Dating Biblical Wars through

Magnetic Fields
New framework helps date biblical events

 Nathan Steinmeyer  October 28, 2022

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Burnt mudbrick wall from Tel Batash with markings of field lines.
Courtesy Yoav Vaknin.

Archaeologists often use destruction layers to help date ancient sites, especially when the destructions
can be linked to known events, such as the biblical war between Assyria and Judah. Now, a study
published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has provided a new
framework for using archaeomagnetism to more accurately connect destruction layers to events known
from biblical and historical sources. While this framework can help date destruction layers, it also
provides firm historical dates for several wars mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.

Destruction Layers and Archaeomagnetism

Many biblical sites are marked by destruction layers left behind by the military campaigns of famous
conquerors. While the catastrophic events that created these layers would have been terrible to
experience, the layers themselves are incredibly valuable to archaeologists when it comes to dating
sites. Using archaeomagnetism, an international team analyzed 21 destruction layers at 17 different sites
to firmly establish the date of their destructions. This allowed them to pin down the dates for several
biblical wars and campaigns, including those of Shishak (1 Kings 14:25), Hazael (2 Kings 12:1), Jehoash (2
Kings 14:11), Tiglath-Pileser III (2 Kings 15:29), Sennacherib (2 Kings 18-19), and Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings
25).

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 Section of the Lachish Relief showing a battle between Judah and
Assyria. Courtesy Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg), CC
BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Archaeomagnetism utilizes the earth’s ever-changing magnetic field to date objects. Many ancient
artifacts, such as ceramics or mudbricks, include tiny magnetic particles which, when heated to high
temperatures, act like a compass needle, reflecting the direction and intensity of the magnetic field at the
time of heating. Thus, when an object was fired in a kiln or set on fire in a destruction, it locked in these
magnetic conditions. Reconstructing the magnetic field over the last few millennia, archaeologists can
use this data to pinpoint, with relative certainty, the date of these objects.

Although not as common as other dating methods, archaeomagnetism does offer several benefits over
methods like radiocarbon dating or ceramic typology. Archaeomagnetism “is particularly useful when it
comes to remains from 800–400 B.C.E., a period for which radiocarbon dating does not enable high
resolution dating,” Yoav Vaknin, primary author of the study, told Haaretz.

Dating Biblical Wars

Although most of the destruction layers studied by the team correspond to conflicts recorded in the
Hebrew Bible and other sources, determining precisely when they occurred or which destruction layers
correspond to which campaign can be tricky. This is especially true of several conflicts during the Iron
Age II (c. 1000–586 BCE) that occurred over a relatively short period of time. This has led to some
disagreement regarding the dating of destructions from particular sites. Such is the case with Beth
Shean, whose destruction layer has at different times been attributed to either Shishak or Hazael.
Through the application of the new archaeomagnetic dating framework, it can be confidently attributed
to Shishak—around 920 BCE—nearly 100 years before the campaign of Hazael.

Similarly, the framework was able to date the destruction of the Judahite city of Beth Shemesh to early in
the eighth century BCE, which agrees with the biblical account of the city being destroyed by the
Israelite king Jehoash (2 Kings 14:11–13). Several other destruction layers were likewise able to be firmly
linked to particular biblical wars, including destruction found at Tel Zayit and Tell Beit Mirsim. The
framework has also allowed archaeologists to distinguish between the Babylonian campaigns of 600
and 586 BCE, showing that the Philistine city of Ekron was destroyed in the earlier rather than later
campaign.

Aerial view of excavations near Beth Shemesh. Courtesy Photo

Companion to the Bible; Judges.

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Interestingly, the framework also demonstrates that not all of the towns in Judah were destroyed at the
time of the Babylonian invasion. Instead, several sites, like Tel Malhata in southern Judah, were only
destroyed later, possibly by the Edomites. “This betrayal and participation in the destruction of the
surviving cities may explain why the Hebrew Bible expresses so much hatred for the Edomites,” Erez
Ben-Yosef, a co-author of the paper, told The Jerusalem Post.

Archaeomagnetism can be used to date more than just destruction layers, however. One example is the
date of the famous lmlk stamp handles used in the administration of the kingdom of Judah. Since potters
fire their pottery to similarly high temperatures, archaeomagnetism can be used to determine the date of
a pot’s creation rather than its destruction. While it is occasionally thought that lmlk handles were only
introduced in the Judahite administration after the Assyrian campaign against Israel in 733 BCE, the
study was able to show that they must have instead been introduced several decades earlier, in the first
half of the eighth century.

Read more in the Bible History Daily:

Does Radiocarbon Dating Accuracy Help Us Determine Bible Chronology?

How Old Is That? Dating in the Ancient World

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library:

Biblical Archaeology 101: Dating in the Archaeological World

Dating Jericho’s Destruction: Bienkowski Is Wrong on All Counts

Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.

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