Steven Collins (archaeologist)

Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project map in the area of Eastern Kikkar in the Jordan Valley of Jordan

Steven Collins is an American archaeologist and a professor with the College of Archaeology at the unaccredited Trinity Southwest University in Albuquerque, New Mexico, an institution that states that biblical scripture is the "divinely inspired representation of reality given by God to humankind, speaking with absolute authority in all matters upon which it touches".^[1] He has been an archaeologist for 30 years, researching and teaching on Near Eastern archaeology and biblical studies. His work is as a field archaeologist and Bible scholar, working to tie the biblical record to the historical and archaeological evidence.

Collins is the chief archaeologist and co-director of the Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project in Jordan, working with the Department of Antiquities of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. He began the project in Jordan in 2005. His archaeological investigations at Tall el-Hammam, have found the remains of a fortified city that was destroyed circa the 18th and 19th centuries BCE.^[2] In the late 2000s, Collins claimed that the site was likely to be the location of the biblical city of Sodom. The Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project is located about 14 km NorthEast of the Dead Sea in Jordan, an inhabited area East the Jordan River and either side of Highway 65 in Jordan, just north of the Dead Sea.^{[3][4][5][6][7]} Burnt brick and melted pottery^[8] were found at the site and in the Kikkar valley, and skeletons were twisted and mangled.^[9]

Professor Eugene H. Merrill believes that the identification of Tall el-Hammam with Sodom would require an unacceptable restructuring of the biblical chronology.^[10][11][12]

His Near Eastern archaeology work in Jordan is the topic of his current book about the location of the biblical Sodom. He has appeared on US and international television and radio programs. He has also lectured in the US, Europe, Middle East and Africa.^{[13][14][15][16][17]}

Books

• Let My People Go!: Using historical synchronisms to identify the Pharaoh of the Exodus, Trinity Southwest University Press, 2012 ISBN 978-0615687940
• With Latayne C. Scott. Discovering the City of Sodom: The Fascinating, True Account of the Discovery of the Old Testament's Most Infamous City, Howard Books 2013 ISBN 978-1451684308

References

External links

• official website of the Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project