Kathleen Kenyon excavated Jericho in the 1950’s.  Kathleen Kenyon found that the city was destroyed at the end of the Early Bronze Age about 2200-2100 B.C. the walls were fallen down and the city was burned.  It was rebuilt later about 1900 B.C.   During the Hyksos (MBII) times it was fortified with a sloped hillside coated with plaster sloped at 35 degrees and 11 meters high.  According to Kenyon sometime after or coinciding with the Hyksos expulsion from Egypt in 1575 B.C. (in 1992 Grimal published Ahmose was made king of Egypt in 1552 B.C. -- close to the time of the expulsion) the walled MBA city was destroyed.  The upper most layer of town with fortification walls was burned.  Pottery found in erosion gulleys on the mound and in nearby tombs was found to account for Jericho regional occupation until about 1350 with partially rebuilt Hyksos palace storage rooms or possibly houses with lower level shops were reused by about 1450.  A scarab of Thutmosis III as a coregent of Hatshepsut was found in a cremation pit.  The area may have remained in use until about 1400-1350 as two scarabs of Amenophis III were found in a tomb in the necropolis and Garstang used this collection as the benchmark for the last Late Bronze Age occupation of the mound, although the finds from this era were few in number and could not compare to the artifacts from the MBA when the city reached its zenith and encompassed about 12 acres of land.  The Early Bronze Age city was about six acres in size.  A single dipper juglet dated by Kenyon to 1350-1325 was found on the western acropolis on top of the floor of an LBA house different from the LBA building M described by Garstang on the slope of the mound facing the spring.  The necropolis was mainly EB, MBA with a little early LBA usage.  A very small percentage of artifacts were found from the LBA city.  Garstang wrote the walled MBA city was destroyed c. 1600 the time of the end of the Hyksos rule in Egypt.  Kenyon wrote the walled MBA city was destroyed c. 1575.  More recent dating by the Italian expedition pushed the date ahead to c. 1552 B.C.  They attributed the devastation to attacks occurring as the Hyksos rule ended.  Their dates did not agree due to differences in chronology theory over the years.  There was widespread destruction of cities in southern Canaan coinciding with or sometime after the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt close to the end of the MBA.  Soundings of the erosion gullies did not produce LBA pottery after c. 1350-1325 (Kenyon found a single LBA pottery piece near the side of the mound from between 1375-1325.  Garstang claimed he had not found a single piece of LBA pottery on the site that was later than 1400 B.C. from the mound and in the tombs. The soil eroded towards the eastern side of the tell.  The evidence from the tombs indicates the site may have been abandoned during the time of Amenophis III or Amenophis IV after a brief period of lesser occupation without a wall building episode.  Garstang identified some city walls as Late Bronze Age that Kenyon traced to the EB with some repairs made on them after they were founded.  She discovered the EB walls sealed by EB and MB debris.  The Hapiru were making trouble for people in the north ABOUT 1350 BC and the status of groups in Jordan is unknown.  The mound was twelve acres at its zenith in the Middle Bronze Age, it was six acres towards the center of the mound during the Early Bronze Age.  There was no evidence of large scale mudbrick building projects in the LBA found by Garstang, this may account for the lack of LBA soil on top of the mound.  Only some evidence of a few storerooms being rebuilt were indicated.  There were EB walls on the mound that Garstang thought might have been extended and reused into the LBA until about 1400 when he determined the place was destroyed again and that these walls were reported as being collapsed outward due to an earthquake.  Kenyon stated that they were EB walls and found no LBA walled city.  A small section of wall near the southeastern base of the mound labeled was 1400? on a map by Garstang is currently exposed on the ruin after the 1990's work of the Italian expedition for tourists to see and is labeled as 1550 (BC) on a sign.  The town was reinhabited by Jews after 800 B.C.  By digging around the base of the mound the remains of the Iron Age II town were found outside the walls of the collapsed MBII town, some Iron Age ruins and pottery was also found on the flanks of the mound.  Joshua did not likely take LBA Jericho as it was not a walled city at that time and was small in its dimensions.  It was abandoned during a time when some historians claimed Joshua's campaign c. 1200 was supposed to have taken place.  About 1400 B.C. Jericho was abandoned.  During 1400 B.C. it was not a great walled city with houses on top of the walls, there may have been minor reuse of existing structures and wall remnants.  The place did not see major building projects again until about 800 B.C. when the Israelis built there.   

In 1997 the Italian expedition opened up areas surveyed by Sellin, Garstang, and Kenyon.  They found the strata in the order described by Kenyon and affirmed the outermost wall was a MBII-MBIII wall.  They cleared the area at the south end of the mound, made footpaths, and preserved some of the mud brick walls for tourists to view.  The area is currently open to the public and with signs describing the dates of the various walls. 

Archaeology in the Holy Land, Kenyon, 1960.  Jericho, Holt, 1995, Amorites and Canaanites, Kenyon, 1963, 1966.  Digging up Jericho, Kenyon, 1957.  Recent Archaeological Discoveries, Dever, 1990. The Story of Jericho, Garstang, 1948.  Timnah, Kelm and A. Mazar, 1995.  Other references include Palestine Exploration Quarterly 1950's, and the Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statements 1930's, A History of Ancient Egypt, Nicholas Grimal, 1992.  Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 1998, #130, the Italian Expedition. 

Further up from the Jordan Valley towards Bethel north of Jerusalem there were the ruins of Ai near Bethel.  Bethel near Ai was supposed to have been destroyed and burned about 1200 B.C.  In Joshua both the men of Ai and Bethel had run out and attacked Israel (8:17),  Joshua defeated the people of Ai who along with the people of Bethel had attacked him. Joshua was credited with burning Ai.  J. Callaway dug at Et Tell (Ai) and found the third city was destroyed about 2400 B.C. and not rebuilt until about 1220 B.C.  (Biblical Archaeologist 1976 Calloway).  The current evidence indicates that Jericho and the town of Ai were destroyed during different centuries.    

A more recent theory placed Ai about a kilometer away from Et Tell (Ai) at Khirbet el-Maqatir.  Pottery from 1400 was reported there.  This was about the time Egypt had numerous officials in Israel and Amenophis II was campaigning against rebellious cities in Canaan.  Again the destruction of the walls of Jericno happened about 1550;  a hundred and fifty years earlier  

Hazor was occupied from the Middle Bronze Age until it was destroyed about 1250 B.C. (Ben Tor, BASOR #350 May 2008).  More than 30 years ago Israeli archaeologist Yigael Yadin estimated Hazor was destroyed c. 1200  (Hazor, Yadin, 1975).  Joshua was reported to have destroyed this city centuries after the MB age walled city of Jericho fell.    

Heshbon in Jordan was supposed to have been destroyed by Israel in Numbers 21:25.  The earliest remains from Heshbon were some remains from the Iron Age I (1200-1000 B.C.) published in an expedition report published by S. Horn.  

Mereneptah mentioned a campaign where he destroyed Israelis (Isr-r) in the Mereneptah Stele.  The Egyptians did not have a sound for the character "L" in their alphabet, so they used "R."  The stele was from 1209-1208 B.C.   Since the reign of Merneptah began about 1213 B.C.  the battle against Israel must have been about 1213-1208.  The Philistines established Ekron about 1185 B.C.  In Joshua (13:3) it was mentioned that Joshua was not able to take Ekron, Gaza, Ashdod,  Ashkelon, and Gath the cities of the Philistines reckoned as Canaanite, while in Joshua 13:3 it was written that Joshua had taken Ashdod.  This is an obvious error in the Biblical account of Joshua.  .

The story of Joshua did not even mention encountering any Egyptian troops in his campaign, yet Merneptah reported encountering Israel.  The Egyptian army of Merneptah took credit for destroying Gezer and the writer of Joshua gave Joshua the credit for destroying the army of Gezer, after the supposed destruction of Gezer (Stratum XIV described by Dever, 1990, Recent Archaeological Discoveries- Dever presumed Philistine destruction of site) .  Israel was supposed to have already taken control of the hill country by about 1200 as archaeologists indicated that there was a taboo against the use of pork from about 1200 onward.  The "laws of Moses" advised the Hebrew not to eat pork.  According to Herodotus and other evidence the priestly class in Egypt did not favor the use of pork.  Egypt had long controlled or influenced cities in Israel during the Egyptian Hyksos Avaris dynasty during the Middle Bronze Age and the Theban dynasty during the Late Bronze Age. 

The book of Joshua stated that the royal city of Gibeon surrendered to Joshua, yet the city was not occupied until the Iron Age about 1200 and reached status as a royal city during Iron Age II after 1000.  One grave with some LBAI pottery and a scarab was found in a tomb below the IAII walled city of Gibeon by Pritchard.  There was no LBA II pottery or scarabs from after the time of Amenophis III found on the hill of Gibeon.    

Based on these and other findings, Joshua is not a credible account, nor was there credibility of an army numbering 600,000 fighting men crossing the deserts of the Sinai and Negev with their children and livestock.  If they had crossed the desert and then lost even one battle at Ai (Et Tell - "The ruined village") by a handful of men who had been dead for hundreds of years, while Jericho behind them had been destroyed about 1550, and Hazor claimed to have been destroyed by Joshua in 1200 B.C. was to thrive for another few centuries, then there is some sort of calamity in this historical fiction.  In as much as the battle accounts were faked, God's role in the politics of that era may have been faked also.

Of the city states in Canaan described in correspondence between the city rulers and Akhenaten (Amenophis/Amenemhet IV) in Egypt there was no mention of any of the tribes of Israel.  There were numerous regional Canaanite powers; some trying to remain in the sphere of Egyptian protection while they were threatended by the advance of Semitic/Hapiru  forces operating in Syria.  No mention of Gad, Asher, Judah, Benjamin, Dan, and no report of cohesive tribal alliance to meet the threat.  The Canaanite city states had been conquered by Thutmosis III of Egypt, subdued by campaigns of Amenophis II & III and remained subject to Egypt until c. 1350 the times of Amenophis IV when Egyptian control was threatened by forces to the north.  In the next century Seti I, and Ramesses II reported to have control as far north as Kadesh in Syria.  Ramesses II fortified the port of Joppa/Yafo in Israel.  Towards the end of the 13th century, just before 1200, Merneptah campaigned in Canaan and there was a mention of a people named Israel.  None of these events are recorded in the book of Joshua as those who prepared the text lacked knowledge of what had happened.  The early Israelis may have encountered Egyptian forces, but not of Philistines as the Philistine migration was to happen nearly 30 years later than the people of Israel were reported to have been badly beaten in battle by Merneptah.   

One may reject parts of the Torah-Pentateuch and support a theory that God was not a genocidal God, nor should God be blamed for the execution of all the first born males of Egypt with extreme prejudice in order to appease those who thought God was responsible for the outcome of all military conflicts.  The tale of Joshua was fabricated, the Exodus may have been fabricated also.  For all intensive purposes Moses was a novelist with a need to preserve his law.  Moses' laws of hygiene are woefully inadequate and obsolete in the light of scientific achievement and true historical record, including the work of Louis Pasteur and other medical pioneers.  Moses gave you laws against adultery, fornication, homosexuality and perversion.  These are good in principle although one might argue for mercy.  The punishment for adultery required stoning the participants in the act to death that was worse than the crime.  Laws against murder may superceded laws against adultery.  Adultery is a valid excuse for divorce as adultery betrayed the trust in a marriage.  Adultery and fornication may have created single parent families and produced children lacking full parental support. 

Tel Sultan - Jericho from Hilltop Restaurant, April 2008