Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 9:27 AM, K Randolph wrote:
> As I was thinking about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and that they
> apparently were destroyed by a rain of bitumen forced out by an earthquake.
> Then the smoke rose up like the smoke of a smelting furnace. That sentence
> got me thinking.
>
> In Northern Europe, where my ancestors came from, there were plenty of trees
> to burn, first into charcoal, then in the forge. While charcoal produces
> some smoke, anyone who has used it for picnics knows it’s not that bad. Coal
> also isn’t very smoky, not in a forge. Therefore, ancient smelting furnaces
> in southern Judea and down into the Negev probably used a different fuel.
> What was it? Was it bitumen? Another petroleum product? Is there evidence
> from other languages or archaeology? Other than that one statement that
> sounds like the burning of crude oil, I know of nothing in Hebrew that can
> answer that question.

Hello Karl,

We have knowledge of some early smithies in the area.  The one at Tell Hammeh
was dated on the basis of olive wood charcoal.  So, it appears the smithy used
olive wood for fuel.  That also makes a lot of sense, because olive trees 
were a
local production in the area  See this article (and perhaps follow it up):

http://www.ironsmelting.net/www/smelting/ARC-MetMines-Veldhuijzen.pdf

What statement are you thinking of?

Yitzhak Sapir