WALLS OF JERICHO -- Excavated 1997-2010 |
Middle Bronze Age City Defensive Wall -- Jericho, April
13,
2011
The University of Rome 1997 -
2010 (Sapienza)
excavations revealed part of the stone Middle Bronze Age III (1650 BC
-1550 BC) wall defending Jericho. The stone wall foundations were
dug below earlier Middle
Bronze Age mud brick structures and cut through them. The
excavations were in the south side of the mound in Area A. To date there
is no evidence of a Late Bronze Age
walled city. This
stone revetment project was part of the last wall construction phase
in Jericho as the city was destroyed c. 1550 during the Hyksos era. These
findings have cast doubt on the Biblical story of
Joshua and the conquest of Jericho. Earlier Biblical fundamentalists
thought the Joshua conquest might have happened in 1200 BC. Later
archaeologists and historians research indicated Joshua could not have
destroyed all the cities on his list as some were not occupied in the
same generation. There is evidence for a small settlement in the
vicinity during
the Late Bronze Age during the era when the Egyptians operated in the
region. There were
a few Egyptian New Kingdom scarabs found in tombs adjacent to the mound
and very little
Late Bronze Age pottery.
Walls of Jericho Seen in 2011
MBA Walls of Jericho after the Sellin-Watzinger Expedition
University of Rome Jericho Expeditions Web Site 1997-2000, 2009-2010 Excavation Reports