Jericho Was Destroyed in the Middle Bronze Age, Not the Late Bronze Age - The BAS Library
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Battle Over Jericho Heats Up

Jericho Was Destroyed in the Middle Bronze Age, Not the Late Bronze Age

By Piotr Bienkowski

In “Did the Israelites Conquer Jericho? A New Look at the Archaeological Evidence,” BAR 16:02, Bryant Wood argued that the destruction level at Jericho (John Garstang’s City IV), previously dated by Kathleen Kenyon to the end of the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1550 B.C.), should be dated to the end of Late Bronze I (c. 1400 B.C.). He pursues this argument in an attempt to show that this destruction was the one inflicted by the Israelites, as recorded in Joshua 6 and Judges 3. Each of Wood’s arguments is flawed: At each point he is either wrong, does not […]

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Endnotes

1.

Piotr Bienkowski, Jericho in the Late Bronze Age (Warminster, UK Aris and Phillips, 1986), pp. 118–120.

2.

Bienkowski, Jericho, pp. 127–128. Note the discussion on precisely this subject between James K. Hoffmeier and William G. Dever Hoffmeier “Reconsidering Egypt’s Part in the Termination of the Middle Bronze Age in Palestine,” Levant 21 (1989), pp. 181–193; Dever, “‘Hyksos,’ Egyptian Destructions, and the End of the Palestinian Middle Bronze Age,” Levant 22 (1990), pp. 75–81; Hoffmeier, “Some Thoughts on William G. Dever’s ‘“Hyksos,” Egyptian Destructions, and the End of the Palestinian Middle Bronze Age,’” Levant 22 (1990), pp. 83–89.

3.

Bryant G. Wood, “Did the Israelites Conquer Jericho?” BAR 16:02.

4.

For example, James B. Pritchard, The Bronze Age Cemetery at Gibeon (Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1963), figs. 16:2, 32:11, 69:8.

5.

Cf. Bienkowski, “The Division of Middle Bronze JIB-C in Palestine,” Levant 21 (1989), p. 175.

6.

Aharon Kempinski, Syrien und Palästina (Kanuan) in der letzten Phase der Mittelbronze IIB-Zeit (1650–1570 v. Chr.) (Wiesbaden, Ger. Orto Harrassowitz, 1983), p. 225.

7.

H.J. Franken, “A Technological Study of the Pottery of Deir ‘Alla,” in Pottery and Potters—Past and Present: 7000 Years of Ceramic Art in Jordan, ed. D. Homes-Fredericq and Franken (Tubingen: Attempto Verlag, 1986), pp. 146–149; Patrick E. McGovern, The Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages of Central Transjordan: The Baq’ah Valley Project, 1977–1981 (Philadelphia: The University Museum, 1986), pp. 164ff.; Bienkowski, Jericho, p. 110.

8.

Wood, “Did the Israelites Conquer Jericho?” BAR 16:02.

9.

See Bienkowski, Jericho, figs. 52:8, 53:10 for two of the sherds Wood illustrates and pp. 118–120 for discussion of their date, between about 1425 and 1275 B.C.

10.

Bienkowski, Jericho, pp. 112–122.

11.

Bienkowski, “The Division of Middle Bronze llB-C.”

12.

Wood, “Did the Israelites Conquer Jericho?” n. 35.

13.

Bienkowski, “The Division of Middle Bronze IIB-C,” p. 172.

14.

Bienkowski, “The Division of Middle Bronze IIB-C,” p. 176–178.

15.

Bienkowski, “The Division of Middle Bronze IIB-C,” p. 172–174.

16.

Bienkowski, Jericho, p. 10.

17.

Diana Kirkhride, “Appendix E: Scarabs,” in Kathleen M. Kenyon, Excavations at Jericho, Vol. 2 (London: British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem (BSAJ, 1965), pp. 581–583).

18.

Kirkbride, “Appendix E,” pp. 581–583; Bienkowski, “The Division of Middle Bronze IIB-C,” p. 169 note 1.

19.

Bienkowski, Jericho, p. 117.

20.

Kathleen M. Kenyon, ed. Thomas A. Holland, Excavations at Jericho, Vol. 3: The Architecture and Stratigraphy of the Tell (London: BSAJ, 1981), p. 386; Bienkowski, Jericho, p. 116.