C!l'u BIBLICAL ARC~AEOLOGIST Published By The American Schools of Oriental Research Uerusalem and Baghdad) 409 Prospect St., New Haven, Conn. Vol. VI September, 1943 No. 3 Fig. 1. Air View of the Jordan Valley, looking west toward Mt. Ephraim. At lower left may be seen the River Jabbok as it flows into the Valley. At the point where it leaves the hills is the site ot Succoth, while in the sharp point which the Jabbok forms further to the east is the site of Penuel or Peniel. ( Dalman, Hundert deutsche Fllegerbilder aus Palaes tlna, 1925, No. 84.) SODOM AND GOMORRAH II. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CITIES OF THE PLAIN J. Penrose Harland University of North Carolina ln a previous article ("The Location of the Cities of the Plain," B. A. V, 2) it was shown that Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim were doubtless situated in the area now covered by the waters of the southern part of the Dead Sea, and that the site of the fifth City, Zoar, is probably 42 THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST (Vof. VI, The Biblical .Archaeologist is published quarterly (February, May, September, December) by the American Schools of Oriental Research. lts purpose is to meet the need for a readable, non-technical, yet thoroughly reliable account of archaeological discoveries as they are related to the Bible. Editor: G. Ernest Wright, McCormick Theological Seminary, 2330 N. Halsted St., Chicago, Ili. (Only editorial correspondence should be sent to this address.) Editorial Board: W. F. Albright, Johns Hopkins University; Millar Burrows, Yale Univer sity; E. A. Speiser, University of Pennsylvania. Subscription Price: 501! per year, payable to the .American Schools of Oriental Research, 409 Prospect St., New Haven. Entered as second-class matter, October 2, 1942, at the Post Office at New Haven, Connecticut, under the Act of March 3, 1879. to be sought near the southeast comer of the Sea. This conclusion was reached frorn a study of the evidence frorn the Bible (particularly Genesis), frorn certain Greek and Latin writers, frorn the study of geology, topo graphy, and water-supply, and from both direct and indirect archaeological evidence. This region, south of the península el-Lisan ("The Tongue"), appears to have been a rather fertile spot, watered by four or five streams which today flow into the east side of this southern ''ernbayment'' of the Dead Sea. Here, too, were doubtless the "slime pits", the seepages or wells of asphalt or bitumen, which are rnentioned in Genesis 14. It would seern that the Five Cities of the Plain were flourishing in the twentieth century B.C. and that about 1900 B.C. some catastrophic disaster brought an end to the traditionally wicked cities of Sodom and Gornorrah and of at least two of the other cities. This area, the "Vale of Siddim" of Genesis 14, was subsequently sub merged as the water-level of the Dead Sea rose, though possibly a faulting or slipping of the rock strata, induced by an earthquake or earthquakes, may have first allowed the waters to escape from the very deep northern part of the Dead Sea into the shallow depression south of el-Lisan. Of equal interest with the location is the manner of destruction of these cities. The expression "fire and brirnstone" has become almost stereotyped although few think oi' the literal translation "sulphur and fire". The destruction has been attributed either to divine agency, or to natural causes, or to both. It rnust certainly be emphasized at the outset that, what ever rnay have caused the calamity, something surely happened at the south end of the Dead Sea which was of an extraordinary character. No or dinary conflagration occurred, but a catastrophe so great and so awful, that the rnernory of it rernained fixed in men's minds and the story of it was passed down by word of rnouth for centures before the Biblical nar ratives were written. Long after the fate of the Cities of the Plain had becorne a part of the written tradition of the Hebrew people, the· appearance of the region served as a rerninder of the fearful episode. Paradoxically, the very dead and barren character of the landscape kept alive the story. As in the case of the study of the location of the Cities, so also for an understanding of the rnanner of their destruction one rnust begin with the Book of Genesis, then consult later writers of antiquity, reports of modem travellers, and scientific studies. THE BIBUCAL EVIDENCE The first reference to the destruction is the parenthetical allusion in the rnidst of the description of the Eden-like Plain in Genesis 13 :10. The 1943,3) THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST 43 kikkar or basin of the Jordan-Dead Sea valley "was well watered every where (before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah), like the garden of the Lord". The wickedness of Sodom is also first mentioned in this chapter and likewise in a parenthetical manner. "And Lot dwelled in the Cities of the Plain, and moved bis tent as far as Sodom. N ow the meb of Sodom were wicked and sinners against the Lord exceedingly" ( 13: 13). ln chapter 18, the patriarch proceeds to intercede for the lives of the innocent persons in Sodom and the Lord agrees to save the city if fifty, then forty-five, and finally if even ten good men may be found in Sodom. But, as appears in chapter 19, not even ten men could be called righteous in ali of Sodom. It would seem that there was never any question of finding even one good person in Gomorrah or in the rest of the Plain. Abraham makes no plea for Gomorrah, Admah, or Zeboiim. But Zoar, which is reckoned as one of the Five Cities of the Vale of Siddim in chapter 14, seems not to have shared in the ill-fame of the other Cities. The two angels are supposed to have found that the "outcry against" Sodom was justified and to have told Lot that they had been sent by the Lord to destroy the city. On the following dawn Lot is urged to take bis wife and two daughters and escape to the mountains. Afraid of the moun tains or of what lived in them, Lot obtains permission to seek refuge in Zoar; anel "just as the sun rose over the earth anel Lot entered Zoar" ( 19 :23), the catastrophe befell the Plain. The next five verses (24-28) may well be reviewed here. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and tire from the Lord out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord; And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward ali the land of the Plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace. The American Translation of verse 24 is: "The Lord rained sulphur and fire from the sky on Sodom and Gomorrah". Attention may be called to the fact that the word translated "smoke" here is not the usual word but one that is used in connection with incense and sacrifice. Furthermore, the word "furnace" appears as "kiln" in the American Translation, and we may note that the word means a furnace or kiln "for burning lime, or making bricks". There is clearly something unnatural or extra-ordinary that is re corded. Abraham, looking from the heights around Hebron, sees smoke pouring upward as if from a furnace or kiln. Of course, in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, there is no possibility of volcanic activity. Geolo gists have ruled that out. Despite some theories advanced, Clapp has come to the conclusion that the latest volcanic activity evidenced in the southern end of the Dead Sea valley took place thousands of years before Abraham's time and that no eruptions have occurred in this locality as recently as 4000 years ago. 1 Possibly the fact that a different word for smoke is used in connection with Sodom may have some significance. It was not the characteristic smoke of a volcano, but of another, though natural, source. W e may dis regard the view that the mist, which the rapid evaporation of the Dead Sea causes to arise from the surface, gave rise to the story of the smoke bein~ 1. Clapp, Frederick G., "The Site ot Sodom and Gomorrah", American Joumal of Archaeology, 1936, pp. 323-344. 44 THE BIBUCAL ARCHAEOLOGIST (Vol. VI, seen by Abraham in Hebron. One near Hebron could have seen mist rising almost any day and such a usual phenomenon would harelly have given rise to a comparison between it anel "smoke of a furnace''. It woulel seem that on one occasion some great conflagration took place at the south enel of the Deael Sea anel the volume of smoke which arose, whether it was seen from Hebron or from nearby, impressed itself inelelibly on the mineis of the people. EVIDENCE OF LATER WRITERS The Greek geographer Strabo, writing about the end of the first cen tury B.C. or early in the first of our era, has much to say about the Dead Sea anel the appearance of the region arounel its southern enel. He com ments at length on the asphalt which "is blown to the surface at irregular intervals from the midst of the deep, and with it rise bubbles, as though the water were boiling ... With the asphalt there a.rises also much soot, which, though smoky, is imperceptible to the eye .•. The asphalt is a clod of earth, which at first is liquefied by heat, and is blown up to the surface ... the source of the fire and also the greater part of the asphalt is at the middle of it I Dead Sea); but the bubbling up is irregular, because the movement of the fire, like that of many other subterranean blasts, follows no order known to us" IXVI, 2, 42-43). He continues in the next section ( 44) : "Many other evidences are produced to show that the country is fiery; for near Moasada2 are to be seen rugged rocks that have been scorched, as also, in many places, tissures and ashy soil, and drops of pitch dripping from smooth cliffs, and boi ling rivers that emit foul odors to a great distance, and ruined settlements here and there; and therefore people believe the oft-repeated assertions of the local in habitants, that there were once thirteen inhabited cities in that region of which Sodom was the metropolis, but that a circuit of about sixty stadia of that city escaped unharmed; and that by reason of earthquakes and of eruptions of fire and hot waters containing asphalt and sulphur, the lake burst its bounds, and rocks were enveloped with fire, and, as for the cities, some were swallowed up and others were abandoned by such as were able to escape." Strabo's vivid description seems to be based on both an eye-witness' report anel on local tradition. It is not impossible for a striking phenomenon to be retained in the memory of a people for hunclreds of years, especially with such reminders about one as a seemingly burnt landscape, the presence of sulphur anel bitumen or asphalt. Anyone who has entered the harbor of the islanel of Thera ( for a \\"hile callecl Santorin) anel seen the wall of the crater of the volcano, which is now the harbor, will never forget the awe inspiring sight. I f the habitation of this islancl has been continuous since the great eruption, probahly in the seventeenth century B.C., it might not be incredible to hear some feature of the story of the catastrophe told as it may well have been told over threc millennia ago. The blackened interior of the crater might well keep alive at least the general account of what happened.3 Philo Judaeus, bom about 20 B.C., gives a rather lurid, imaginative account of the clestruction of thc Cities of the Plain by the fire which raincd dmrn from heaven. This is pure fiction anel is of no aicl to the his torian. For instance, as clearest eviclence of what happenecl he mentions the smoke which constantly asccncls anel the sulphur which is dug out. Bits of sulphur are still found in the southern Ghor, but bis older contemporary, 2. Masada on the west side of the Dead Sea, opposite el-Lisan. 3. Dr. Nelson Glueck, in commenting on the phenomenon of historical memory as evidenced in the Old Testament, relates an experience which Mr. A. S. Kirkbride had while serving with "Lawrence of Arabia" in 1917. "He told me,11 writes Glueck, "that on one occasion, while he was in an Arab encampment, an Arab got up and related the history of his forbears back to forty generations, and that there were others in the assembly who obviously could have dane the sarne, telling who married and who begat whom, and where they lived, and trequently what they had dane, and where they wandered. Kirkbride said it sounded exactly like a chapter of genealogy out of the Bible". ( Newsletter of Nelson Glueck, Aug. 22, 1942). 1943, 3) THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST 45 Strabo, and his successor, Josephus, would surely have mentioned the smoke had there been any to see. Josephus, who seems to have visited the southern end of the Dead Sea in the secon<l half of the first century of our era, recounts the story of the wickedness and punishment of Sodom in his Antiquities ( I, xi, 1-4). • But of more historical interest is J osephus' <lescription of the Dead Sea, its output of asphalt, and the destruction of the Cities of the Plain, found in his Jewish War (IV, 476-485). "Adjacent to (Lake Asphaltitis) is the land of Sodom, in days of old a country blest in its produce and in the wealth of its various cities, but now ali burnt up. lt is said that, owing to the impiety of its inhabitants, it was consumed by thunderbolts; and in fact vestiges of the divine fire and faint traces of five cities are still visible. Still, too, may one see ashes reproduced in the fruits, which from their outward appearance would be thought edible, but on being plucked with the hand dissolve into smoke and ashes. So far are the legends about the land of Sodom borne out by ocular evidence." Fig. 2. Map of the Dead Sea and the Vale of Siddim. J osephus had apparently visited the site of the catastrophe for he asserts that this story about So<lomitis, the land of Sodom, deserves cre denc·e because it is based on what was seen. The thun<lerbolt or lightning appears to enter the story with J osephus· for previous writers spoke of fire coming from heaven. Josephus confirms Strabo's statement that he saw traces of fire or of burning and also remains of the destroyed tovms. Strabo had seen ruined settlements here and there while J osephus sai d that "shadows" or "shades" of the five cities were to be seen. It would seem that at least the entire plain was not under water in the first century of our era. The existence of dry land in part of the area now under the waters of the embayment is also to be inferred from the statement of Tacitus 46 THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST !Vol. VI, whose floruit may be placed a little before 100 A.D. Tacitus, to be sure, is not writing as an eye-witness but he was a historian who, at least in matters not directly concerning himself or his political views, displays criticai judgment; and he doubtless investigated the in formation reported to him. ln Book V, chapter 7, of his Histories he writes: "Not far from the lake ( the Dead Sea) is a plain which, according to report, was once fertile and the site of great cities, but which was later devastated by lightning; and it is said that traces of this disaster still exist there; and that the very ground looks burnt and has lost its fertility." Tacitus proceeds with the story of how plants and flowers wither and crops decay because of the deleterious soil and atmosphere, and admits his willingness to "grant that famous cities were once destroyed by celestial fire". Again we have the reference to the "stroke of thunderbolts" - we would say "bolts of lightning" - but more important is bis mentioning the report that cities were destroyed in this region and that traces of this disaster ( to the cities, it would seem) anel of the fire still existed in his day. Of course, he may have drawn from Strabo, Phil o, or Jo sephus; but from the comparatively lengthy description of the sterility of the region and of the effect upon vegetation, he seems in all prohability to have used another source, at least additionally. Before leaving the ancient sources, mention should be made of the odors emanating from the Dead Sea, which are reported by at least three authors. Diodoros describes the water of the Dead Sea as ill-smelling and bitter and tells how the people are warned of the coming upheaval of asphalt by the odor which, arising from the Sea, carries for many stadia. This odor tarnishes gold, silver, and bronze but the lustre returns again after the asphalt has been spouted forth. It is because of the burned char acter of the surroundings and because of the evil odors that the natives are susceptible to disease and are short-lived.4 Strabo mentions boiling waters which emit foul odors to a great dis tance. Since he speaks !ater of eruptions of hot waters containing asphalt and sulphur, it may have been a sulphurous odor which he noticed, if not some gaseous emanation in connection with the asphalt seepages. His state ment that "with the asphalt there arises much soot which, though smoky, is imperceptible to the eye" is quite significant as we shall soon see. Inci dentally, as in the case of the odor which, according to Diodoros, preceded the rise of asphalt to the surface, so the soot tarnishes the metals and warns the people of the coming up of the asphalt. The two authors seem to have drawn from the sarne or in part similar sources. Thirdly, Tacitus, after mentioning the burnt appearance of the ground and its Jack of fertility, still does not think that it was the destructive fire which brought about the sterility in this region. On the contrary, the his torian believes that "it is the exhalations from the lake that infect the ground anel poison the atmosphere about this district, and that this is the reason that crops and fruits decay, since both soil anel climate are clele terious". Some modem writer has attributecl the reports about the unpleasant odors to imagination. However, it may well be that such oelors at one time did arise from gases emanating from the "Vale of Sidclim" or from the 4. Diodoros, Bibliotheke, 11, 48, 7-9; repeated in XIX, 98, 2. 1943, 3) THE BIBUCAL ARCHAEOLOGJST 47 bottom of the Sea which eventually covere<l it, or from the streams pass ing through, or rising in, <leposits of sulphur. Certainly, Diodoros' "odors which tarnish", Strabo's "smoky, imperceptible soot which tarnishes··, and Tacitus' "deleterious atmosphere" do suggest the presence of gas, a property which, of course, was unknown to the ancients. ln this connection might be mentioned Sir John Maundevile's statement that some call the Dead Sea Fig. 3. The Dead Sea, looking southeast. ln the distance el-Lisan and the southern embayment can dimly be seen. (From Dalman, Fliegerbilder, No. 73.1 "the Flom that is e ver stynkynge". 5 I n recent years the gaseous emanations may have become exhausted or the sulphur washed out. The barrenness and desolation of the region, stressed by many writers, has possibly to some extent been magnified by imagination, fed by the Biblical warnings of the complete destruction wrought as diYine punish ment. As noted in the preceding article, there are severa! areas around the south end of the Dead Sea, which are quite fertile. Abandonment of an organized irrigation system may account for the lack of fertility in places rather than the after-effects of the traditional ''fire and brimstone". How ever, we must bear in mind that in the time of Diodoros, Strabo, and Tacitus, the area south of el-Lisan (where we locate the "Vale of Siddim") was for the most part dry land and that these writers or their informants probably saw ruin and desolation in the area now under water. FIRE AMD BRIMSTOME AMD GEOLOGY After reading the accounts of the destruction of Sodom, in Genesis and the !ater Classical authors, one comes away impressed by certain out standing features of the story. They are: the fire from heaven, a great conflagration, the "overthrowing" ( or "overturning"), an earthquake, the asphalt seepages or wells, and the great quantities of asphalt or bitumen rising to the surface in ancient and rnodern times, the odors and the in- 5. Flom - Old English for "river" - is applied to the Dead Sea by Maundevile. (See note 12.l 48 THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST (Vol. VI, visible soot which tarnishes metals. Bearing these features m mind, one might reconstruct the story somewhat in this wise. A great earthquake, perhaps accompanied by lightning, brought utter ruin and a terrible conflagration to Sodom and the other communities in the vicinity. The destructive fire may have been caused by the ignition of gases and of seepages of asphalt emanating from the region, through lightning or the scattering of fires from hearths. The earthquake is easy to reconstruct because of the frequency of such phenomena in this rift-valley. The seepages of asphalt or bitumen are evidenced by ancient tradition and modem record. The gas is not pure invention, for Strabo's invisible soot and Diodoros' odors which tarnish metals readily suggest a gas. Of course, in the layman's mind at least, gas is more often associated with oil or petroleum than with pools of asphalt. But there may well have been, and may be now, petroleum deposits below the waters of the south end of the Dead Sea. On consulting the article by Wyllie,6 the writer was struck by the notation that Mr. Wyllie was a geologist employed by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. Now Oil Companies do not send geologists to Palestine purely for Biblical research. So naturally one would be led to belieYe that oi! is expected to be fcund, or has been located, in Palestine, and this is borne out by the reports of other scientists. ln the ancient and modern evidence which we have reviewed there is no hint as to the presence of oil in the Dead Sea valley, unless we count a few vague or indirect references. Lynch in 1848 noted the slimy black mud, coated with salt and bitumen, and bis fellow-traveler, Montague, re ported, "We had quite a task to wash from our skin all the oily uncomfort able substance which had clung to us from the Dead Sea".7 To be sure, neither of these observations prove the presence of oi!. Possibly of more significance is the remark of Jo sephus in his J ewisli War (IV, 478) : "Another remarkable feature ( of the Dead Sea) is its change of color; three times a day it alters its appearance and throws off a different reflection of the solar rays". Commenting on this passage, R. J. Forbes says, "This is probably an allusion to the interferential colours caused by a thin layer of oi! on the surface of thc water".8 It may be noted here in passing that as early as 1912 Blanckenhorn had designated this locality as an oil-bearing region anel in 1924 Mr. Alfred Day is credited by Mr. Kyle with the sarne conclusion.9 ln 1936, the American geologist, Mr. Frederick G. Clapp, published the results of bis investigations and concludes that in certain strata in the Dead Sea area liquid petroleum may have accumulated and that this region has proeluced bitumen and petroleum since earliest known habitation.10 Other equally strong evidence will be presented below. Hence all the materiais are present anel the conditions met, which would justify the reconstruction of the catastrophe as outlincd above. 6. Wyllie, B. K. N., "lhe Geology of Jebel Usdum, Dead Sea", The Geological Magazine, 1931 (68), pp, 366-372. 7. Montague, Edward P ., Narra tive of the Late Expedition (1847-1848) to the Dead Sea, From a Diary of one of the Party ( 1849), p. 188. 8. Forbes, R. J., Bitumen and Petroleum ln Antiquity, (leiden, 1936), p. 17. 9. Blanckenhorn, Max, Naturwissenschaftliche Studien am Toten Meer und in Jordantal ( Berlin, 1912), pp. 111-129. Kyle, Melvin G., Explorations in Sodom (1928), p. 118. 1943, 3) THE BIBUCAL ARCHAEOLOGIST -1-9 The case for a natural, scientific explanation of the destruction of the Cities of the Plain is well presente<l by Mr. Clapp, whose study has been mentioned severa! times in the previous article ( see n. 1). For the reader who has no access to this historical-scientific report, the following excerpts from it are here given. "Exudations of bitument, petroleum and probably natural gas (since the last named is generally an accompaniment of these substances), emerging throughout historical times, may have been erratic and have taken place whenever disastrous earthquakes or controlling subterranean pressure impulses were manifested. The seep ages, catching tire from lightning or human action, would adequately account for recorded phenomena without necessarily having recourse to supernatural or fanciful theories ... " <H e is "unable to accept 'showers of sulphur' - a substance which is not known in the region in large bulk - or of bitumen.") " ... Bitumen from the earth is the most probable combustible material, especially as there are voluminous asphalt deposits ... about a mile west of Jebel Usdum ... ln this spot one still finds seepages of semi-fluid petroleum in the form of soft bitumen saturating tarry conglomerates of late Tertiary or Recent age, which have a reported volume of ... nearly 750,000 cu. ft. containing 140,000 cu. ft. of asphalt, emanating either from below the surface or from contiguous Senonian limestones." ln another passage, Clapp writes that "an abundance of evidence suggests an escape of natural gas from the southern Dead Sea depression in the past" and associates the Biblical "slime pits" with "existing and historical petroliferous signs" in the south end of the Dead Sea. "Considering the bituminous nature of the surroundings, gas in association with salt water has probably emerged within walking distance of Jebel Usdum during historical periods, not in one spot alone, but along severa! known fault planes on either side of the valley. The gas may have caught fire and facilitated destruction of the tive ancient cities." Mr. Clapp continues: "These ancient settlements ... were not founded upon rock but on sinking bottom lands of one of the most unstable valleys in the world, - a 'rift.' which still slips between its bounding planes to some extent on the occasio~ of e'!'ery local earth quake. The notorious 'slime pits' .•. were ... probably 011 or botumen seepages, 'mud volcanoes' or primitive hand-dug petroleum 'wells'. (perhaps. a complex of asphaltic ground) such as have been observed by travelers on the Sov,et Unoon, lraq, and lran during the past century." THE APPLE OF SODOM Having discussed the location of the Cities of the Plain an<l the prob able, or at least possible, manner of their destruction, there remains one subject which deserves comment. This is the "Apple of Sodom", the in edible fruit which was considered another memorial of the Lord's punish ment meted out to the Cities of the Plain. ln the account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19 :24-25, the cities and the Plain were devastated along with the inhabitants and "that which grew upon the ground". More specifically, Deuteronomy (32:32) mentions the vin.e of Sodom,: "For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter". It would seem that these bitter grapes are not to be associated with the vine of Sodom for the latter is identified with the colocynth by the Cyclopedic Concordance of the Oxford Bible and the colocynth is a vine allied to the watermelon. The Concordance describes this plant as having "long straggling tendrils like a vine, and a fruit of tempting appearance, like a beautiful orange, and its bitter nauseous taste - bitter as gall - agrees with the description of the grapes of the vine of Sodom". 10. Clapp, "Geology and Bitumens of the Dead Sea Area, Palestine and Transjordan", The Bulletin of The American Association of Petroleum Geologists, 1936 ( Vol. 20, No. 7 >, pp. BBl-909, 11 figures; esp. pp. 907 and 909. 50 THE BIBUCAL ARCHAEOLOGIST (Vol. VI, ln the Book of Wisdom (10:7) the fruit has become a tree-fruit: "To their (the Five Cities') wickedness a smoking waste still bears lasting witness, as do trees that bear fruit that never ripens". Strabo does not mention the "accursed fruit", but J osephus intimates quite clearly that he saw it with his own eyes. After mentioning the ''shades" of the five cities which were still visible, he writes: "Still, too, may one see ashes repro duced in the fruits, which from their outward appearance would be thought edihle, but on being plucked with the hand dissolve into smoke and ashes". Tacitus, though he does not appear to have seen the Dead Sea region, douhtless received the "report" which he quotes, from fellow Romans who had ser\'ed in Palestine. A fter mentioning the traces of the disaster anel lack of fertility in the soil, he says, "Ali the plants there, whether wild or cultivated, tum hlack, become sterile, anel seem to wither into dust, either in leaf or in flower or after thev haw reached their usual mature form". Exactly one thousancl year~ after Tacitus, Fulcher of Chartres, the historian of the First Crusade (1095-1099), wrote a Historj' of Jcrusalem i11 which he elescrihes this peculiar fruit of the Dead Sea region.11 "Among the other trees there, I saw certain ones that hore apples (po111a). \ \'ishing to k11m,· of what nature they were, I gatherecl some from the trees an<l found. when the skin was hroken, that the interior was just like black pmnler. aml f rom insicle carne forth simply ( empty) smoke." ( Po111a, which means a tree - or orchanl-frnit, is here ior cml\"enience translated as "apples".) Sir John Maunclevile of St. Albans, Englaml, travelled through the Kear East (anel into the Far East) during the years 1322 to 1356 and wrote what he saw, hear<l about, and imagineel, in a work entitled The Voiage and Travai/e of Sir John Maundcvile, Kt.12 That he has been rightly called a "veritable Baron Munchausen", is apparent on almost every page. For instance, after saying that nothing, man or beast, which breathes can clie in the Dead Sea for it receives nothing into it that breathes life, he ad<ls: ''Anel if a man casts iron into it, it will float on the surface. And if men casta feather into it, it will sink to the bottom". But he does mention the asphalt which is cast up by the sea in large pieces the size of a horse. Sir John seems to haYe visited the southern end of the Dead Sea for he mentions Segar (the meeliaeval Zoar) anel may have seen this site which he says was set upon a hill an<l some part of it appears above the water and ''men may see the walls when it is fair and clear". He mentions the Five Cities of the Plain anel comments 011 their destruction by the wrath of God hecause of their sin: "An<l in that See sonken the 5 Cytees, be Wratthe of Gocl". He, too, describes the so-called "Apple of Sodom" after mentioning the Cities "lost, because of Synne". He writes: "And there besyden growen trees, that beren fulle faire Apples, and faire of colour to beholde; but whoso brekethe hem or cuttethe hem in two, he schalle fynde with in hem Coles anel Cyndres; in tokene that, be Wratthe of God, the Cytees and the Loml weren hrente and sonken in to Helle". Here, too, we finei the fair- 11. Fulcher of Chartres, Historia Hierosolyma, 11, 4 (more accessible in Thackeray's edition Loeb Library-of Josephus, The Jewish War, Vol. 111, pp. 144-145, in note to Book IV, 485). 12. The edition of J. O. Halliwell ( London, 1866) has been consulted. This is "Reprinted from the Edition of A. D. 1725" as we learn on the title-page, Passages, not dealing with the Apple of Sodom, have been translated into modern English from pp. 100-101.