Return to Sodom and Gomorrah: Bible Stories from Archaeologists

If the sinful biblical city of Sodom actually existed, asserts paleontologist Pellegrino, it represents a telescoping of oral traditions from diverse places; one likely site, he believes, is Mashkan-shapir, now buried under Iraqi sands, a city which was permanently abandoned by its inhabitants around 1896 B.C., and mapped by archeologists Elizabeth Stone and Paul Zimansky in A.D. 1990. In this colorful, entertaining, often highly speculative excursion, Pellegrino (Unearthing Atlantis) describes the 1988 discovery of a layer of ash in the Nile Delta, reportedly deposited by a global dust cloud from a volcanic explosion which destroyed the Aegean island of Thera in 1628 B.C. Pellegrino contends that the biblical account of the Israelites' enslavement and flight from Egypt represents multiple migrations; that one of the pharaohs during this period was a woman, Hatsheput; and that the parting of the Red Sea to facilitate the Jews' escape was actually a tsunami or tidal wave triggered by the Theran winds and dust cloud. His unsubstantiated theories may irk scientists and scholars but will intrigue general readers. Author tour. (Sept.)