The Walls of Jericho

The claim

Joshua leads Israel around Jericho, the walls fall, and the city is burned.

What archaeology found

Tell es-Sultan has a major burned destruction layer (City IV). John Garstang (1930s) dated it to c. 1400 BCE. Kathleen Kenyon (1950s) redated it to c. 1550 BCE and found little evidence of a city in the 1400s. Bryant Wood (1990) argued for Garstang's date from pottery. Radiocarbon results published in 1995 by Bruins and van der Plicht support the earlier, c. 1550 BCE date.

Where it is

Tell es-Sultan (Jericho)View on OpenStreetMap

Sources

1. Kathleen M. Kenyon, Digging Up Jericho, Ernest Benn (1957)
2. Bryant G. Wood, Did the Israelites Conquer Jericho? A New Look at the Archaeological Evidence, Biblical Archaeology Review 16:2 (1990)
3. Hendrik J. Bruins and Johannes 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)

Verdict history

• Nov 10, 2026DebatedInitial verdict.