Numeira (also an-Numayra) is an archaeological site in Jordan near the southern Dead Sea.^[1] The site has substantial Early Bronze Age remains.^[2]

The site is 280m below sea level, on the shore of the Dead Sea.^[3]

Numeira is also the name given to the river and valley (wadi) adjacent to the archaeological site. The river is significantly eroding the archaeological site, destroying perhaps as much as ½ the original settlement due to changes in the water course.^[4]

It has been argued that Numeira approximates the alleged biblical city of Gomorrah,^[5] although other archaeologists argue that it is in the wrong geographical area, was a village as opposed to a major city, and is not within the designated timeframe. Another possibility is that it could be Nimrim, the river valley referred to by the prophet Isaiah in 15:5 whose waters become desolate, or dry up.

Numeira was occupied during the EB III, and several indications that it was a colony of Bab edh-Dhra including a lack of tombs in the vicinity of Numeira, and ceramic evidence the inhabitants buried their dead outside Bab edh-Dhra, approximately 13 km south of Bab edh-Dhra’.^[6] If not a direct colony the pottery remains indicate the two towns certainly traded with each other.^[7]

Calibrated radiocarbon dates place the settlement in the EB III. Habitation spanning approximately 250 years or 10-12 generations. Numeira was violently destroyed at the end of the EB III, (2300 BC.) never to be re-occupied.^[8][9] This is 200 years earlier than the current assumed date for the destruction of Sodom.^[10]

Excavations indicate Numeira was a 0.5-hectare (1.2-acre) walled settlement, though it may have been twice the size we see today.^[11] Though only 30% of the site was excavated (c. 1500 m²) between 1979 and 1983.^[12] The settlement was located on the southern bank of the Wadi Numeira.^[13]

Phase 1a saw the construction of several banks of lined pits around unused square areas. It is conjectured that this represented storage pits around a family tent.^[14] In stage 1b saw the addition of more pits and walls, hearths, and evidence of a more sedentary lifestyle. Phase 2 saw construction of fortification walls and residential and non-residential stone and mudbrick architecture. A non domestic area was located at the western gate.^[15] The Phase 2 occupation saw the addition of more walls and storage pits. The final stage of occupation seems to have been a much smaller town which ended when the town was burned.^[16] and one of the fortification towers collapsed.^[17] An interesting note is that many of the doors in the town at this time appear to have been blocked up.^[18]

• Bab edh-Dhra — a candidate site for "Sodom"

• Photos of Numeira at the American Center of Research

31°07′54″N 35°31′46″E / 31.131588°N 35.529399°E / 31.131588; 35.529399