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Historic Dead Sea Level Fluctuations Calibrated with Geological and Archaeological Evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Amos Frumkin  and
Yoel Elitzur
Amos Frumkin
Affiliation:
Geography Department, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel, 91905
Yoel Elitzur
Affiliation:
Eretz-Israel Studies Department, Herzog College, Alon Shevut, Israel, 90433
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Abstract

The Dead Sea, the Holocene terminal lake of the Jordan River catchment, has fluctuated during its history in response to climatic change. Biblical records, calibrated by radiocarbon-dated geological and archaeological evidence, reinforce and add detail to the chronology of the lake-level fluctuations. There are three historically documented phases of the Dead Sea in the Biblical record: low lake levels ca. 2000–1500 B.C.E. (before common era); high lake levels ca. 1500–1200 B.C.E.; and low lake levels between ca. 1000 and 700 B.C.E. The Biblical evidence indicates that during the dry periods the southern basin of the Dead Sea was completely dry, a fact that was not clear from the geological and archaeological data alone.

Keywords

Dead Sealake levelsradiocarbon datingarchaeologyBiblical chronologyclosed lakeJordan RiverSodomMount SedomHolocene environment
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 57 , Issue 3 , May 2012 , pp. 334 - 342
Copyright
University of Washington

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