Evening star., 1924-06-22
ny MELVIN GROVE KYLE.

President of xenia Theolok4cal Sem
mary, st. Louis, EsyptoioEht' MEM
her Society for Biblical Literature
and Exegesis, Archaeological Institute
Of America, American Oriental So
ciety, vorterasintischen Gesrilschaft,
Berlin, and Victoria Institute, London.
| - EARCHING for Sodom is not as
simple a matter as it sounds.
| 4 1t is not enough to find some
- old ruin supposed to be Sodom.
That has been dome a score OF
times. The search for those lost
cities of the barbaric world, enguifed
| by the fire of the wrath OF Jehovah
and buried for centuries under the
desert sands, has led many fruitless
expeditions into the land OF Moab.
Our first task was to establish upon
indisputable evidence the civiliza-
ton of the Early Bronze Age the
Abrahamic Age, in that region OF
the Dead Sea where Sodom was sup
nosed to have existed. We then had
n show that the long silence OF
scripture concerning any subsequent
civilization there was, or was not. In
accordance with the facts as shown
by the material evidence Having
established these things we were In
a position to inquire where the an
cient metropolis, Sodom, stood.
The Biblical account of the de-
| struction OF Sodom and Gomorrah
states that it rained fire and or1m-
stone from heaven upon the cities.
II does not say where the sulphur
came from nor how the fire was
kindled. nor what caused 1t to smoke
UP to heaven like the smoke OF a
furnace; nor yet whence came the
salt which incrusted one Of the ref
ueees who, like some at Pompell,
lloftered behind and was caught. The
Isndine Of geologic evidence, in sup
Iport of these apparent miracles, was
also a part Of our task
The dificulty of our work can be
lbetter appreciated when one remem-
lbers That Sodom and the Amorits
civilization of its period existed half
a millennium before the time Of Moses
or Tut -ankh-Amen.
exhaustive investigations. Our party
Included DR.. Albright. director Of the
American School of Oriental Research
at Jerusalem; Prof. Alfred Day, geo
logist Of Beyrout College: Pere
Eloise Mallon. an expert on flint and
old stone lore of the holy land;
Na'im Makhhouli Of the antiquities
department Of Palestine, and Mr..
Dinsmore, famous Palestine botan-
list.
}, We went by motor to Kerak, around
through eastern Moab by way Of Es
Salt and Amman. AS far as Amman
we followed the old Roman road
from Amman to Kerak we went by
trail across the desert.
1t was a wild ride, up 5000 feet
from Allenby's bridge over the Jor-
dan to the hill of Kerak, the old
fortress and ancient kir of Moab.
At Kerak we found relics Of Crusa-
der, Arabic or perhaps Byzantine
times But also we found ancient
pottery on the side Of the preoipice
east of town. On the side OF the
predpice. But nobody ever built a
city there! And then in a moment
we knew. The Crusader castle was
Just above. The Crusaders had swept
the rubbish of the old kir over the
edge of the precipice.
There on the side of the preci-
pice we found the remains of kir.
Then our query for the spring was
instantly answered, for right before
our eyes a we'll worn path along
the mountain side led to an excel
lent spring. Along that pathway was
cave and in the cave we found
a tunnel leading straight toward the
site of the old kir on the hill-a
secret way to get water when the
city was beleaguered The high
place, which we supposed had been
swept with other rubbish into the
valley, was found away on the high
est point Of the isolated mountain
on which the city stood.