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Bible Encyclopedias
Asphaltum
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
or Asphal′tum (Authorized Version 'pitch') doubtless derives its name from the Lake Asphaltites (Dead Sea) whence it was abundantly obtained. Usually asphaltum is of a shining black color; it is solid and brittle, with a conchoidal fracture, altogether not unlike common pitch. Its specific gravity is from1 to 16, and it consists chiefly of bituminous oil, hydrogen gas, and charcoal. It is found partly as a solid dry fossil, intermixed in layers of plaster, marl, or slate, and partly as liquid tar flowing from cavities in rocks or in the earth, or swimming upon the surface of lakes or natural wells. To judge from Genesis 14:10, mines of asphaltum must have existed formerly on the spot where subsequently the Dead Sea, or Lake Asphaltites, was formed. The Palestine earth-pitch seems, however, to have had the preference over all the other sorts. It was used among the ancients partly for covering boats, paying the bottoms of vessels (Genesis 6:14; Exodus 2:3), and partly as a substitute for mortar in buildings; and it is thought that the bricks of which the walls of Babylon were built (Genesis 11:3) had been cemented with hot bitumen, which imparted to them great solidity. In ancient Babylon asphaltum was made use of also as fuel, as the environs have from the earliest times been renowned for the abundance of asphalt-mines. Neither were the ancient Jews unacquainted with the medicinal properties of that mineral.
The asphaltum was also used among the ancient Egyptians for embalming the dead. This operation was performed in three different ways: the first with slaggy mineral pitch alone; the second with a mixture of this bitumen and a liquor extracted from the cedar; and the third with a similar mixture, to which resinous and aromatic substances were added.
Asphaltum is found in masses on the shore of the Dead Sea, or floating on the surface of its waters. The local Arabs affirm that the bitumen only appears after earthquakes. They allege that after the earthquake of 1834 huge quantities of it were cast upon the shore, of which the Jehalin Arabs alone took about 60 kuntars (each of 98 lbs.) to market. There was another earthquake on January 1, 1837, and soon after a large mass of asphaltum (compared by one person to an island, and by another to a house) was discovered floating on the sea, and was driven aground on the western side, near Usdum. The neighboring Arabs assembled, cut it up with axes, removed it by camels' loads, and sold it at the rate of four piastres the rutl, or pound; the product is said to have been about 3000 dollars. Except during these two years, the Sheik of the Jehalin, a man fifty years old, had never known bitumen appear in the sea, nor heard of it from his fathers.
Public Domain.
Kitto, John, ed. Entry for 'Asphaltum'. "Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature". https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/kbe/a/asphaltum.html.
