Bryant G. Wood
The author atop the stone retaining wall at Jericho. He is pointing to the remnants of the mud brick wall that collapsed when the Israelites attached the city. On the front cover the author is seen standing in front of the stone retaining wall. The Israelites marched around this wall when they attached the city as described in Joshua 6. (Italian-Palestinian excavation, 1997.)
In the early 1980s, while doing research for my dissertation on Canaanite pottery. I came across some startling information concerning Jericho. Based on the conclusions of Kathleen Kenyon in her famous excavations in the 1950s, it was commonly thought that there was no occupation at the site in the 15th century BC, the time of the Conquest according to Biblical chronology. In the course of my studies, I had occasion to check the reports from an earlier excavation at the site carried out in the 1930s by John Garstang. Kenyon’s reports had not yet been published. To my astonishment, Garstang’s report contained pottery from the destroyed “City IV” which was clearly from the 15th century BC! In fact, Garstang had dated the destruction to 1400 BC and attributed it to the Israelites. Kenyon overturned his conclusions and scholars have accepted her findings ever since. But my research has shown that Garstang had it right all along.
Soon after I finished my dissertation, Kenyon’s reports became available. In them was more Canaanite pottery from the 15th century BC. Why did she maintain that there was a gap in occupation? In checking her comments on the matter (she never published an in-depth study of the pottery), I found that she was basing her conclusions on what she did not find at Jericho rather than what she did find. Since she did not recover any decorated Cypriot pottery from the 15th century BC, found in tombs at other sites in Israel, she assumed that City IV was destroyed in 1550 BC and the site lay abandoned until the later part of the 14th century. Upon delving further into the results from the various expeditions to Jericho, I soon learned that the evidence from City IV backed up every element in the Biblical account.
While I knew the majority of my peers in Biblical archaeology would not agree with my findings, the evidence was on my side. Hershel Shanks, editor of Biblical Archaeology Review, heard me give a paper on the Jericho evidence and encouraged me to publish an initial non-technical article on my findings in his magazine. I did so in 1990, and the reaction was overwhelming.
The international media quickly picked up the story and trumpeted the news around the world. Reports of my article were printed in major newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, London Times, Time, and US News and World Report. Conservative scholars were happy to see evidence of what they had believed all along. Yet, critical scholars quickly denounced the absurdity of my idea. Who was I to challenge the great Kathleen Kenyon? And, besides, it is just not scholarly to try and tie archaeological results to the Bible!
It has been nine years since that non-technical presentation of the evidence for Jericho first appeared in print. I must admit that it put my name on the academic map and gave me a worldwide stage to share my views and my faith. My technical study of Jericho’s pottery was completed about five years ago, but I have had difficulty getting it published in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal due to the implications of the results. Consequently, I have come to the conclusion that I will probably not change the minds of any critical scholars about the Jericho evidence. It is even difficult to get it into print for them to read! But I can clarify the technical archaeology for the average reader and demonstrate the historical reliability of the Joshua story. In this issue is an update of my research, including some dramatic photos of evidence recently uncovered by a joint Italian-Palestinian expedition in 1997.
So, to paraphrase the old spiritual, I am happy to report to you that Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, and the walls did come tumblin’ down!