Jericho
The oasis city by the Jordan, one of the oldest inhabited places on earth, whose walls fell before Joshua; later the setting of Jesus healing blind Bartimaeus and meeting Zacchaeus.
What we know — and how we know it
Bible — stated in scripture (with verse) · 1
Archaeology — physical evidence · 2
Life, role & deeds
BibleThe first city taken in the conquest of Canaan, whose walls fell after Israel marched around it for seven days.
Joshua 6:20
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Joshua
Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 3.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)
ArchaeologyTell es-Sultan (Jericho) is among the oldest walled settlements on earth; its collapsed mudbrick fortifications and burnt destruction layer are much debated as to their date.
Tell es-Sultan (Jericho) excavations: J. Garstang (1930-36) and K. Kenyon (1952-58); K. M. Kenyon, 'Digging Up Jericho' (Ernest Benn, 1957); destruction-layer dating debated, cf. B. G. Wood, 'Did the Israelites Conquer Jericho? A New Look at the Archaeological Evidence', Biblical Archaeology Review 16/2 (1990)
ArchaeologyExcavators found a collapsed mudbrick city wall and a violently burned destruction at the Bronze-Age tell. John Garstang dated the fall to c. 1400 BC (a fit for an early conquest), but Kathleen Kenyon's stratigraphy re-dated it to c. 1550 BC, well before Joshua — one of the sharpest chronological debates in biblical archaeology.
K. M. Kenyon, 'Digging Up Jericho' (Ernest Benn, 1957); B. G. Wood, 'Did the Israelites Conquer Jericho?', Biblical Archaeology Review 16/2 (1990).
