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Steven Collins (archaeologist)

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Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project map near the Sowayma area of the Jordan River Valley.

Steven Collins (born September 11, 1950) is an American inerrantist biblical archaeologist known for claiming to have discovered the site of the biblical city of Sodom at Tall el-Hammam in Jordan.

Career

Collins is associated with two institutions of higher education: Trinity Southwest University in Albuquerque, New Mexico,[1] which is unaccredited; and Veritas International University, which is accredited by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools.[2] Both institutions have official doctrines committing them to biblical inerrancy and the historicity of the Bible.[3][4]

Tall el-Hammam

Since 2005, Collins has directed excavations at Tall el-Hammam in Jordan, a Bronze Age settlement which he argues was the biblical city of Sodom.[5][6][7] He has written several books on the theory,[8][9] which has been extensively cover in the media.[10][11][12] Other biblical archaeologists have rejected the identification because it is inconsistent with biblical literalist chronology;[13][14][15] according to Christianity Today, "few archaeologists outside of those working on the excavation team believe that Tall el-Hammam is Sodom."[16] Collins' response to these criticisms include a book, The Kikkar Dialogues, which presents conversations he has had with other biblical archaeologists.[17]

Collins and his colleagues claim that Tall el-Hammam was destroyed in a sudden catastrophe, based on the discovery of burnt brick, melted pottery and geophysical signatures of high temperatures.[18][19] In a 2021 paper, they argued that this was a meteor air burst similar to the Tunguska event.[20]

Books

  • Collins, Steven (1991). Championing the Faith: A Layman's Guide to Proving Christianity's Claims. Hensley Publishing. ISBN 9781563220302.
  • Collins, Steven (2012). Let My People Go!: Using Historical Synchronisms to Identify the Pharaoh of the Exodus. TSU Press. ISBN 9780615687940.
  • Kobs, Carroll M.; Collins, Steven; Silvia, Phillip (2013). Tall El-Hammam Excavation Project Field Manual. TSU Press. ISBN 9780615891828.
  • Collins, Steven (2013). Christian Discipleship : Fulfilling the Great Commission in the 21st Century. TSU Press. ISBN 9780615874487.
  • Collins, Steven (2014). The Search for Sodom and Gomorrah. TSU Press. ISBN 9780615910086.
  • Collins, Steven (2014). The Kikkar Dialogues. TSU Press. ISBN 9780615909998.
  • Collins, Steven; Kobs, Carroll M.; Luddeni, Michael C. (2015). 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. Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 9781575063690.
  • Collins, Steven; Scott, Latayne C. (2016). Discovering the City of Sodom: The Fascinating, True Account of the Discovery of the Old Testament's Most Infamous City. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781451684384.

References

  1. ^ "Faculty & Administration". Trinity Southwest University. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  2. ^ "Graduate/Post Graduate Faculty".
  3. ^ Doctrinal Position, Trinity Southwest University website, accessed March 10, 2012
  4. ^ "Accreditation Standards" (PDF). Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. 2009. Retrieved 2008-12-26. page 80 also see: "Biblical Creation. Special creation of the existing space-time universe and all its basic systems and kinds of organisms in the six literal days of the creation week." on page 81
  5. ^ "Tall el-Hammam, Jordan". Biblical Archaeology Society. 2021. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  6. ^ Collins, Steven (2007). "Sodom: The Discovery of a Lost City". Bible and Spade. 20 (3). Associates for Biblical Research: 72.
  7. ^ Collins, Steven (2007). "A Response to Bryant G. Wood's Critique of Collins' Northern Sodom Theory" (PDF). Biblical Research Bulletin: The Academic Journal of Trinity Southwest University. 7 (7). TSU Press: 27. ISSN 1938-694X. Archived from the original on August 15, 2009.
  8. ^ Collins, Steven (2014). The Search for Sodom and Gomorrah. TSU Press. ISBN 9780615910086.
  9. ^ Collins, Steven; Kobs, Carroll M.; Luddeni, Michael C. (2015). The Tall Al-Hammam Excavations, Volume 1. Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 9781575063690.
  10. ^ "Archaeologists Return to Excavate Possible Site of Biblical Sodom". Popular Archaeology. June 6, 2012. Archived from the original on October 18, 2016. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
  11. ^ "Archaeologists Excavate Massive Ancient Gateway in Jordan". Popular Archaeology. September 2012. Archived from the original on 16 October 2015. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
  12. ^ "Possible site of ancient Sodom yields more finds". Popular Archaeology. September 28, 2015. Archived from the original on December 8, 2018. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  13. ^ Govier, Gordon (April 2008). "Looking Back: Claims to new Sodom locations are salted with controversy". Christianity Today. 52 (4): 15. Archived from the original on April 18, 2008. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  14. ^ Merrill, Eugene H. (2012). "Texts, Talls, and Old Testament Chronology: Tall Hammam as a Case Study" (PDF). ARTIFAX – the Bible Archaeology News Magazine. 27 (4). The Institute for Biblical Archaeology and the Near East Archaeological Society: 20–21.
  15. ^ Bolen, Todd (February 27, 2013). "Arguments Against Locating Sodom at Tall el-Hammam". Biblical Archaeology Society. Retrieved July 3, 2013.
  16. ^ Govier, Gordon (2021-09-24). "Sodom Destroyed by Meteor, Scientists Say. Biblical Archaeologists Not Convinced". Christianity Today. Retrieved 2021-09-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. ^ Collins, Steven (2014). The Kikkar Dialogues. TSU Press. ISBN 9780615909998.
  18. ^ Gerson, Ian (June 5, 2014). "Making the Case for Sodom". Popular Archaeology. Archived from the original on October 8, 2017. Retrieved May 14, 2017.
  19. ^ Beamon, Cindy (May 11, 2016). "Signs of a Cosmic Blast: Local researchers find evidence of fiery end for Sodom in Bible". The Daly Advance. Retrieved May 14, 2017.
  20. ^ Bunch, Ted E.; LeCompte, Malcolm A.; Adedeji, A. Victor; Wittke, James H.; Burleigh, T. David; Hermes, Robert E.; Mooney, Charles; Batchelor, Dale; Wolbach, Wendy S.; Kathan, Joel; Kletetschka, Gunther (2021-09-20). "A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea". Scientific Reports. 11 (1): 18632. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-97778-3. ISSN 2045-2322.
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