Science/Tech

Archaeologists Contradict Bible Studying Earliest Camel Bones

By Kamal Nayan | Update Date: Feb 06, 2014 10:17 AM EST

A new study has contradicted Bible saying the camel was domesticated much later than what the holy book cites. 

With the help of radiocarbon dating, archaeologists in Israel has pointed that camel may have arrived between 1200 and 900 BC and not between 2000 and 1500 BC that the Bible cities in the stories of Abraham, Joseph and Jacob. 

"In addition to challenging the Bible's historicity, this anachronism is direct proof that the text was compiled well after the events it describes," said researchers in the press release. 

The oldest known domesticated camel bones took researchers to an ancient center of production in the Aravah Valley. The Aravah Valley runs along the Israeli-Jordanian border from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea. 

Researchers also believe that camels domesticated in the Arabian Peninsula might have crossed into Israel through the same valley. 

"Notably, all the sites active in the 9th century in the Aravah Valley had camel bones, but none of the sites that were active earlier contained them," read the press release. 

Bone examination of the camels hinted their existence from the last third of 10th century BC - decades after Bible's Kingdom of David was formed. Other bones hinted their association with wild camels existing during the Neolithic period or even before that. 

Researchers added that the camels' introduction in the region was important in terms of social and economic development too.

"The introduction of the camel to our region was a very important economic and social development," said Dr. Erez Ben-Yosef of Tel Aviv University's Department of Archaeology in the press release. "By analyzing archaeological evidence from the copper production sites of the Aravah Valley, we were able to estimate the date of this event in terms of decades rather than centuries." 

Findings of the study are published in the journal Tel Aviv. 

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