Researchers Analyzing Ice Samples At Mount Kilimanjaro Unearth Age-Old Insights From The Bible

For many of us, ice is just a way to cool down a drink, or a beautiful perk to chilly winter months. For scientists, however, ice is like a time machine. If read correctly, it can tell us what the world was like many thousands of years ago. Using ice samples from Mount Kilimanjaro, scientists have been able to study large-scale changes in climate.

Although ice might not seem that amazing, scientists can learn quite a lot from those bits of frozen water. That’s why they go through physical hardships (and bureaucratic annoyances) to travel the world and drill into glaciers and ice sheets!

Glaciers and ice fields form over centuries and during that slow process, each new layer creates a record of changes in the climate. This provides scientists with lots of valuable information. For example, from air bubbles locked in the ice, scientists can learn about levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Many people view the stories in the Bible as just that – stories. However, the ice cores taken from Mount Kilimanjaro show that at least some of the stories were based on fact. To better understand this, we need to look into Mount Kilimanjaro itself. 

Mount Kilimanjaro is made up of three volcanic cones – Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira. The first two, Shira and Mawenzi, are 13,140 feet and 16,893 feet high, respectively. Both of them are extinct volcanoes. The last one, Kira, is upwards of 19,354 feet and is not extinct – it could erupt sometime in the future!

The Chaga are an indigenous Bantu-speaking people who live near Mount Kilimanjaro. It’s believed that they migrated there in the 11th century and have stayed ever since. They typically live on the south and eastern sides of the mountain.

The environment surrounding Mount Kilimanjaro is full of life. The 1,000 square miles of land encircling the mountain is forested, including cloud forests to the southeast. Lots of animals – like the elephants below – can be spotted roaming around the area.

In 1954, the mountaineer Gustav Reusch climbed to the top of Kilimanjaro for the 25th time! To celebrate this feat, the government of the time named Reusch Crater – one of three craters in Kibo’s cone – after him. 

In a May 11, 1848 diary entry, Rebmann documented what he and Krapf had seen. He wrote, “This morning, at 10 o’clock, we obtained a clearer view of the mountains of Jagga [Mount Kilimanjaro]– the summit of one of which was covered by what looked like a beautiful white cloud.” 

Once word spread, Europeans came in small groups to try and climb the mountain. There were quite a few unsuccessful attempts to climb to Kibo’s peak. Finally, however, Hans Meyer and Ludwig Purtscheller made it to Kibo’s summit in 1889 – nearly 40 years after the initial sighting.

In 1912, after a gap of 25 years, another pair of European climbers summited the mountain. Also from Germany, their names were Fritz Klute and Eduard Oehler. Their trail took them to the summit of Mawenzi – a more technical climb than Kibo. 

Mount Kilimanjaro is (as you might imagine) cold. Nighttime temperatures can fall as low as -20°F. Yet despite the frosty temperature, the glaciers and snow cover have been steadily shrinking ever since records began in the early 20th century.

In 2000, Ohio State University geologist Lonnie Thompson led a group of researchers to Kilimanjaro to collect ice cores. They camped for a few weeks at 19,300 feet to drill for six cores. This was meant to determine why the frozen water was disappearing.

The holes they dug ranged from 30 to almost 170 feet in length. After extracting the ice cores and transporting them back, the team spent two years analyzing them. The results were published in “Kilimanjaro Ice Core Records: Evidence of Holocene Climate Change in Tropical Africa.”

Knowledge of how to date ice cores came from work on nuclear bombs in the 1950s. It was found that a certain isotope decayed at a predictable rate, and this allowed scientists to date things over long periods. Thompson’s team used this knowledge to understand what was happening in the ice cores.

That was the first of three droughts, and the third one is where things get interesting. It happened around 4,000 to 3,700 years ago, a time that coincides with the story of Joseph as told in the Book of Genesis.

To show his affection and favoritism, Jacob gave Joseph “a coat of many colors.” This gift, however, made Joseph’s brothers intensely jealous. Their jealousy grew upon learning of Joseph’s ability to interpret his mystical dreams.

Joseph became a house slave to a rich Egyptian named Potiphar. His wife Zuleika grew a little too fond of Joseph. Although Joseph turned down her advances, he was still thrown into prison because she gave false rape charges.

A few years later, the pharaoh had a strange dream that no one could interpret accurately. However, the pharaoh’s cup-bearer, who just regained his position, remembered Joseph’s abilities and told the pharaoh.

With this vision of the future, Joseph set about mitigating the bad effects. During the seven years of good harvest, Joseph ordered a huge quantity of grain to be stored away. When the seven years of drought and famine finally came, the people lived off the stored grain.

The scientific evidence alongside biblical accounts and other ancient Egyptian records point toward a huge drought- one so severe that it put the authority of the pharaohs at risk.

A decade after Thompson’s ice core discovery, another biblical story was starting to get backed up by scientific evidence. At Mount Zion, archeologists were combing through thousands of years of history. 

In 586 BCE, Jerusalem fell to Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II. His armies destroyed Judean King Zedekiah alongside most of the city – including King Solomon’s Temple! This has sparked archaeological interest ever since. How much is a legend and how much is fact?

Jerusalem was first inhabited around 4,500 BCE. Things were relatively stable for a while. Around the 12th century, the Canaanite people came to the area. A few centuries later, the invasions came. 

Jerusalem is hugely important to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. For this reason and others, amateurs and experts have been trying to excavate the area since at least the late 19th century.

One find, for example, came in the form of an ancient coin. The UNCC archeologists and students found it at Mount Zion and dated it back to 56 CE. The coin showed Emperor Nero’s face on it. This unique insignia gave evidence that the Romans were in Jerusalem at least 14 years before they sacked it.

The archaeologists also unearthed a stone cup inscribed with Hebrew letters. These letters were the same as the letters found on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Digging elsewhere, the archeologists also came across a gate that dated back to the First Crusades.

From the 7th century CE until the First Crusades, Jerusalem was under Islamic control. In 1099, after four years of warfare, Jerusalem came under Christian control. Flash-forward to modern times – archeologists on Mount Zion unearthed evidence that seemed to show how this 11th-century battle went down. 

When excavating the old city, archeologists found a filled-in ditch. Not only that, but nearby they unearthed a piece of beautifully designed jewelry. This was thought to have belonged to a Muslim person defending the city against Crusader attacks.

While archeologists were working on their excavations at the Western Hill, they unearthed another piece of jewelry. This one, however, was found to be far older than the First Crusades – at least 1,700 years older!

Jewelry wasn’t the only thing found at the dig site. Archaeologists also discovered a lot of ash, some household items (lamps, pottery), and a few arrowheads. 

King Nebuchadnezzar II had put Zedekiah in charge of Jerusalem, and during Zedekiah’s reign, Jerusalem became a wealthy city. However, Zedekiah defied the man who put him in charge by allying with the Egyptians. This caused an angered Nebuchadnezzar to attack the city.

It’s hard to know how much is true. The minimalist school of thought seeks independent evidence to show what happened. The maximalist school uses archaeology to support scripture.

Shimon Gibson, a professor from UNCC, explained the context of their archeological finds to the Haaretz newspaper. “For archaeologists, an ashen layer can mean a number of different things,” he said. This can range from oven remnants to the burning of garbage.

The biblical scriptures claim that Jerusalem was quite a wealthy place before Nebuchadnezzar II came along and destroyed it. Supposedly, Nebuchadnezzar and his army were seen taking gold and copper vessels from the sacked city. Recent archeological finds seem to support that claim.

Archaeologists are now fairly certain that the location of present-day  Mount Zion was part of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. Further excavations at the site found structures on the Western Hill that were centuries older than that. This led to the conclusion that the city of 586 BCE was larger than previously thought.

Discoveries like this aren’t made all the time. “Frankly, jewelry is a rare find at conflict sites,” Gibson told the Daily Mail, “because this is exactly the sort of thing that attackers will loot and later melt down.” 

As mentioned above, arrowheads were also found nearby the jewelry. These iron and bronze weapons were historically significant because they were tied to the Scythian people, which in turn, links the story back to the Babylonians who destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BCE. 

The recent archeological finds have left many researchers excited because it allows them to better understand historical events like the fall of Jerusalem. Shimon Gibson in particular is excited at how these finds relate to stories in Kings 25:9.

As far as history goes, Nebuchadnezzar’s brutal battle against Jerusalem was far from the last battle that Jerusalem underwent. In 70 CE, the Romans attacked it, and the Crusades saw it destroyed multiple times. Modern-day Jews honor this tragic history by fasting on Tisha B’Av. 

Israeli archaeologists have discovered three elaborate capitals (column heads) from a first temple-era palace during an excavation at the Armon Hanatziv promenade in Jerusalem. Column heads are used to support slabs and increase their sheer strength. 

IAA, in a statement, said that the column heads had various sizes and came in the “Proto-Aeolian” architectural style. Proto-Aeolian-styled building features were characteristic of the first temple period and were commonly used for royal buildings.

IAA’s Yaakov Billig, the director of the excavation, described “the first-time discovery of scaled-down models of the giant proto-Aeolian capitals” as “very exciting.” He mentioned that they had the best workmanship levels ever, and the degree to which they have been preserved is rare.

Billig’s narration is in line with the story of King Hezekiah in the bible. According to the bible, Hezekiah (Ezekias) was Judah’s 13th king. King Hezekiah witnessed Israel’s destruction when King Sennacherib of Assyria laid siege on Jerusalem.

The position and location where the column heads were found suggest that they were purposely hidden. While no one knows why or who hid them, “there is no doubt that this is one of the mysteries at this unique site, to which we will try to offer a solution,” Billig’s statement read.