The Walls of Jericho
Recently I visited my father in Australia and he very kindly gave me two of the gems from his library: The Story of Jericho by Professor John Garstang, and Excavations at Jericho by Kathleen Kenyon. I have read both books before, but that was many years ago, so I am enjoying re-reading them - and doing so has prompted me to look again at the books in my library that deal with Jericho.
The first that came to hand was a slim volume called The Walls of Jericho by Margaret Wheeler. Sir Mortimer Wheeler, the distinguished archaeologist, married Tessa Verney, but she died in 1936. His second wife, Mavis, was something of a socialite and he divorced her when he found her in compromising circumstances with another man. (Never mind the fact that he was unfaithful to his wives!) His third wife was Margaret Norfolk, who he married in Simla, India, and the marriage lasted for eleven years. In 1956, the year of their separation, Mrs Wheeler accompanied Kathleen Kenyon to Jericho and worked with her there, possibly because Ms Kenyon was following the grid system devised by Wheeler and which is known as the "Wheeler-Kenyon Method" in their joint honour.
Her book, which is a somewhat light-hearted account of the excavations, enlivened by quirky pen sketches of the principal characters and events, may have been written as a means of providing financial stability or possibly in an attempt to establish her own credentials as an archaeologist separate from her husband. Whatever the reason, it is a thoroughly enjoyable read, combining a sharp eye for character, a good fund of annecdote and an adequate helping of scholarship.
When I first read the book I held to the conventional chronology, by which the Israelites are identified with the Iron Age I period, and it was puzzling to discover that Kathleen Kenyon did not find any evidence of an Israelite invasion. Indeed, according to her, Jericho was completely deserted during the Late Bronze Age, so there was no city for Joshua and the Israelites to attack!
Since then various scholars have come forward with the idea that the Exodus has been misplaced. It did not happen at the end of Late Bronze but at the end of Early Bronze. The Israelites were not the Iron I people, but the nomadic tribesmen of Middle Bronze I, sometimes known as EB/MB because of the scarcity of archaeological remains left by these wandering people.
Over the years I have become more and more convinced that this New Chronology (or Revised Chronology) is correct and with that in mind I invite you to consider what Mrs Wheeler wrote in her account of Early Bronze Age Jericho. In the first passage she describes what the excavations have uncovered and then imagines a native of Early Bronze Jericho standing on the summit of the tel and viewing his surroundings.
Stand on this highest point and look out over the Jordan Valley. The scene has not changed much in the centuries. Our ancient Jerichoan will have looked beyond the green of his oasis to the white mud labyrinth of the Jordan and to the Dead Sea. On all sides, but for his cultivation, he would see desert slopes hemmed in with mountains. Straight across the Valley, if his eyes were keen, he would recognise a town - Tel Iktanu - which now is but a mound like his own. Only to the north-west has the scene really changed. Clustered at the far end of his town he would be puzzled by the myriad mud houses, very similar to those in the town behind him. Four thousand years separate him from the Refugee Village of today.All around him the great walls of his town defended the citadel: and they were indeed strong defences. From a solid mud-brick wall resting on stone foundations, the slope of the tel descended sharply for thirety-three feet to a double ditch some twenty-six feet below. Behind these ramparts the townsmen felt secure from sudden attack. But earth tremors in the Valley had brought their walls tumbling, and in the end they appear to have been overcome by fire. The evidence left in the earth is clear. On either side of the strongly built penultimate wall a layer of ash had accumulated. Presumably the attackers had thrown fire brands onto the reed-thatched roofs of the houses, which may even have been built on the line of the wall itself. With the roofs in flames, the woodwork of the doors and shutters would soon have caught and the collapsing houses would have deposited the burnt layer that we see today. Outside the wall the attackers may even have kept fires going to ward off the defence. We do not really know how these mud cities were burnt; but we have the evidence of scorched and broken mud bricks, of ash and of destruction.
The 3' thick layer of ash outside the Early Bronze Age walls of Jericho. The last of the Early Bronze Age people rallied themselves after this attack. They set to work to build their last wall. It was a hastily constructed affair; they could not even stop to bank up the foundations with earth, but built the mud superstructure on the loosely thrown heaps of stone. There was no time to make new mud bricks; old ones, scorched and broken, sufficed for the last wall. But all that feverish effort appears to have been of no avail; once more they were attacked and this time they were overwhelmed again by fire. Against the outer face of the defences we have found a deep deposit of fine ash. It lies against the stone foundations and for a depth of almost three feet against the wall. The ash is fine and beautiful to look at; there are bands of salmon pink and pearly grey. But to the inhabitants it had meant destruction. The flames had licked through the open spaces betweenthe stones, drawn inwards by the draught. More and more thornbush and reed must have been thrown onto the fire and the ash piled up until the wall was burned to its very core. At what stage our townsmen fled we do not know, but after the destruction of this wall there is not a trace of them to be found upon the tel.
We dig, record and photograph; but sometimes I think what heartless people we are as we burrow down and unravel the history of this mound. "How interesting," we say. "Here is magnificent evidence for the end of the Early Bronze Age." But to our ancient Jerichoans it was a real and living nightmare: it was indeed the end for them.
Other towns in Palestine were being similarly attacked. If not fire, then fear must have driven the inhabitants from their citadels. Slowly, through the length and breadth of the countryside, the great old ways were forgotten as a new and virile people rampaged through the land.
Margaret Wheeler, Walls of Jericho pp. 79-81
That is the end of chapter five in Margaret Wheeler's book. There are several points I would like you to notice. The first is that Jericho at the end of the Early Bronze Age was a very strong city. Secondly, that the ramparts were damaged by an earthquake. The Bible records that shortly before the attack on Jericho, the River Jordan was dammed near Adam. History records several incidents where earthquakes have caused the mud cliffs at Adam to collapse and dam the river.
Following this initial earthquake, which severely damaged the city and its walls, the people of Jericho rebuilt in frantic haste - in other words, they were aware of an imminent danger. Had there not been such a threat they could have rebuilt in more leisurely fashion and done a better job of it. Notice also that at least some of the houses in Early Bronze Age Jericho were built "on the line of the wall" - and the book of Joshua explicitly states that the house of Rahab, the harlot with a heart of gold, "was upon the town wall and she dwelt upon the wall".
Finally, note that after the destruction of the Early Bronze Age city the previous inhabitants are not to be found - and furthermore, many other cities in Palestine were destroyed at this time, to be replaced by "a new and virile people".
The next chapter is titled, "Wandering Tribes" and covers the period 2100-1900 BC by conventional chronology.
Three thousand years or more had passed since our first town-dwellers had raised their walls on the natural rock near the spring. Jericho was, by now, a veteran town.It was about the year 2100 BC that the Early Bronze Age folk were defeated and faded into oblivion. The newcomers were a semi-nomadic people who were invading Palesstine and destroying the established towns. It is thought that they may have been Amorites. ..."
Margaret Wheeler, Walls of Jericho p. 82
The remainer of the paragraph is devoted to a description of the Amorites and their origins. Notice, however, that "it is thought". There is no evidence that the conquerors of Early Bronze Jericho were Amorites; it is just that some suitable candidates have to be found and they are as good as any.
The archaeological evidence consistently reveals a period of destruction. Many of the great walled citadels of Palestine cease to exist as prosperous towns and the land is given over to nomadic and semi-nomadic tribesmen who introduce new pottery forms, a new style of architecture and a new method of burying the dead. In no way can this period be called an advance in man's endeavour. These semi-nomadic invaders contributed nothing. In later years the Amorites became quite respectable and even produced in the eighteenth century BC one of the world' greatest law-givers - Hammurabi, King of Babylon. But we encounter them at Jericho in their early, crude and rampaging days. ...
Elisha's Fountain at the foot of the tel of Jericho. The defensive ditches of the Early Bronze Age surrounding the town filled up in time with debris washed down from the mound by the winter rains. You can see the ditches now in the side of the cutting silted up with mud, buried and forgotten.
The newcomers did not bother about a protecting wall; after all, they were the strong marauders - of whom should they be afraid? They appear to have camped about the tel and the surrounding countryside, most probably in tents. Often in our search for tombs our trial pits have revealed the fragmentary remains of a camping site consisting of blackened earth and potsherds. Later, on the tel, they built themselves small houses and we have traced the lines of walls built only to the thickness of a single brick.
At one place upon the mound we unearthed a sad relic from their times. It consisted of a small hole cut beneath the foundations of a wall and round the hole stones had been carefully placed. Among the encircling boulders was a small bundle of human bones, that had once been a baby's but were not lying in a natural position. Each tiny bone was separate in the jumble as though the little creature had possibly been boiled and gatherd up into a containing cloth and laid among the stones. Was this, in fact, some sacrificial offering in the foundations of a ceremonial building? How was it that a dismembered baby found itself so carefully placed in this little monument?
Margaret Wheeler, Walls of Jericho pp. 82, 83
Once again there are points to note. Mrs Wheeler repeats that at the start of what we call Middle Bronze many Early Bronze sites in Palestine are destroyed. She also repeats that the people responsible for this destruction were nomadic and tribal in nature. In fact, in the rest of the chapel she describes the different styles of tombs created by these different tribes. Some were small tombs just big enough to contain a single body laid out soon after death; others were very large tombs - though they also contained just a single body, but in these the bones were disarrayed as if the body had been allowed to decay before burial until just the bones remained. A third type of tomb bore evidence, in the form of ant-lion funnels, that the tombs had been created some considerable period before they were used and Mrs Wheeler suggests that there was someone who had the job of digging such tombs by the dozen and then selling them as they were needed. The fourth type of tomb was very similar in size and depth, but carelessly cut. She makes the comment:
In each of these poorer graves we found the same scattered bones, but there were no pottery gifts at all, only an occasional bronze stud. A mean tribe.
Margaret Wheeler, Walls of Jericho p. 96
Then there is the fact that Jericho was deserted for some considerable period, during which the defensive ditches silted up and the only evidence for occupation was the occasional camp fire.
This period came to an end when small, crudely built houses were erected on the tel - and beneath the walls of one of those houses were the bones of a baby, apparently sacrificed as a foundation deposit or offering. The Bible mentions that the person who eventually refounded the city of Jericho, did so at the cost of two of his sons.
In Ahab’s time, Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. He laid its foundations at the cost of his firstborn son Abiram, and he set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub.
1 Kings 16:34
There has been considerable speculation about the meaning of those words. Some suggest that Jericho had become unhealthy, with mosquitoes breeding in the spring of Elisha's Fountain, and that it was disease which killed the sons, but a more natural understanding - in terms of ancient customs - is that Hiel actually killed his sons as sacrifices to ensure the success of his new city.
I think you can see how the discoveries fit in with the Biblical scenario of the Exodus and Conquest. Of course, until we find scratched into the walls of Jericho a graffiti in ancient Hebrew saying "Joshua waz 'ere" we will never be able to prove it, but there can be no doubt - in my opinion - that putting the Exodus at the start of Middle Bronze fits the archaeological evidence, whereas placing it at the start of the Iron Age contradicts all the available evidence.
© Kendall K. Down 2014
