Bitumen

Bitumen [ASPHALTUM]

is doubtless denoted by the Heb. term חֵמָר, chemar’ (Auth. Vers. "slime," only occurs in Gen 11:3; Gen 14:10; Exo 2:3), so called from its boiling up as an earth-resin from subterranean fountains not far from Babylon, also anciently in the vale of Siddim, and occasionally from the bottom of the Dead Sea, which is thence called Lacus Asphaltitesthe lake of bitumen. There are two or three kinds, but each have nearly the same component parts. It is usually of a blackish or brown hue, and hardens more or less on exposure to the air. In its most fluid state it forms naphtha; when of the consistence of oil, it becomes petroleum; at the next stage of induration it becomes elastic bitumen ; then malha; and so on until it becomes a compact mass, and is then called asphaltum. All these substances are remarkable for their inflammable character; the bituminous oils are of late extensively used for illumination and lubrication, that naturally produced being commonly called " petroleum," while that manufactured from this is termed "kerosene." Neither the inventions of art nor the researches of science have discovered any other substance so well adapted to exclude water and to repel the injuries of worms as the mineral pitch or bitumen.

According to Gen 11:3, bitumen was used instead of lime or cement for the building of the tower of Babel. Hit, the ancient Is, upon the Euphrates, says Mr. Ainsworth, "has been celebrated from all antiquity for its never failing fountains of bitumen, and they furnished the imperishable mortar of the Babylonian structures" (Researches, p. 89). Prof. Robinson, in 1838, examined the shores of the Dead Sea. He says: " In the same plain were slime-pits, that is to say, wells of bitumen or asphaltum, the Hebrew word being the same as the word used in describing the building of the walls of Babylon, which we know were cemented with bitumen (Gen 14:10; Gen 11:3). These pits or fountains appear to have been of considerable extent. The valley in which they were situated is indeed called Siddim; but it is said to have been adjacent to the salt sea, and it contained -Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 14:2-3; Gen 14:10-12). The streams that anciently watered the plain remain to attest the accuracy of the sacred historian, but the pits of asphaltum are no longer to be seen. Did they disappear in consequence of the catastrophe of the plain?" (Bib. Researches, ii, 603). In ancient times bitumen was a valuable article of commerce, and found a ready market in Egypt, where it was used in large quantities for embalming the dead; it was also occasionally employed as a substitute for stone. The Egyptians, according to Pliny, made use of bitumen in making water-tight the small boats of platted papyrus-reed which are commonly used on the Nile: the same is done at this day to the Geiser (or Gopher) boats of the Euphrates, and the asphaltic coracles of the Tigris. The little reed-boat in which the mother of Moses exposed her child on the Nile (Exo 2:3) was made tight with pitch of this kind. There are also remarkable bituminous wells along the Upper Jordan, three miles west of Hasbeiya (Thomson, Land and Book, i, 335). SEE ASPHALTUM.

By: Morris Jastrow, Jr., Ira Maurice Price

A substance said (in Gen. xi. 3) to have been used for mortar. It belongs to the class of hydrocarbons, and is a resultant from petroleum, after having gradually undergone evaporation and oxidation. The continuation of this process upon this mineral tar produces the asphalt so abundant at the southern end of the Dead Sea. Indeed, this material gave that sea the name of the asphaltic lake (Asphaltites Lacus). Deposits of this substance are found in many parts of the world, and almost always in close proximity to bitumen springs. The best known among those in the East to-day are at Hît, not far from the site of ancient Babylon. This bitumen was used in coating and thus in increasing the durability of sun-dried bricks, and for various other useful purposes. Hull thinks that the bitumen in the basin of the Dead Sea is probably derived from the bituminous limestones of the Cretaceous series, and that it reaches the surface through fissures in the rock. Of slight commercial importance, the springs of Hît are still used by the native boat-builders.

BITUMEN, asphalt, or mineral pitch is an inflammable viscous substance, composed of hydrocarbons of the same series as those which constitute mineral oil or petroleum. It has in fact been described as ‘petroleum hardened by evaporation and oxidation,’ and may vary in consistency from a solid to a semi-liquid condition. It occurs both in Mesopotamia and Palestine. The springs at Kit, on the Euphrates, 150 miles above Babylon, are mentioned by Herodotus (i. 179), and still yield an abundant supply. There are similar springs at Kal‘at Sherkat, on the Tigris, 60 miles S. of Nineveh (Layard, Nineveh and its Remains, II. 467). In Pal. it is found at Hasbeyah, near Mt. Hermon, and in the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea (hence called Asphaltitis Limnç by Josephus [BJ IV. viii. 4] and Lacus Asphaltites by Pliny [HN V. XV. 15]). Some of the limestone strata in the last-named locality are highly bituminous, and masses of bitumen are known to float on the Dead Sea itself after earthquakes. In the OT there are three Heb. words which denote some form of this substance.

In the Flood-story kôpher (LXX [Note: Septuagint.] asphaltos, EV [Note: English Version.] pitch) is used in the construction of the ark (Gen 6:14). Hçmar (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] and RV [Note: Revised Version.] slime, RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ‘bitumen’) was the mortar employed by the early Babylonian builders (Gen 11:3, LXX [Note: Septuagint.] asphaltos). Bitumen pits or wells, into which the pitchy liquid (LXX [Note: Septuagint.] asphaltos) oozed from the earth, are mentioned as occurring in the Vale of Siddim, i.e. the Dead Sea basin (Gen 14:10). This is quite in keeping with the nature of the region, though such wells are not now found in it. In Exo 2:3 hçmar is one of the substances with which the ark of bulrushes was made watertight, the other being zepheth (EV [Note: English Version.] ‘pitch’). LXX [Note: Septuagint.] includes both in the general rendering asphaltopissa, and they probably denote the more solid and the more liquid varieties of bitumen respectively. Zepheth also occurs twice in Isa 34:9 (LXX [Note: Septuagint.] pissa, EV [Note: English Version.] ‘pitch’). The context makes it probable that the reference is again to bitumen.

James Patrick.

bi-tū´men. See SLIME.