A Chronology for the Cities of the Plain

by Steve Collins PhD

Biblically, the timeframe for the existence of the Cities of the Plain ranges from the early patriarchal period of Genesis 10 to the time of Abram and Lot in Genesis 13-19. Taken at face value, the biblical chronology would thus require the Cities of the Plain to exist during the Middle Bronze Age. Southern Dead Sea sites such as Bab edh-Dhra and Numeira belonged to the Early Bronze Age, and were destroyed hundreds of years before the time of Abram. This is problematic for the identification of these two southern sites as Sodom and Gomorrah.