Roughly between the years 800 and 400 BCE—that is, just in the middle of the span of time the Hebrew Bible describes—radiocarbon dating, often used to determine the approximate age of ancient objects, is woefully inaccurate. But recently archaeologists have been experimenting with a new method, based on the electromagnetism. Amanda Borschel-Dan explains:
The magnetic field is a constantly shifting invisible shield stemming from magnetic ore in the earth’s core, which scientists believe may hold a key for the creation and continuation of life as we know it. Archaeological findings such as pottery sherds, bricks, roof tiles, and furnaces record the earth’s magnetic field as they are burned at high temperatures, causing their magnetic minerals to be re-magnetized to the direction and magnitude of the field when they were heated. These data are similar to fingerprints and are unique to the date they were recorded. The destruction layers of biblical military conquests provide copious materials from the slash-and-burn campaigns.
The more the technique is performed on archaeological sites that can serve as “anchor dates”—dates that have a high certainty of historicity, such as the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE—the more the researchers can compare results and build more complete dating tables, as well as computer models of one of the most enigmatic subjects in physics, the magnetic field.
At [one] site, Tel Beth She’an, a decades-long argument over when the destruction occurred was put to rest through the new dating tool. . . . Finding that Beth She’an was probably destroyed 70-100 years earlier than previously thought places the city’s downfall at the time of the military campaign of the Egyptian Pharaoh Shoshenq [the biblical Shishak], the researchers believe. According to a Tel Aviv University press release, this Holy Land campaign is described in the Bible and in an inscription on a wall of the Temple of Amun in Karnak, Egypt, which mentions Beth She’an as one of his conquests.
Read more on Times of Israel: https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-researchers-say-magnetic-fields-provide-way-to-securely-date-biblical-events/