> Josephus was an ancient historian who lived
>from A.D. 37 to about 100. He was a close
>friend of emperors Vespasian and Titus, to the
>point of taking their family name, Flavius. He
>was a greatly respected historian whose writings
>have been considered reliable, not to mention
>expansive, and these writings, or at least much
>of them, survive.

Josephus, from my quick google search, was hardly a secular historian. Seems most of his work was specifically aimed at Biblical study or what some might call "apology". Of course, to be fair, there really wasn't any such thing as a secular historian much before the modern era, outside of a few examples such as Herodotus.

However, the point is still valid. Did Lot's wife's "statue" still exist at the time of Josephus (or does it still exist today?) and was it's presence recorded anywhere?

For me, in order for this to be convincing, I'd have to read somebody's description of what this statue looked like. Here's a URL to a current photo of what some people apparently believe *is* Lot's wife: http://www.kids-teens.org/Monthly_Pic/lotswife.htm If what Josephus saw was something like this, then I'm not much convinced with his conclusion that it was Lot's wife. People see Jesus in tortilla chips too.

After reading more excerpts of what Josephus wrote, it seems like he's more interested in getting people to go look for themselves rather than offering a description of what he saw. So unfortunately, for my purposes, it's not very helpful. I'd be very interested in other accounts of this, however, and will probably spend some time searching for some.

Also, the link below is an article (actually a chapter from a book) about the history of the mythology of the Dead Sea area. Of course, it appears to be from a book called "Warfare of Science with Theology" so interpret it how you will. It's pretty interesting, however, and has a lot to say about the story of Lot's wife in particular and other myths of the region.

-- Dave