Decapitated Bulls in “Asphalt Lake”

Bovine-size blocks of bitumen sometimes float to the surface of the Dead Sea during periods of increased seismic activity. Although this has happened rarely in recent years (see photo of one such example), it was a common occurrence in the first century C.E., when Flavius Josephus wrote this descriptive passage about the Dead Sea (known in Latin as Lacus Asphaltitus, or “Asphalt Lake”) in his book The Jewish War: