The site has been the subject of controversy due to claims linking it to the biblical city of Sodom, a hypothesis rejected by mainstream archaeologists.

The site was occupied beginning in the Late Chalcolithic period (4th Millennium BC) based on pottery finds.

Architectural remains begin in the Early Bronze Age (3rd Millennium BC) and the site was protected by walls, upper and lower, at that time.

[1] Many scholars have identified the Late Bronze Age settlement at Tell el-Hammam as Abel-Shittim, mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as one of the Stations of the Exodus.

[2][better source needed] In classical antiquity, it has been suggested that it formed part of the city of Livias, the main centre or which is thought to have been at Tell er-Rameh, 2.75 km (1.71 mi) northwest of Tell el-Hammam.

[8][9] The Australian archaeologist Kay Prag briefly surveyed the site on behalf of the British Institute at Amman for Archaeology and History in 1975–1976, while working at nearby Tell Iktanu.

Prag returned in 1990 to complete the survey in the lower town finding a 3.5 meter wide fortification wall faced with large limestone blocks.

[10][11][12] Since 2005, excavations at the site have been directed by Steven Collins of Trinity Southwest University,[13][14] an unaccredited biblical inerrantist institution in the United States.

[17][18][19] In 2016, a team from the University of Oxford noted that the excavations had resulted in significant disruption to the ancient mound,[20] and archaeologists have expressed concern that by linking the site to Sodom the excavators encourage looting and the illegal trade of antiquities, because objects "marketed explicitly to people seeking a tangible connection with the Bible" are in high demand.

"[27] An op-ed published in Sapiens Anthropology Magazine called the claim "pseudoscientific", suggested that it could erode scientific integrity, and warned that it may lead to the destruction of the site by looters.