Researchers proposed that a cosmic object exploded in the atmosphere above the southern Dead Sea and that the blast wave destroyed Tell el-Hammam around 1650 BCE. The hypothesis came from Theodore E. Bunch and colleagues’ 2021 Scientific Reports paper, which was retracted in 2025; a separate expanded version was published in 2025 in the ScienceDirect journal Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. The authors modelled a low-angle detonation at roughly 8.6 km altitude, estimated that millions of gallons of Dead Sea water were vaporized, and interpreted salt in the destruction matrix as evaporite carried from the sea. They described the proposed event as Tunguska-sized. The airburst explanation remains a disputed hypothesis.
Retracted study proposed a Tunguska-sized airburst over the southern Dead Sea
JordanExcavation
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Key facts
- The original hypothesis was published by Theodore E. Bunch and colleagues in Scientific Reports in 2021; that article was retracted in 2025.
- A separate expanded version was published in 2025 in the ScienceDirect journal Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
- The model placed the low-angle airburst over the southern Dead Sea at roughly 8.6 km altitude, not the north end.
- The authors estimated that millions of gallons of Dead Sea water were vaporized and interpreted salt in the destruction matrix as Dead Sea evaporite.
- The proposed event was described as Tunguska-sized; this was a model-based scale comparison, not a directly measured footprint.
Sources
Tell el-Hammamen.wikipedia.org
Tell el-Hammam (also Tall al-Hammam) is an archaeological site in the ... "RETRACTED ARTICLE: A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam a ...
Retraction Note: A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall ...nature.com
by TE Bunch · 2025 · Cited by 1 — The claims that an airburst event destroyed the Middle Bronze Age city of Tall el-Hammam appear to not be sufficiently supported by the data in the Article.
A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam ...nature.com
by TE Bunch · 2021 · Cited by 73 — We present evidence that in ~ 1650 BCE (~ 3600 years ago), a cosmic airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam, a Middle-Bronze-Age city in the southern Jordan Valley ...
Modeling how a Powerful Airburst destroyed Tall el- ...scienceopen.com
by PJ Silvia · 2024 · Cited by 7 — Tall el-Hammam may be the second oldest human settlement destroyed by a cosmic airburst/impact, after the destruction of the village at Abu ...
A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam ...pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
by TE Bunch · 2021 · Cited by 73 — We present evidence that in ~ 1650 BCE (~ 3600 years ago), a cosmic airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam, a Middle-Bronze-Age city in the southern Jordan Valley ...
A Tunguska Sized Airburst Destroyed Tall el-Hammam ...researchgate.net
Excavations reveal that more than 12 m of a palace complex and a massive mudbrick rampart were leveled, and widespread fatalities occurred, with all skeletal ...
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