Geomagnetic fields reveal the truth behind biblical narratives

A joint study by TAU and the Hebrew University, involving 20 researchers from different countries and disciplines, has accurately dated 21 layers of destruction at 17 archaeological sites in Israel by reconstructing the direction and/or intensity of the Earth’s magnetic field reflected in burnt remains was recorded. The new data corroborate the biblical accounts of the Egyptian, Aramaic, Assyrian, and Babylonian campaigns against the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

Finds indicate, for example, that the army of Hazael, king of Aram-Damascus, was responsible for the destruction of several cities – Tel Rehov, Tel Zayit and Horvat Tevet, in addition to Gath the Philistines, whose destruction is recorded in the Hebrew Bible . At the same time, the study refutes the prevailing theory that Hazael was the conqueror who destroyed Tel Beth-Shean.

Other geomagnetic finds show that the cities of the Negev were destroyed by the Edomites, who took advantage of the Babylonians’ destruction of Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah.

The groundbreaking interdisciplinary study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and is based on the doctoral thesis of Yoav Vaknin, supervised by Prof. Erez Ben-Yosef and Prof. Oded Lipschits from the Department of Archeology at TAU ​​and Prof. Ron Shaar from the Department of Geosciences at the Hebrew University.

The researchers explain that geophysicists trying to understand the mechanism of the Earth’s magnetic field track changes in this field throughout history. To do this, they use archaeological finds with magnetic minerals that, when heated or burned, record the magnetic field at the time of the fire.

In a 2020 study, researchers reconstructed the magnetic field as it appeared on March 9^th of the month of Av, 586 BC BC, the Hebrew date of the destruction of the First Temple and the city of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army.

Now, using archaeological finds excavated over several decades at 17 sites across Israel, along with historical information from ancient inscriptions and biblical accounts, researchers have been able to reconstruct the magnetic fields recorded in 21 layers of destruction. They used the data to develop a reliable new scientific tool for archaeological dating.

Yoav Vaknin explains: “Due to the similarity or difference in intensity and direction of the magnetic field, we can confirm or refute hypotheses claiming that specific locations were burned during the same military campaign. In addition, we have produced a field strength variation curve over time, which can serve as a scientific dating tool, similar to the radiocarbon dating method.

An example given by researchers is the destruction of Gath the Philistine (now identified as Tel Tzafit in the foothills of Judea) by Hazael, king of Aram-Damascus. Various dating methods have placed this event at around 830 BC. However, they could not confirm that Hazael was also responsible for the destruction of Tel Rehov, Tel Zayit and Horvat Tevet.

Now the new study, which identifies complete statistical synchronization between the magnetic fields recorded at all of these four locations at the time of destruction, makes a very strong case for their destruction during the same campaign.

However, a destruction plane at Tel Beth-Shean, recording a completely different magnetic field, refutes the prevailing hypothesis that it too was destroyed by Hazael. Instead, the magnetic data from Beth-Shean suggests that this city, along with two other sites in northern Israel, was probably destroyed 70 to 100 years earlier, a date that may coincide with Egyptian pharaoh Shoshenq’s campaign.

Shoshenq’s campaign is described in the Hebrew Bible and in an inscription on a wall of the Temple of Amun at Karnak, Egypt, which mentions Beth-Shean as one of his conquests.

One of the most interesting insights revealed by the new dating method has to do with the end of the kingdom of Judah. Prof. Erez Ben Yosef says: “The last days of the Kingdom of Judah are much discussed. Some scholars argue, based on archaeological evidence, that Judah was not completely destroyed by the Babylonians.

“While Jerusalem and border towns in the Judean foothills ceased to exist, other cities in the Negev, the southern Judean mountains and the southern Judean foothills remained almost untouched. Now the magnetic results support this hypothesis, which suggests that the Babylonians were not solely responsible for Judah’s ultimate downfall.

“Several decades after they destroyed Jerusalem and the First Temple, sites in the Negev that had survived the Babylonian campaign were destroyed—probably by the Edomites, who took advantage of the fall of Jerusalem. This betrayal and complicity in the destruction of the surviving cities may explain why the Hebrew Bible expresses so much hatred of the Edomites—for example, in the prophecy of Obadiah.”

Prof. Oded Lipschits adds: “The new dating tool is unique because it is based on geomagnetic data from sites whose exact dates of destruction are known from historical sources, and the magnetic method relies on reliably anchored chronology.”

A separate paper presenting the scientific principles of the novel archaeomagnetic dating method is in preparation. Prof Ron Shaar, who led the geophysical aspects of the study as well as the development of the geomagnetic dating method, explains: “The Earth’s magnetic field is critical to our existence. Most people don’t realize that without it there could be no life on Earth – as it shields us from cosmic rays and the solar wind. In addition, humans and animals use it for navigation. The Earth’s magnetic field penetrates the Earth’s outer core at a depth of 2,900 km produces streams of liquid iron.”

“Due to the chaotic motion of this iron, the magnetic field changes over time. Until recently, scientists believed that it remained fairly stable for decades, but archaeomagnetic research has contradicted this assumption, revealing some extreme and unpredictable changes in antiquity. Our location here in Israel is uniquely conducive to archaeomagnetic research due to a wealth of well-dated archaeological finds. Over the past decade, we have reconstructed magnetic fields recorded from hundreds of archaeological objects.”

“By combining this dataset with the data from Yoav’s study of historical destruction layers, we were able to form a continuous variation curve that shows rapid, sharp changes in the Earth’s magnetic field. This is wonderful news, both for archaeologists, who can now use geomagnetic data to determine the age of ancient materials, and for geophysicists studying the Earth’s core.”