How archaeologists reconstructed the burning of Jerusalem in 586 BCE

There’s hardly ever time to write down about each cool science-y story that comes our manner. So this yr, we’re as soon as once more working a particular Twelve Days of Christmas collection of posts, highlighting one science story that fell by way of the cracks in 2020, every day from December 25 by way of January 5. Right this moment: Archaeologists relied on chemical clues and strategies like FTIR spectroscopy and archaeomagnetic evaluation to reconstruct the burning of Jerusalem by Babylonian forces round 586 BCE.

Archaeologists have uncovered new proof in assist of Biblical accounts of the siege and burning of town of Jerusalem by the Babylonians round 586 BCE, based on a September paper revealed within the Journal of Archaeological Science.

The Hebrew bible comprises the one account of this momentous occasion, which included the destruction of Solomon’s Temple. “The Babylonian chronicles from these years weren’t preserved,” co-author Nitsan Shalom of Tel Aviv College in Israel instructed New Scientist. In keeping with the biblical account, “There was a violent and full destruction, the entire metropolis was burned and it stayed utterly empty, just like the descriptions you see in [the Book of] Lamentations concerning the metropolis abandoned and in full distress.”

Judah was a vassal kingdom of Babylon through the late seventh century BCE, underneath the rule of Nebuchadnezzar II. This didn’t sit nicely with Judah’s king, Jehoiakim, who revolted towards the Babylonian king in 601 BCE regardless of being warned not to take action by the prophet Jeremiah. He stopped paying the required tribute and sided with Egypt when Nebuchadnezzar tried (and failed) to in invade that nation.  Jehoiakim died and his son Jeconiah succeeded him when Nebuchadnezzar’s forces besieged Jerusalem in 597 BCE. Town was pillaged and Jeconiah surrendered and was deported to Babylon for his hassle, together with a considerable portion of Judah’s inhabitants. (The Ebook of Kings places the quantity at 10,000.) His uncle Zedekiah grew to become king of Judah.

Zedekiah additionally chafed underneath Babylonian rule and revolted in flip, refusing to pay the required tribute and searching for alliance with the Egyptian pharaoh Hophra. This resulted in a brutal 30-month siege by Nebuchadnezzar’s forces towards Judah and its capital, Jerusalem. Finally the Babylonians prevailed once more, breaking by way of town partitions to overcome Jerusalem. Zedekiah was compelled to look at his sons killed and was then blinded, certain, and brought to Babylon as a prisoner. This time Nebuchadnezzar was much less merciful and ordered his troops to utterly destroy Jerusalem and pull down the wall round 586 BCE.

There may be archaeological proof to assist the account of town being destroyed by fireplace, together with close by villages and cities on the western border. Three residential buildings have been excavated between 1978 and 1982 and located to comprise burned wood beams relationship to round 586 BCE. Archaeologists additionally discovered ash and burned wood beams from the identical time interval once they excavated a number of buildings on the Giv’ati Parking Lot archaeological web site, near the assumed location of Solomon’s Temple. Samples taken from a plaster ground confirmed publicity to excessive temperatures of not less than 600 levels Celsius

Nonetheless, it wasn’t attainable to find out from that proof whether or not the fires have been intentional or unintended, or the place the fireplace began if it was certainly intentional. For this newest analysis, Shalom and her colleagues centered on the two-story Constructing 100 on the Giv’ati Parking Lot web site. They used Fourier remodel infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy—which measures the absorption of infrared gentle to find out to what diploma a pattern had been heated—and archaeomagnetic evaluation, which determines whether or not samples containing magnetic minerals have been sufficiently heated to reorient these compounds to a brand new magnetic north.

The evaluation revealed various levels of publicity to high-temperature fireplace in three rooms (designated A, B, and C) on the underside degree of Constructing 100, with Room C displaying the obvious proof. This might need been an indication that Room C was the ignition level, however there was no fireplace path; the burning of Room C seemed to be remoted. Mixed with an earlier 2020 examine on segments of the second degree of the constructing, the authors concluded that a number of fires have been lit within the constructing and the fires burned strongest within the higher flooring, apart from that “intense native fireplace” in Room C on the primary degree.

“When a construction burns, warmth rises and is concentrated beneath the ceiling,” the authors wrote. “The partitions and roof are subsequently heated to greater temperatures than the ground.” The presence of charred beams on the flooring recommend this was certainly the case: a lot of the warmth rose to the ceiling, burning the beams till they collapsed to the flooring, which in any other case have been subjected to radiant warmth. However the extent of the particles was possible not induced simply by that collapse, suggesting that the Babylonians intentionally went again in and knocked down any remaining partitions.

Moreover, “They focused the extra essential, the extra well-known buildings within the metropolis,” Shalom instructed New Scientist, relatively than destroying all the pieces indiscriminately. “2600 years later, we’re nonetheless mourning the temple.”

Whereas they discovered no proof of further fuels which may have served as accelerants, “we could assume the fireplace was deliberately ignited  as a result of its widespread presence in all rooms and each tales of the constructing,” Shalom et al. concluded. “The finds throughout the rooms point out there was sufficient flammable materials (vegetal and wood gadgets and development materials) to make further gas pointless. The widespread presence of charred stays suggests a deliberate destruction by fireplace…. [T]he unfold of the fireplace and the fast collapse of the constructing point out that the destroyers invested nice efforts to utterly demolish the constructing and take it out of use.”

DOI: Journal of Archaeological Science, 2023. 10.1016/j.jas.2023.105823  (About DOIs).