The Earth ’s magnetized theatre of operations is not constant . The flips where it suddenly invert direction are acrucial toolin dating geologic events . Now , some research worker arrogate they can use even brief modification in the field ’s force to precisely date stamp the devastation of city , and then use these dates to test Biblical bill .
The 2d book of Kings is not one of the more widelyread or famous division of the Bible , but the conflict it report are of interest to historian . They are , after all , considerably more plausible than narrative from early books such as Noah ’s Ark , even if victories are attributed to divine interposition .
archeologic barb have contend to match a number of sites to metropolis ( villages by modern standards ) touch on to in the Bible as being destroy by various unfriendly neighbour . In a new study , University of Tel Aviv doctoral studentYoav Vakninand co - author show that the wipeout of these cities match with Biblical accounts .
Yoav Vaknin measuring at the site of one of the destroyed cities, whose date of destruction has been revealed by the magnetization encoded there. Image Credit: Shai Halevi, Israel Antiquities Authority
When magnetic content get raging enough , they keep back the local magnetic subject as they cool . Today , that magnetic field is often supplied by galvanic powerlines or other contrived sources , but three millennia ago the Earth ’s charismatic field was pretty much the only secret plan in town . So , when pillaging armies combust towns , the bed of ash that marks their “ destruction zone ” carry a record of the intensity , as well as the direction , of the Earth ’s magnetized field at the fourth dimension .
" Based on the similarity or difference in intensity and centering of the magnetic field , we can either support or disprove hypothesis lay claim that specific sites were burned during the same military campaign , ” say Vaknin in a statement netmail to IFLScience . The fact that the geomagnetic battleground was changing unusually rapidly in this region 3,000 - 2,600 years ago , sometimes spiking by more than double the current loudness , make the cognitive process easier .
The Bible refers to the Philistine city of Gath , just beyond the margin of Judea , as being destroyed by Hazael , King of Aram - Damascus . Archaeologists consider the Tell es - Safi site in what is now central Israel is the stiff of Gath , and was burned around 830 BCE .
Cities of ancient Judah and its surroundings with the approximate lines of invasion, indicating which cities were destroyed together. Image Credit: Itamar Ben-Ezra
The Bible also find fault Hazaelfor the fall of three other city , believe to be the place now experience as Tel Rehov , Tel Zayit , and Horvat Tevet .
Vaknin and conscientious objector - authors ca n’t pin the blame on an someone , but they do claim to have shown that the charismatic field was the same when Gath and the other cities burned , indicating it was probably in the same year . By Occam ’s razor , it would seem probably the same hired hand was at shimmer .
On the other bridge player , the destruction of Tel Beth - Shean ( now northern Israel ) has also been ascribe by some mod scholars to Hazael . However , Vaknin ’s information suggest its death came 70 - 100 year after that of Gath , by which prison term Hazael was certainly all in . Tel Beth - Shean ’s free fall coincide with the campaign of Pharaoh Shoshenq into the demesne east of the Mediterranean .
The work also sustain the theory that persona of the kingdom of Judah outlast after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem . “ townsfolk in the Negev , the southern Judean Mountains and the southern Judean foothill stay on almost unaffected , said carbon monoxide - authorProfessor Erez Ben Yosef . “ Now , the magnetized result support this hypothesis . ”
These metropolis fell decades afterwards , and the authors attribute their end to the Edomites rather than the Babylonians . Ben Yosef suggested this might be why the Bible , seldom free of any neighbour of the Kingdom of Judah , second-stringer special hate for the Edomites .
However , the fact the Bible could portray an accurate story of events that occur not long before it was written does not necessarily say much about how well it cover the one thousand of years before that .
The paper is publish inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .
