From: Subject: JERICHO Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 18:04:51 +0300 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="windows-1255" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Location: http://localhost:8780/pubs/journals/kronos/vol0204/064jeric.htm X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3198 JERICHO

Jericho

Immanuel Velikovsky

Editor's Note: The material presented here was = already=20 completed in its entirety back in the late 1950's immediately after = the=20 appearance of K. Kenyon's book - Digging Up Jericho. =

Jericho was the first city west of the Jordan to be conquered by the=20 Israelites under Joshua. It was surrounded by a huge wall that was wide = enough=20 to have houses built on it. Joshua sent spies into the city, and Rahab, = the=20 harlot "let them down by a cord through the window: for her house was = upon the=20 town wall." "About forty thousand prepared for war passed over before = the Lord=20 unto battle, to the plains of Jericho." "Now Jericho was straitly shut = up=20 because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in." = After a few=20 days of siege, the earth groaned loudly -- the Israelites thought in = answer to=20 their invocation and their blowing the horns, and "the wall fell down = flat." The=20 conquerors entered the defenseless city and "utterly destroyed all that = was in=20 the city" (Joshua 2:3; 4:13; 6: 1; 6:20-21).

Joshua proclaimed a curse upon anyone who would rebuild Jericho: "He = shall=20 lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son = shall he=20 set up the gates of it" (6:26). Next the Israelites went against Ai.

Jericho's fortress wall was famous, for it was huge and impenetrable, = and=20 only thanks to a violent earthshock did the besiegers obtain entrance. = This wall=20 became even more famous after it fell, because the story of it is one of = the=20 best-known episodes of Biblical ancient history.

For about five centuries no attempt was made to rebuild the city = accursed by=20 Joshua. In the ninth century, in the days of Ahab, king of Samaria, a = certain=20 Hiel the Bethelite built Jericho: "he laid the foundation thereof in = Abiram his=20 first-born, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, = according to=20 the, word of the Lord, which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun" (I Kings = 16:34).

This short record -- contained in a single verse -- tells not a = little. In=20 order to mollify the Deity and overcome the curse, this private man = sacrificed=20 two of his own sons. The ardor of Hiel, unsupported by the king of = Israel, did=20 not result in a true resurrection of the doomed city. For some time in = the=20 closing days of Ahab, a little band of prophets had its seat there, as = we learn=20 from II Kings 2:15. Near Jericho or its mound, Zedekiah, the last king = on the=20 throne of David, was seized by the pursuing Chaldeans, in -586. Eight = centuries=20 after Hiel, in the last pre-Christian century, Herod the Great built his = winter=20 palace and a Roman theater close to the site.

It was the Jericho that succumbed in the most dramatic circumstances, = its=20 great wall tumbling down, that beckoned archaeologists from the very = first. A=20 mound, visible from afar, covered the ancient city and its wall; an Arab = village=20 grew up nearby because of the clean springs that stream past the mound = toward=20 the Jordan and the Dead Sea, both in walking distance of a few hours: a=20 fortified city that fell in a very definite moment of history is a = desideratum=20 and a prize that are matchless -- and archaeological fervor sensed that = here=20 great discoveries awaited the diggers. But it was not until 1907 that E. = Sellin=20 and C. Watzinger, German archaeologists, after having obtained the = necessary=20 firman from the Turkish Government, lifted earth from a portion of the = mound.=20 The great wall was found and no archaeologist could possibly have missed = it.

The excavation of this city brought to light three consecutive levels = of=20 occupation called by the excavators the "blue", the "red", and the = "green".(1)=20 The "blue" was ascribed to the Canaanite period, the "red" to the = Israelite=20 period, and the "green" to the Judean period. But in the "red" level = many=20 scarabs of the Middle Kingdom were found, as well as pot handles = impressed with=20 seals of the same time. It was decided that all of them had been used as = unintelligible amulets many hundreds of years after they were made.

However, thirteen years after the publication of the report of the=20 excavations, one of the two excavators published a repudiation of their=20 conclusions.(2) He put the city of the "blue" level in the third = millennium, and=20 the city of the "red" level, on the basis of its scarabs, he ascribed to = the=20 Middle Kingdom, a change of eight or nine hundred years. This "red" city = had a=20 tremendous wall and a palace that came to an end in a violent = destruction. The=20 "green" city was assigned to the ninth century, as the work of Hiel the=20 Israelite.

As a result of this new assignment, "in the time of Joshua Jericho = was but a=20 heap of ruins on which, perchance, a few single hovels stood".(3)

This means that the Israelites under Joshua did not find a city on = the site=20 of Jericho; the city walls could not have crumbled during the siege by = the=20 Israelites if they were already in ruins at the end of the Middle = Kingdom.

The Turkish rule in Palestine ceased before the end of World War I = and was=20 followed by British occupation and mandate. John Garstang undertook new=20 excavations at Jericho. He saw traces of intense fire. "Houses alongside = the=20 wall are found burned to the ground, their roofs have fallen upon the = domestic=20 pottery within."(4) "Palace storerooms were burnt in a general = conflagration."=20 "White ash was overlaid by a thick layer of charcoal and burnt = debris."(5)

The consecutive settlements from the lowest level up were called by = the=20 letters of the alphabet. One city was destroyed at the end of the Middle = Kingdom=20 or at the beginning of the time of the Hyksos. The invasion of the = Israelites=20 was synchronized with the end of City "D", sometime in the days of = Amenhotep=20 III: a few scarabs of this king were found in the cemetery, and the = excavator=20 reasoned that the city must have fallen during the king's reign. This = theory was=20 inspired by another theory which identified the Habiru of the el-Amarna = letters=20 with the Israelites.

Finally, after World War II, Jericho being now a part of the Jordan = kingdom,=20 Miss Kathleen Kenyon undertook the decisive work of clarifying Jericho's = history=20 from the Neolithic age on. In several painstaking campaigns she lifted = one veil=20 after another from the city of legend and history. She was not led by = any theory=20 about the time of the Exodus, neither by that of Garstang who claimed = Exodus in=20 the days of Amenhotep II and Conquest in the days of Amenhotep III of = the=20 eighteenth dynasty (Habiru theory), nor by that of Albright that the = Exodus took=20 place in the days of Ramses II and the Conquest in the days of Merneptah = (Israel=20 Stele), both of the nineteenth dynasty. except that in agreement with = all=20 schemes of accepted chronology she expected to find the Old Testament = confirmed=20 and the great walls of Jericho dating from some time of the Late Bronze: = The New=20 Kingdom in Egypt, to which both the eighteenth and the nineteenth = dynasties=20 belonged. Whether the Exodus took place in the days of Amenhotep III and = of the=20 el-Amarna letters, or in the days of Ramses II or Merneptah and the = Israel=20 stele, the Conquest must have fallen into the Late Bronze or the New = Kingdom in=20 Egypt. Miss Kenyon revised Garstang's estimates.

There was found a Jericho of the days of the Early Bronze -- the Old = Kingdom=20 in Egypt. Its defenses were destroyed, and immediately and in great = haste the=20 people of Jericho built again, but their hastily erected wall was = destroyed by=20 fire before having been completed. As to the causes of these = destructions, Miss=20 Kenyon expresses herself this way: "Earthquakes undoubtedly played their = part.=20 Owing to the cataclysmic terrestrial upheavals which resulted in the = formation=20 of this great cleft, the Jordan Valley is peculiarly liable to = earthquakes.,,(6)=20 [In a sequel to Worlds in Collision, purporting to describe earlier=20 catastrophes, the end of the Old Kingdom will be synchronized with the = great=20 destruction known as the overturning of the Cities of the Plain, south = of=20 Jericho.]

In the time of the Middle Kingdom, Jericho was at its apogee as a = city and=20 fortress. ". . . the Middle Bronze Age is perhaps the most prosperous in = the=20 whole history of Palestine."(7) "The defenses ...belong to a fairly = advanced=20 date in that period."(8) There was "a massive stone revetment. . . part = of a=20 complex system" of defenses.(9) "The final buildings [of the Middle = Bronze Age=20 city] were violently destroyed and left in ruins with all their = contents."(10)=20 Fire was one of the agents of destruction. "Over most of the area . . .=20 excavated on the west side of the mound, the thick layer of burning = above the=20 Middle Bronze Age buildings is the highest surviving layer."(11) ["And = they=20 burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein: only the silver, and = the=20 gold, and the vessels of brass and iron, they put into the treasury of = the house=20 of the Lord" (Joshua 6:24). Miss Kenyon reports of the last Middle = Bronze Age=20 city (MBII) that "very little metal was found".(12)]

After the great fortress, its palace and its walls ruined and burned, = there=20 was no Jericho again. The near-absence of Late Bronze remains is = explained by an=20 extraordinary amount of weathering on the site. "The houses of Late = Bronze Age=20 Jericho have therefore almost entirely disappeared."(13) Only in one = small area=20 were foundations of Late Bronze Age houses discovered. When Garstang = excavated=20 the site, he found also "traces of the several houses which sprang up=20 independently of the fortifications upon the ruins of the city at its = northern=20 end."(14) The time of this settlement was near the end of the eighteenth = dynasty=20 in Egypt, the days of Amenhotep III or Amenhotep IV (Akhnaton).

But of any fortifications that the Late Bronze Age settlement might = have had,=20 no trace survives. Garstang thought to have found them in the = excavations that=20 he conducted on the site between 1930 and 1936; but the double line of = wall,=20 thought by Garstang to be of the Late Bronze age, or New Kingdom in = Egypt, was=20 proved to date from the Early Bronze, contemporary with the Old Kingdom = in=20 Egypt. Garstang's conclusion of a sizable fortress in the days of = Amenhotep III=20 was shown to be wrong. Very few traces were found above the destruction = level of=20 the Middle Bronze Age city, which, in accordance with the statement = cited above,=20 "is the highest surviving layer."

"It is a sad fact", wrote Miss Kenyon, "that of the town walls of the = Late=20 Bronze Age, within which period the attack by the Israelites must fall = by any=20 dating, not a trace remains. . . . As concerns the date of the = destruction of=20 Jericho by the Israelites, all that can be said is that the latest = Bronze Age=20 occupation should, in my view, be dated to the third quarter of the = fourteenth=20 century B.C. This is a date which suits neither the school of scholars = which=20 would date the entry of the Israelites into Palestine to c. 1400 B.C. = nor the=20 school which prefers a date of c. 1260 B.C."(15)

We carefully followed this trend of thought and we see that, under = the great=20 walls of Jericho, the theories of Conquest in the days of Habiru = (El-Amarna) and=20 the Conquest in the days of Merneptah (Israel Stele) are equally=20 well-buried.

In Conclusions to her Digging up Jericho, Kathleen Kenyon = wrote with=20 a sigh:

"At just that stage when archaeology should have linked with the = written=20 record, archaeology fails us. This is regrettable. There is no question = of the=20 archaeology being needed to prove that the Bible is true but it is = needed as a=20 help in interpretation to those older parts of the Old Testament which = from the=20 nature of their sources ... cannot be read as a straight-forward = record."

And what a pity it is. "When Joshua wished to lead the Children of = Israel=20 into the Promised Land, he said to his spies 'go view the land and = Jericho',=20 because Jericho was the entrance into central Palestine."(16)

A tragic note is heard in Kenyon's report. She intended to discover = the=20 truthfulness of the written record. Some other scholars did not share = Kenyon's=20 regret. Professor Martin Noth pointed to the Jericho discrepancy as the = best and=20 most decisive proof of the unreliable character of the historical parts = of the=20 Old Testament. It became a major issue for Old Testament studies. When = Professor=20 Wright of Harvard expressed himself as trusting the historical truth of = Old=20 Testament records, he was accosted by Professor Finkelstein of Los = Angeles=20 University with reference to the walls of Jericho that were in ruins = long before=20 the Israelites reached them.(17)

The conclusion reached by the excavator of the great-walled Jericho = -- a=20 Middle Bronze city, destroyed only a short time after the end of the = Middle=20 Kingdom -- is in perfect agreement with the time table of Ages in = Chaos:=20 the Israelites arrived at the walls of Jericho only a single = generation=20 after the end of the Middle Kingdom in Egypt, still in the Middle Bronze = (the=20 beginning of the Hyksos occupation). There is complete agreement between = the=20 archaeological finds and the scriptural record.

In the days of Ahab, Hiel, his subject, built on the ruins of = Jericho. No=20 wonder that the few buildings that were erected at that time and the few = tombs=20 that were used, date from the time of Amenhotep III and IV (Akhnaton). = Hiel's=20 building activity in Jericho falls in their time because they were=20 contemporaries of Ahab. Over sixty-five of Ahab's letters addressed to = these=20 pharaohs are in the el-Amarna collection, found in the short-lived = capital of=20 Akhnaton.

The stumbling block is really a foundation stone; the great walls of = Jericho=20 fell suddenly when the Israelites under Joshua, after crossing the = Jordan, were=20 closing in on the city; and the temporary reoccupation almost six = hundred years=20 later is, once more, a case of a complete agreement between archaeology = and the=20 written record; it verifies the present reconstruction and is verified = by=20 it.

REFERENCES

1. E. Sellin and C. Watzinger, Jericho, Die Ergebnisse der=20 Ausgrabungen (Leipzig, 1913).
2. C. Watzinger, "Zur Chronologie = der=20 Schichten von Jericho," Zeitschrift der Deutschen = Morgenlandischen=20 Gesellschaft, LXXX (1926), 131-36.
3. Ibid., p. 135.
4. = John=20 Garstang, The Foundations of Bible History (1931), p. 146.
5. = J.=20 Garstang and J.B.E. Garstang, The Story of Jericho (1940), p. = 104.
6.=20 Kathleen Kenyon, Digging Up Jericho (London, 1957), pp. = 175-176.
7.=20 Ibid., p. 212.
8. Ibid., p. 214.
9. Ibid., p. = 215.
10. Ibid., p. 229,
11. Ibid., p. 261.
12. = Ibid.,=20 p. 232.
13. Ibid., p. 261.
14. John Garstang, The=20 Foundations of Bible History, 'Joshua, Judges', (New York, 1931), p. = 14=20 6.
15. K. Kenyon, op. cit., pp. 261-262.
16. Ibid.,=20 266.
17. G. Ernest Wright, "Is Glueck's Aim to Prove that the = Bible is=20 True?", The Biblical Archaeologist Reader, (Anchor Books,=20 1961).

FURTHER READING

John J. Bimson, "The Conquest of Canaan and the Revised Chronology," = S.I.S.=20 Review I, 3 (Summer 1976), pp. 2ff.

G. Gammon, "The Walls of Jericho," Ibid., pp. 4-5.

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