Ancient Mysteries & Interpretations
Tell es-Sultan, ancient Jericho, has the remains of a fortified city destroyed by fire, with collapsed walls and storage jars still full of grain. Excavators agree on the destruction. They disagree on its date: most place it in the 16th century BC; a minority argue for about 1400 BC, matching an early Exodus. No large walled city of the 13th century BC has been found.
Site: secure · Destruction: real · Date: disputed (majority 16th century BC) · Link to Joshua: disputed
"So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets… and the wall fell down flat… And they burnt the city with fire" (Joshua 6:20, 24).
| Researcher | Years | Conclusion |
|---|---|---|
| John Garstang | 1930–36 | City IV destroyed c. 1400 BC; walls fallen |
| Kathleen Kenyon | 1952–58 | City IV destroyed c. 1550 BC; Garstang's walls Early Bronze; little 13th-century occupation |
| Bryant Wood | 1990 | Pottery and scarabs support c. 1400 BC |
| H. J. Bruins and J. van der Plicht | 1995 | Radiocarbon on short-lived grain: 16th century BC |
| Italian-Palestinian Expedition (L. Nigro) | 1997– | Middle Bronze destruction; modest Late Bronze remains |
| Titus Kennedy | 2023 | Re-argues c. 1400 BC |
The physical evidence: a stone revetment wall with a mudbrick wall on top; collapsed bricks piled at the base of the revetment in places; a burn layer about a meter thick; dozens of storage jars full of charred grain. Jericho lies on the Jordan rift, an active earthquake zone, and an earthquake has been proposed as a cause of the collapse; that is a physical possibility, not an established cause.
Traditional reading
The destruction of City IV was Joshua's conquest; the radiocarbon dates and Kenyon's pottery arguments are disputed.
Assessment: A minority position among archaeologists.
Source: B. G. Wood, "Did the Israelites Conquer Jericho? A New Look at the Archaeological Evidence," BAR 16:2 (1990); T. Kennedy, "The Bronze Age Destruction of Jericho, Archaeology, and the Book of Joshua," Religions 14 (2023) (early-date interpretation) ↗
Scholarly reconstruction
City IV fell around 1550 BC, perhaps in Egyptian campaigns after the expulsion of the Hyksos; there was no major city for Joshua to conquer in the 13th century.
Source: K. M. Kenyon, Digging Up Jericho (1957); Excavations at Jericho III (1981); H. J. Bruins and J. van der Plicht, "Tell es-Sultan (Jericho): Radiocarbon Results of Short-Lived Cereal and Multiyear Charcoal Samples from the End of the Middle Bronze Age," Radiocarbon 37 (1995) ↗; L. Nigro, Italian-Palestinian Expedition to Tell es-Sultan (1997–), excavation reports
Scholarly reconstruction
Late Bronze remains existed but eroded away, leaving the story's setting invisible.
Assessment: Possible but untestable; Kenyon found some Late Bronze tombs and a building.
Scholarly reconstruction
The story was told to explain the impressive ruins of an older city.
Jericho was a real walled city destroyed violently. The majority of the evidence dates that destruction to the 16th century BC, earlier than the usual dates for Joshua; a minority argues for about 1400 BC. The archaeology cannot show who or what destroyed the city.
What the evidence shows
Source: K. M. Kenyon, Digging Up Jericho (1957); Excavations at Jericho III (1981)
Source: B. G. Wood, "Did the Israelites Conquer Jericho? A New Look at the Archaeological Evidence," BAR 16:2 (1990); T. Kennedy, "The Bronze Age Destruction of Jericho, Archaeology, and the Book of Joshua," Religions 14 (2023) (early-date interpretation) ↗