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Excavations at Tell es-Sultan In 1868,
Charles Warren identified
Tell es-Sultan as the site of biblical Jericho.
Ernst Sellin and
Carl Watzinger excavated the site between 1907 and 1909 and in 1911, finding the remains of two walls which they initially suggested supported the biblical account of the Battle of Jericho. They later revised this conclusion and dated their finds to the Middle Bronze Age (1950–1550 BCE). In 1930–1936,
John Garstang conducted excavations there and discovered the remains of a
network of collapsed walls which he dated to about 1400 BCE.
Kathleen Kenyon re-excavated the site over 1952–1958 and demonstrated that the destruction occurred at an earlier time, during a well-attested Egyptian campaign against the
Hyksos of that period, and that Jericho had been deserted throughout the mid-late 13th century BCE, the supposed time of Joshua's battle. Sources differ as to what date Kenyon instead proposed; either c. 1500 BCE or c. 1580 BCE. Kenyon's work was corroborated in 1995 by
radiocarbon tests which dated the destruction level to the late 17th or 16th centuries BCE. Although this destruction is dated to 16th century by carbon dating, scholars propose that this destruction could be ascribed to either
Ahmose I(1549-1524 BCE), whose royal signet was found in the necropolis in a slightly later LB I tomb, or
Tuthmose III(1479-1425 BCE), whose scarab was recovered from a cemetery northwest of Jericho. A small unwalled settlement was rebuilt after the destruction, but it has been agreed that the
tell was unoccupied until the 10th/9th centuries BCE. More recently,
Lorenzo Nigro from the Italian-Palestinian Expedition to Tell es-Sultan has argued that there was some sort of settlement at the site during the 14th and 13th centuries BCE. He states that the expedition has detected Late Bronze II layers in several parts of the tell, although its top layers were heavily cut by levelling operations during the Iron Age, which explains the scarcity of 13th century materials. Nigro says that the idea that the Biblical account should have a literal archaeological correspondence is erroneous, and "any attempt to seriously identify something on the ground with biblical personages and their acts" is hazardous. In 2023, Nigro confirmed that Jericho was occupied in the
Late Bronze Age (1400–1200 BCE). During this period, the previous Middle Bronze city wall was refurbished by adding a
mudbrick wall on top of its emerging crest. plate made by Sogdian artists under
Karluk dominion, in
Semirechye. Cast silver of the 9th-10th century, copied from an original 8th century plate.
Academic consensus A minority of scholars maintain that the biblical account is historical and that an Israelite conquest of Jericho may have occurred around the 13th century BCE, but the strong consensus among scholars is that the Book of Joshua holds little historical value. Its origin lies in a time far removed from the times that it depicts, and its intention is primarily theological in detailing how Israel and her leaders are judged by their obedience to the teachings and laws (the covenant) set down in the
Book of Deuteronomy. The story of Jericho and the rest of the conquest represents the nationalist propaganda of the
Kingdom of Judah and their claims to the territory of the
Kingdom of Israel after
722 BCE; and that those chapters were later incorporated into an early form of Joshua likely written late in the reign of King
Josiah (reigned 640–609 BCE), and the book was revised and completed after the
fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 586 BCE, and possibly after the return from the
Babylonian exile in 538 BCE. According to
Ann E. Killebrew, "Most scholars today accept that the majority of the conquest narratives in the book of Joshua are devoid of historical reality". ==See also==