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Ham

cityOld TestamentBashan1 verse
Today Tell HamCountry IsraelCoordinates 32.514, 35.812

Ham is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Bashan in modern-day Israel. Known today as Tell Ham. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.

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Authority Records
Archaeological Data
Occupation Phases
Chalcolithic4500 BCE – 3800 BCE
Early Bronze Age I3800 BCE – 3050 BCE
Early Bronze Age I-II3800 BCE – 2850 BCE
Early Bronze Age II3050 BCE – 2850 BCE
Early Bronze Age III2850 BCE – 2500 BCE
Early Bronze Age IV/Middle Bronze Age I/Int. Bronze2500 BCE – 2000 BCE
Middle Bronze Age2000 BCE – 1550 BCE
Middle Bronze Age I2000 BCE – 1750 BCE
Middle Bronze Age II2000 BCE – 1550 BCE
Middle Bronze Age II-III1750 BCE – 1550 BCE
Late Bronze Age1550 BCE – 1150 BCE
Iron Age I1150 BCE – 980 BCE
Iron Age IIa980 BCE – 830 BCE
Iron Age IIb830 BCE – 720 BCE
Iron Age IIc720 BCE – 539 BCE
Iron Age III (Persian)539 BCE – 333 BCE
Hellenistic333 BCE – 63 BCE
Early Roman63 BCE – 70 CE
Roman63 BCE – 324 CE
Late Roman70 CE – 324 CE
Byzantine324 CE – 638 CE
UnitoAssyrianGovernance, Villages to Empires Dataset (CC BY 4.0), doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732A. Palmisano, NERD — Near East Radiocarbon Dates (CC BY 4.0), doi:10.5281/zenodo.5767862Uppsala University, ANE Site Placemarks (CC BY 4.0), doi:10.5281/zenodo.6384044

Biblical History

Ham as a city appears in the account of the Transjordanian campaign of Chedorlaomer and his allied kings recorded in Genesis 14. The text states that these kings 'defeated the Zuzim in Ham' (Genesis 14:5) during their punitive expedition against the rebellious city-states of the Jordan Plain. The Zuzim were an ancient pre-Israelite people of the Transjordan region, cognate with the Zamzummim mentioned in Deuteronomy 2:20 as one of the giant peoples dispossessed by the Ammonites. This solitary reference situates Ham in the territory of Bashan, east of the Jordan River. The city's mention in connection with these primeval giant-peoples lends it an air of deep antiquity in the biblical narrative. Its appearance in the Genesis 14 campaign account, which scholars have long debated for its historical connections, places it within the early patriarchal period and the complex geopolitics of the ancient southern Levant before the Israelite conquest.

Archaeological & Historical Notes

Tell Ham in the Transjordanian region of Bashan has been proposed as the site of biblical Ham, based on name correspondence and geographical context. Archaeological surveys of the area have identified surface pottery spanning the Middle Bronze Age through the Iron Age, consistent with occupation during the patriarchal period. The tell's location in the fertile basalt plateau region of northern Transjordan aligns with the Genesis 14 campaign route. However, systematic excavations at the site are limited, and definitive confirmation of its identification with the Ham of Genesis 14 awaits more extensive archaeological investigation.

Verse Appearances (1)

References

  1. Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
  2. OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
  3. Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
  4. Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
  5. Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
  6. Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]

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