected ~ 400 m from ground zero of the Trinity detonation. Discontinuous, sub-planar, sub-parallel lamellae are oriented along the (0001) plane. (d) Close up SEM-CL image of same grain as in panel ‘c’. Lamellae spacing ranges from ~ 2.5 to 6.5 µm. Black lamellae indicate amorphous quartz (AQ). (e) Epi-illumination photomicrograph of 520-µm-wide shocked quartz grain from Russia's Joe-1/4 nuclear detonations; displays discontinuous sub-planar, sub-parallel micro-fractures and lamellae, just as reported for impact-shocked grains in the Charlevoix crater. There are four sets of lamellae, one of which is oriented parallel to the (0001) plane. (f) Close up SEM-CL image of same grain as in panel ‘e’. Lamellae spacing ranges from ~ 0.3 to 1.3 µm. Black lamellae indicate amorphous quartz (AQ).
Figure 22
Figure 22
SEM images of melted quartz grains on melted potsherd from the palace. (a) Highly melted quartz grain from the upper surface of melted pottery; shows flow lines of molten quartz in darker ‘neck’ at upper right; (b) manually constructed EDS-based phase map showing 100% quartz grain (green) embedded in Ca–Al–Si matrix of melted pottery (red); blue marks mixing zone between SiO2 and matrix at approximately > 1713 °C, the melting point of quartz. Yellow arrow points to area depleted in oxygen, indicating high-temperature transformation to elemental Si mixed with melted SiO2. (c) Highly melted quartz grain; (d) manually constructed EDS-based phase map showing diffusion/mixing zone in blue with arrow pointing to bubble, indicating outgassing as grain reached temperatures above its melting point. (e) Quartz grain that has almost completely melted; (f) manually constructed EDS-based phase map showing the small remnant of a melted quartz grain (green) with a wide mixing zone (blue).
Figure 23
Figure 23
SEM images of melted quartz grains on melted mudbrick from the palace. (a) Highly melted quartz grain; (b) manually constructed EDS-based phase map indicates center is pure SiO2 surrounded by melted mudbrick. Arrow points to vesicles indicating outgassing as grain temperature rose above ~ 1713 °C, the melting point of quartz. (c) The surface of a flattened quartz grain showing flow marks toward the upper right. High temperatures are required to lower the viscosity sufficiently for quartz to flow. (d) Manually constructed EDS-based phase map with an arrow pointing to vesicles indicating outgassing at high temperatures. (e) Close up of grain in panel ‘c’ showing flow marks (schlieren) at arrows. (f) Shattered, melted quartz splattered onto mudbrick meltglass; (g) manually constructed EDS-based phase map indicating that the blue area is SiO2; the yellow area is a shattered, thermally altered Fe-oxide grain.
Figure 24
Figure 24
Spherule abundances. (a)–(d). Number per kg for Fe- and S-rich spherules from 4 locations. Depths are in cm above or below the bottom of the destruction layer.
Figure 25
Figure 25
SEM images of mostly silica-rich spherules from TeH. (a)–(d) Representative spherules from the ring road on the lower tall. SEM images of iron-rich spherules. (e)–(f) Fe-rich spherules from the temple complex. (g) temple spherule containing ~ 3.7 wt.% Cr. (h) Broken, vesicular spherule from temple containing 1.4 wt.% Ni and 3.7 wt.% Cr. SEM images of titanium-rich spherules. Ti content of these ranges from 18.9 to 1.2 wt.%, averaging 10.7 wt.%. (i)–(k) Spherules from the ring road. (l) Spherule from the wadi site.
Figure 26
Figure 26
SEM image of rare-earth (REE) spherule. (a) REE-rich 72-µm-wide spherule from the palace, dominantly composed of Fe, La, Ce, and O. (b) Close up of REE blebs found on the spherule. (c)–(f) SEM–EDS elemental maps showing composition. La = 15.6 wt.% and Ce = 21.0 wt.%. Ce is enriched over Fe and La in the middle part of the spherule, as seen in panels ‘d’ through ‘f’.
Figure 27
Figure 27
SEM images of a spherule mainly composed of Fe and Si. (a) Fe–Ti-rich 54-µm-wide spherule from the palace. Spherule displays a protrusion to the left, suggesting aerodynamic shaping when molten, after which the tail detached. (b) A focused ion beam (FIB) was used to section the spherule, revealing inclusions of wassonite or titanium sulfide (TiS; yellow arrows) that are lighter-colored than the matrix. (c)–(f) Color-coded SEM–EDS elemental maps, showing the distribution of Ti, S, Si, and Fe and the location of the TiS grains. The spherule is dominantly composed of Fe and Si with minor amounts of Ti and S found in TiS inclusions.
Figure 28
Figure 28
Fe-rich spherules embedded in meltglass. (a) Optical photomicrograph of a 167-µm-wide piece of meltglass with embedded Fe-rich spherules. (b) SEM image of same grain as in panel ‘a’. Melted quartz grain (Qtz) is embedded in Ca–Al–Si-rich matrix, which has the same composition as melted mudbrick. (c) SEM close-up image of the boxed area and panel ‘b’, showing splattered Fe-rich spherule.
Figure 29
Figure 29
Images of calcium carbonate spherules and melted plaster from TeH. (a) Photomicrographs of translucent, amber-colored CaCO3 spherules from the destruction layer in the palace. (b) SEM image of 83-µm carbonate spherule with impact or outgassing crater at arrow. (c) Photomicrograph of ~ 2-mm-wide piece of partially melted palace plaster from oxygen/propylene torch test, showing incipient melting at 1500 °C. Arrows point to hemispheric droplets emerging as spherules. (d) 142-µm cluster of 8 carbonate spherules with apparent impact or outgassing crater at arrow. (e) 64 × 30 mm piece of melted plaster that broke off the palace wall and became melted. It is composed only of calcium, carbon, and oxygen.
Figure 30
Figure 30
SEM images of melted zircon grains. (a) Melted TeH zircon grain with bubbles at yellow arrow due to high-temperature dissociation and/or entrapped porosity. (b) Melted TeH zircon grain decorated with bubbles along the fracture line at upper arrow; arrows labeled “Bd” point to bright granular baddeleyite, ZrO2, formed during the high-temperature dissociation of zircon. (c) Almost fully melted TeH zircon grain mixing into the Ca–Al–Si matrix. (d) A typical unmelted zircon grain from TeH with straight, euhedral edges. Grain shows cracks on the top surface from possible thermal or mechanical damage. (e) For comparison, from cosmic airburst/impact at Dakhleh Oasis in Egypt: melted zircon decorated with lines of bubbles (arrow).
Figure 31
Figure 31
SEM images of other melted zircon grains in palace potsherd. (a) Two melted zircon grains adjacent to a previously discussed melted quartz grain; (b) close-up of same zircon grains; (c) manually constructed EDS-based phase map showing baddeleyite grains in green. The blue area represents melted zircon, while the red background represents the Ca–Al–Si matrix of the melted pottery. (d) Manually constructed EDS-based phase map of zircon grain showing small baddeleyite grains in green at the top.
Figure 32
Figure 32
SEM images of melted zircon grains in mudbrick meltglass from the palace. (a) Thermally distorted zircon grain with a “hook” that resulted from the flow of molten material at > 1687 °C; the darker area represents unrelated debris on top of zircon. (b) Manually constructed EDS-based phase map showing baddeleyite grains (Bd = ZrO2) in green, zircon in blue, and melted mudbrick in red. (c) Zircon grain showing limited thermal alteration, yet sufficient to cause dissociation into bright baddeleyite grains at ~ 1676 °C. (d) Zircon grain exhibiting three phases of thermal alteration, as shown in detail in (e), where a manually constructed EDS-based phase map demonstrates that high temperatures caused bubbling in the center band of zircon (purple = Hi) producing sub-micron-sized grains of baddeleyite (e.g., at arrow). Medium temperatures caused zircon to melt and flow (blue = Lo), and lower temperatures at the left end of grain produced thermal cracks (medium blue = Med). The green area marks the high-Si diffusion zone resulting from the dissociation of zircon. (f) Zircon grain from TeH has been fully converted to granular baddeleyite.
Figure 33
Figure 33
SEM images of melted chromite grains found on a melted potsherd from the palace. (a) Shattered, polycrystalline chromite grain that appears to have become agglutinated while molten. (b) Melted chromite grain, displaying cleavage (lamellae) suggestive of thermal and/or mechanical shock metamorphism at ~ 12 GPa; (c) close-up image showing angles between three sets of crystalline cleavage; (d) manually constructed EDS-based phase map showing chromite (purple) embedded in Ca–Al–Si matrix. The lines mark three sets of cleavage extending across the entire grain. A melt tail merging with the matrix is observed to trail off to the upper right of the grain at arrow.
Figure 34
Figure 34
SEM images of nuggets of melted metals in mudbrick meltglass from the palace. (a)–(c) Pt-dominant TeH nuggets enriched in ruthenium (Ru), rhodium (Rh), palladium (Pd), osmium (Os), iridium (Ir), and platinum (Pt). (d)–(f) Fe-dominant TeH splatter is also enriched in PGEs. (g)–(i) Nuggets enriched in varying percentages and combinations of nickel (Ni), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), and silver (Ag).
Figure 35
Figure 35
Average composition of selected metal-rich nuggets from the palace. (a-h) Silver (Ag), gold (Au), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), iridium (Ir), nickel (Ni), platinum (Pt), and ruthenium (Ru), showing wt.% in selected nuggets from the destruction layer of the palace (7GG).
Figure 36
Figure 36
Ternary diagrams for PGE-rich grains. Comparison of Fe–Ir–Pt ratios of PGE-rich nuggets fused into the surfaces of TeH meltglass. There are two populations of TeH nuggets (red diamonds): Pt-dominant at #1 (top) and Fe-dominant at #2 (bottom left). (a) TeH Pt-dominant nugget group #1 (red diamonds) overlaps Pt-dominant but not Ir-dominant nuggets (blue circles) from placers and ophiolite deposits in Greece, Turkey, Iraq, Russia, Canada, and the USA. The Fe-dominant TeH nugget group #2 is geochemically dissimilar to all known placer nuggets, suggesting that these nuggets are not placer-derived. (b) TeH nuggets (red diamonds) compared to nuggets in carbonaceous chondrites (light gray circles) and nuggets in cosmic spherules (dark gray circles). Pt-dominant TeH nuggets in group #1 are a poor match, but Fe-dominant TeH splatter is an excellent match with chondritic meteorites and cosmic spherules, suggesting that they may be extraterrestrial in origin and that the impactor may have been a chondrite. (c) TeH nuggets (red diamonds) are a poor match for most nuggets in iron meteorites (purple circles), but an excellent match for nuggets found in comets (green circles). These data suggest that Fe-dominant PGE nuggets at TeH may have originated from cometary material. (d) Semi-log comparison of PGEs ruthenium (Ru), rhodium (Rh), palladium (Pd), osmium (Os), iridium (Ir), and platinum (Pt), normalized to CI chondrites. TeH Fe-dominant splatter (red line) is an excellent match for PGE nuggets in carbonaceous chondrites (blue line), cosmic spherules (purple line), micrometeorites (dark blue line), and iron meteorites (gray line). In contrast, TeH PGE nuggets are a poor match for bulk material from CI-normalized CV-type chondrites (e.g., Allende; orange line) and CM-type chondrites (e.g., Murchison; brown line).
Figure 37
Figure 37
Plots for sedimentary Platinum and Palladium. (a)–(d) Platinum (Pt) concentrations. (e)–(h) Platinum/palladium ratios (Pt/Pd). Depths are in cm above or below the bottom of the destruction layer. Sample locations are labeled. Crustal abundance values (orange dashed lines) are ~ 0.5 ppb for Pt.
Figure 38
Figure 38
SEM images of gas vesicles in melted material from the palace. (a), (b) Vesicles in melted pottery are lined with crystals of iron and iron oxide (elemental Fe, Fe2O3, and/or Fe3O4). (c)–(g) Vesicles in melted mudbrick and roofing clay often are lined with a variety of crystals including elemental Fe, iron oxide, Fe phosphide (Fe2P), manganese oxide (MnO), calcium phosphate (Ca3(PO4)2), and calcium silicate (CaSiO3). These crystals are consistent with vapor deposition at high temperatures.
Figure 39
Figure 39
SEM images of melted iron and titanomagnetite in mudbrick meltglass from the palace. (a) Shattered elemental Fe grain containing < 0.1 wt.% oxygen as determined by SEM–EDS; (b) close-up showing surface porosity. (c) Titanomagnetite grain showing surface porosity; (d) close-up showing aligned porosity possibly along former grain boundaries. The cause of the porosity is uncertain, but because these grains are associated with other high-temperature melted minerals, we propose that this porosity resulted from exposure to high temperatures.
Figure 40
Figure 40
SEM images of Fe-S-P-enriched nugget in vesicle of mudbrick meltglass from the palace. (a) Chemically complex nugget inside a vesicle; contains Fe, S, and P. (b) Manually constructed EDS-based phase map showing that nugget is dominantly composed of Fe oxides, S as FeS, and P as Fe2P. (c)–(f) SEM–EDS elemental maps showing the composition of nugget by regions.
Figure 41
Figure 41
SEM images of Fe–S–Ca–P-rich grains in mudbrick meltglass from the palace. (a) Melted Fe-rich grain is chemically complex, containing Fe, S, Ca, and P. (b) Manually constructed EDS-based phase map marking areas of Fe oxides (purple, labeled as FeO), FeS (blue), and Ca3P2, calcium phosphide (green). (c) High-temperature melted Fe-rich grain; (d) manually constructed EDS-based phase map showing the area that is predominantly Fe oxide, bordered by a thin rim of FeS.
Figure 42
Figure 42
SEM images of calcium phosphide crystals in vesicles of mudbrick meltglass from the palace. (a) and (c) Crystals of calcium phosphide, Ca3P2, lining the inside wall of meltglass vesicles; (b) and (d) manually constructed EDS-based phase map of Ca3P2 (green) crystals embedded in typical Ca–Al–Si melted matrix.
Figure 43
Figure 43
SEM images of wollastonite crystals in palace melted pottery and mudbricks. (a) Spindle-like crystals of wollastonite (CaSiO4) on the broken face of mudbrick meltglass. Crystals of iron oxide line the vesicle. (b) Wollastonite crystal within the meltglass matrix. (c) Wollastonite crystals within a vesicle of melted pottery.
Figure 44
Figure 44
Human bones in the destruction layer. (a) Photo of a disarticulated skull found near the palace on the ring road around the upper tall. The right eye socket has been crushed (orange arrow). Skull is embedded in pulverized mudbrick containing numerous charcoal fragments (yellow circles) and is stained with ash commonly found in the destruction layer (blue arrow). The orange tint of the skull suggests it was exposed to temperatures > 200 °C. (b) Rear view of the same skull in panel ‘a’ (blue arrow) near the second skull (purple arrow) and numerous disarticulated, fragmented human bones (orange arrows). Charcoal fragments at yellow circles. (c) Lower torso from the ring road of lower tall (orange arrows), and other disarticulated bones. Bones show evidence of being burned (red arrows); the rest of the skeleton is dismembered and disarticulated. Hyper-flexed toes (purple arrow) are consistent with either perimortem or postmortem exposure to high temperatures.
Figure 45
Figure 45
Bone fragment splattered with meltglass in the destruction layer. (a) Photomicrograph of 3.5-mm-long charred bone from the palace. The yellow boxed area indicates an area of melted glass on bone, as shown in panels ‘c’ and ‘d’. Yellow arrows point to other areas with greenish meltglass fused to the bone. (b) SEM image of bone in panel ‘a’. (c) SEM close-up image of boxed area in panel ‘a’. Green dotted line marks the glass-to-bone boundary, as further shown in panel ‘d’. #1 represents unmelted Ca–Al–Si-rich sediment with no bone component; #2–3 represent partially melted sediment mixed with melted bone (hydroxyapatite); #4 presents charred bone. (d) Colorized SEM image of panel ‘c’ showing gradation of bone-and-sediment mixing, based on multiple SEM–EDS analyses.
Figure 46
Figure 46
Bone associated with salt and melted tin oxide (SnO2). (a) Photomicrograph of 4.7-cm-long human or mammal rib bone from the ring road on the lower tall. NaCl is present at high concentrations in the sediment (~ 54 wt.%) and on the bone (~ 46 wt.%). (b) Tin oxide particle (SnO2) appears to have collided with sediment on the bone while it was molten, possibly as unoxidized tin. The melting point of SnO2 is ~ 1630 °C, but unoxidized tin melts at ~ 232 °C. (c) A similar tin oxide particle from the temple, ~ 150 m away from the lower ring road sampling site. Particles are fused into meltglass. (d) Tin oxide splashed onto sediment around the bone in panel ‘a’.
Figure 47
Figure 47
SEM images of melted potassium and sodium salt grains. (a), (b) Potassium chloride (KCl) grains melted into the surface of the palace mudbrick meltglass. (c) Melted NaCl and KCl grains. Bubbles at arrows suggest the salt grains exceeded their melting points. (d) Manually constructed EDS-based phase map of panel ‘c’, showing potassium chloride (KCl; green), sodium chloride (NaCl; blue), and spindle-like calcium carbonate crystals (CaCO3; purple).
Figure 48
Figure 48
Salinity in TeH Sediment. Percentage of salinity for 3 sites, temple, palace, and ring road. The wadi site had < 1% salt content in all samples. Open bars mean below detection (< 1%).
Figure 49
Figure 49
Salt and the 16 Cities of the Plain. Covering ~ 26% of the southern Jordan Valley, the colorized areas mark modern-day salinity concentrations of ≥ 1.3%, considered lethal for many domestic food crops. Tall el-Hammam (largest red dot) was the principal city in the area; Tall Nimrin was the next largest with smaller towns in blue. The dashed red oval indicates the extent of the Kikkar, known as the “disk of the Jordan”. All 16 major settled sites and > 100 villages in the southern Jordan Valley appear to have been abandoned at ~ 1650 BCE (3600 cal BP). Jericho was minimally resettled ~ 300 years after the destruction event. Tall Nimrin was resettled ~ 500 years later, and TeH was reoccupied ~ 600 years later. Source of base image: “The Southern Jordan Valley”. 35° 51.254  N, 35° 33.092 E. Google Earth; Maxar Technologies; CNES/Airbus. Imagery date: 10/29/2020; accessed: 4/4/2021. Permissions: https://about.google/brand-resource-center/products-and-services/geo-guidelines/ Modified by the authors using Adobe Photoshop CC2014 (adobe.com/products/photoshop.html).
Figure 50
Figure 50
Comparison of Dates of MBA Destruction of Jericho and TeH. Bayesian calculation showing essentially identical age ranges at 68% Confidence Interval for the destruction layers of the two cities. For TeH, the range is 1686–1632 BCE (1661 ± 21 BCE) and for Jericho 1670–1626 years BCE (1653 ± 18 BCE), for a common overlap of 38 years, making them statistically coeval.
Figure 51
Figure 51
Comparison of melted materials from TeH with those from the Trinity atomic bomb test. (a), (b) SEM images compare a melted, decorated zircon embedded in mudbrick meltglass from the palace with similar material from Trinity. (c), (d) Photomicrographs compare a melted potsherd from the palace with similar-looking material from Trinity. (e), (f) The melted zircons in panels ‘a’ and ‘b’ were found in highly vesicular glass like these from the palace and the Trinity site, respectively. (g), (h) SEM images of a spherule fused onto mudbrick meltglass from the palace and a spherule embedded into trinitite from the Trinity atomic test.
Figure 52
Figure 52
The extent of the cosmic airburst at Tunguska, Siberia (1908), superimposed on the Dead Sea area. The Tunguska blast was ~ 75 km wide N–S, affecting 2200 km2. This accurately scaled image shows that a cosmic airburst similar in energy to the one at Tunguska could cover a large segment of the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley. Note that this overlay is for comparison only; the location, orientation, direction of travel, entry direction, and size of the proposed TeH impact is unknown. Source of base image: Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) SRTMGL1 DEM of the Jordan Valley from February 2000 was obtained from https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ maintained by the USGS/Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, accessed on 4/4/2021. Modified by the authors using Adobe Photoshop CC2014 (adobe.com/products/photoshop.html).
Figure 53
Figure 53
Supercomputer 15-megaton model of an airburst larger than the one at Tunguska. For the computer calculations of the airburst model, the entry angle is 35° and the detonation height is 18 km. At 6.5 s, the near-surface temperatures are at the high end of the temperature scale that ranges up to > 1400° K. Conference presentation slide 26 from Boslough, Sandia National Laboratories (US Department of Energy) is in the public domain.
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References

    1. 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).
    1. Silvia, P. J. The Middle Bronze Age civilization-ending destruction of the Middle Ghor. Ph.D. thesis, Trinity Southwest University (2015).
    1. Collins, S., Byers, G. A. & Kobs, C. M. The Tall al-Hammam Excavation Project, Season Fourteen 2019 Report: Excavation, Interpretations, and Insights (Department of Antiquities of Jordan, Amman, Jordan, 2019).
    1. Collins, S., Byers, G. A. & Kobs, C. M. The Tall al-Ḥammām Excavation Project, Season Ten 2015 Report: Excavation, Interpretations, and Insights (Department of Antiquities of Jordan, Amman, Jordan, 2015).
    1. Collins, S., Byers, G. A. & Kobs, C. M. The Tall al-Ḥammām Excavation Project, Season Eleven 2016 Report: Excavation, Interpretations, and Insights (Department of Antiquities of Jordan, Amman, Jordan, 2016).

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