Carbon Dating on Camel Bones Contradicts Bible's Accuracy

A latest study using radiocarbon dating highlights the time period when domesticated camels were introduced in Israel, casting doubts on the Bible's version of events.

Archaeologists at the Tel Aviv University claim that camels were not domesticated in Israel during the time period mentioned in the Bible. Carbon dating on camel bones reveals that camels were not domesticated in Israel until the 9^th century BC.

According to the biblical stories of Abraham, Joseph and Jacob, camels are mentioned as pack animals in the The Old Testament stories placed in the time periods between 2000 and 1500 BC. But in the new finding, Dr. Erez Ben-Yosef and Dr. Lidar Sapir-Hen of Tel Aviv University's Department of Archaeology and Near Eastern Cultures, claim that camels were not domesticated until hundreds of years after what is mentioned in the Bible, thus challenging the accuracy of the Bible and also revealing that it was written long after the event it describes.

Using radiocarbon dating on camel bone, the archaeologists have mentioned the precise date when the domesticated camels arrived in southern Levant. It is the 9^th century and not the 12^th as mentioned previously. This defines the turning point in Israel's involvement with the world.

"The introduction of the camel to our region was a very important economic and social development," said Dr. Ben-Yosef. "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."

The archeologists found that the camels were domesticated in the Arabian Peninsula. The ancient camel bones are from Aravah Valley that was an ancient center of copper production.

During an excavation program conducted in 2009, the domesticated camel bones were from the 11^th-9^th century B.C., later than the kingdom of David. The other camel bones found in previous archeological layers are believed to belong to the wild camels, which existed during the Neolithic era.

To determine when the camels were exactly domesticated in the southern Levant, the archeologist's conducted another dig in the same are in the year 2013.  All the sites active in the 9^thcentury in the Arava Valley consisted of camel bones.

The findings of domesticated camels in the Aravah valley overlap the changes in the local copper mining operations. The archeological evidence states that several mining and smelting sites were shut down and the one that were functioning used centralized labor and advanced technology. The team links this to the Egyptians who introduced the domesticated camels after conquering the region.

Introduction of these domesticated camels encouraged trade between Israel and other locations. This boosted Israel's economy as well as the social history.

According to Dr. Ben-Yosef and Dr. Sapir-Hen, "The origin of the domesticated camel is probably the Arabian Peninsula, which borders the Aravah Valley and would have been a logical entry point for domesticated camels into the southern Levant. In fact, the first domesticated camels ever to leave the Arabian Peninsula may now be buried in the Aravah Valley."

The finding was published in the journal Tel Aviv.