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Even archaeologically, the picture is not so bleak as the minimalists paint it to be, says Hoffmeier. A detailed look at the archaeological finds at Hazor, Ai, and Jericho puts the foregone conclusions of "uninhabited" and "not destroyed" into perspective.

• One of the three cities under question, Hazor, has, in fact, proven to have been inhabited and destroyed during the time of Joshua. Already current excavations have uncovered a palace with a small chapel area. Littered across its floor are the heads of decapitated statues of Canaanite deities and an Egyptian sphinx with the name of the pharaoh hacked out. "The palace was destroyed in such an inferno that many of the mud bricks actually turned to glass," says Hoffmeier. "No Canaanites would destroy their own deities, and no Egyptians would deface their monuments." Only the account in Joshua 11:11 of the Israelites burning "Hazor with fire" fits the evidence.
• "Ai is a little more complicated," admits Hoffmeier. The excavated site thus far shows that it indeed wasn't inhabited during the time of Joshua and wasn't destroyed at that time by fire. That is, if this site is, in fact, where ancient Ai was located. "Part of the problem is that, in the Bible, Ai and Bethel are always mentioned as being close to each other, and the identification of Ai has been based on the proposed identification of the site at Bethel-neither of which has been clearly demonstrated. We may be looking in the wrong place."

"Jericho," says Hoffmeier, "is still an open question." Despite the problems it poses, there is archaeological agreement on three important points that correspond directly with the biblical record: Jericho was destroyed violently sometime in the second millennium B.C.; it was occupied briefly and partially during the period of the Judges (a small palace from that period has been identified); and it was rebuilt completely in the days of King Ahab in the ninth century. The point of difference is over exactly when that first destruction occurred, and by whom.

Kenyon dated Jericho's destruction to 1570 B.C., when the Egyptians kicked the Hyksos out of their land and pursued them north to Jericho and beyond. But while her early findings were published in journals and in a popular book on the subject, only recently has the technical report of her excavations been completed and published. By studying it in detail, Bryant Wood, director of the Associates for Biblical Research, discovered evidence in her findings that sometimes contradicts Kenyon's own conclusions.

For example, one type of pottery she had unearthed was made for a limited time in the late fifteenth century-150 years after Kenyon's 1570 B.C. date of destruction. And seals were found for pharaohs from 1570 to as late as Amenhotep III, who died in 1349 B.C. Contrary to Kenyon's conclusions, these artifacts make dating Jericho's destruction feasible between the fifteenth and thirteenth centuries when most conservative scholars believe the Exodus occurred.

• The Bible says the Israelites crossed the Jordan River on dry ground and then besieged Jericho, seeing its walls fall after they had marched around it seven days. Wood finds this credible even in terms of natural causes (which God controlled for his purposes), given the seismological activity in the region. In an intriguing article in Biblical Archaeology Review, he cites Stanford University geophysicist Amos Nur, who documents a 1927 earthquake and mudslide in this century "that cut off the flow of the Jordan." Nur adds: "Such cutoffs, typically lasting one to two days, have also been recorded in A.D. 1906, 1834, 1546, 1267, and 1160." In the 1927 quake, writes Wood, "a section of a cliff 150 feet high collapsed into the Jordan near the ford at Damiya, blocking the river for some 21 hours." Perhaps, he suggests, the collapse of Jericho's walls resulted from an aftershock to the earthquake that blocked the Jordan River and allowed the Israelites to cross into Canaan.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/1998/september7/8ta044.html?start=8

http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2007/05/Extra-Biblical-Evidence-for-the-Conquest.aspx


In spite of this negative appraisal, we do have several documents that provide indirect evidence as to the factuality of the Conquest. The Merenptah Stela has been known for over 100 years. One innocuous, but highly significant, section of the stela records a campaign into Canaan by Merenptah in about 1210 BC. One of the results of the campaign, according to the stela, was that, "Israel is laid waste, having no seed. Khurru has become widowed, because of Nile-land" (Kitchen 2003: 15). As was so often the case in ancient records, the author was less than truthful in extolling Merenptah's accomplishments. Merenptah definitely did not annihilate Israel as the stela implies. On the other hand, the mention of Israel in the list of city-states and nations supposedly defeated by the Pharaoh attests that Israel was an important entity in Merenptah's day.

The king of the greatest nation on earth certainly would not have boasted of defeating an unknown or unimportant people. Since Israel is the only people group from central Canaan mentioned in the text, it suggests Israel was the most powerful populace in central Canaan at that time. In addition, Merenptah boasted that all of Khurru, a general term for Syria-Canaan, became a widow because of the alleged eradication of Israel. This indicates that Israel's loss would have been devastating to the entire region, again attesting to Israel's importance. In order to achieve this status, Israel must have been in Canaan for a significant length of time prior to 1210 BC. Thus, the Merenptah Stela provides indirect evidence that Israel came into the land ca. 1400 BC as the Bible indicates.

Two recent articles provide additional support for the Biblical model for Israel's entry into Canaan. The first deals with another apparent reference to Israel in an Egyptian text (Görg 2001). A column base fragment, now in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin, is inscribed with a portion of a name list. The surviving names are Ashkelon, Canaan and a third name that is only partially preserved. Görg interprets the third name as Israel. He dates the inscription to the reign of Ramesses II, earlier than the Merenptah Stela.

Even more important is the fact that Görg maintains, based on the spellings, that the names were copied from an even earlier name list from around the time of Amenhotep II, who ruled ca. 1453-1419 or 1427-1401 BC, depending upon which Egyptian chronology one uses. This is earth-shattering with regard to the date and nature of the Israelite entry into Canaan! If Görg is right, it would place Israel in Canaan at about the time of the Biblical date for the Conquest. But, like nearly all important archaeological discoveries, there is an element of uncertainty about Görg's conclusions. Since the name of Israel is only partially preserved, and the spelling is slightly different than on the Merenptah Stela, there is room for doubt. To date, however, no one has challenged Görg's interpretations.


Max