What Scripture says
Joshua 6 tells how Israel took Jericho, the first city they faced after crossing the Jordan:
- The Israelites marched around the city once a day for six days, and seven times on the seventh, with priests blowing trumpets (Joshua 6:3–4, ESV).
- When the people shouted, “the wall fell down flat” (Joshua 6:20).
- They burned the city with fire (Joshua 6:24).
- Rahab’s house, built into the wall, was spared (Joshua 2:15, 6:22–23).
- Joshua cursed anyone who rebuilt the city (Joshua 6:26), and it was rebuilt much later, in Ahab’s time (1 Kings 16:34).
The story is set in spring, at harvest time (Joshua 3:15, 5:10–12).
What the evidence says
Archaeology
Jericho (Tell es-Sultan) is one of the oldest cities in the world, inhabited from around 9000 BC. It has been excavated several times, and the findings have been interpreted very differently:
| Excavator | Years | Conclusion |
|---|---|---|
| John Garstang | 1930–36 | Walls fell outward and the city burned, c. 1400 BC, matching Joshua |
| Kathleen Kenyon | 1952–58 | The city was destroyed c. 1550 BC, and little or nothing existed in Joshua’s time |
| Bryant Wood | 1990 (reanalysis) | Kenyon’s own finds support a destruction c. 1400 BC |
Garstang
John Garstang found evidence of a city destroyed by fire, and walls that seemed to have collapsed. He dated the destruction to about 1400 BC, matching the early date of the Exodus (see 5.2).
Kenyon
Kathleen Kenyon, using more advanced methods, found that some of the walls Garstang described came from a much earlier period. She dated the destruction of the city (City IV) to about 1550 BC, when Egyptians drove out the Hyksos. She concluded that Jericho was largely unoccupied around 1400 BC, and that little remained in Joshua’s time. Her conclusions became the mainstream view.
Wood
Bryant Wood re-examined Kenyon’s published findings in 1990. He argued:
- Pottery: Kenyon dated the destruction by the absence of an imported pottery type that was expensive and wouldn’t be expected at a poor town like Jericho. Local pottery from the destruction layer, Wood argued, fits around 1400 BC.
- Scarabs: Egyptian scarabs (seal amulets) from the city’s cemetery carry the names of pharaohs into the early 14th century BC.
- Carbon dating: a charcoal sample from the destruction layer was dated around 1410 BC (later re-tests gave earlier dates).
Details that match the Bible
Kenyon and Garstang both found features that fit the story, regardless of date:
- The walls collapsed outward, forming a ramp of bricks at the base of the outer wall, which would let attackers go “up into the city, every man straight before him” (Joshua 6:20).
- The city was burned, with a thick layer of ash.
- Large jars full of grain were found in the ruins. That implies a short siege (the grain wasn’t eaten), in spring (just after the harvest), and that the attackers didn’t plunder the food, as Joshua 6:17–18 commands.
- A section of the northern wall may have survived with houses built against it, which some link to Rahab’s house.
The debate continues
Critics, such as Piotr Bienkowski, argued that Wood misdated the pottery. Later radiocarbon studies (1995, and an Italian–Palestinian team’s work from 1997) mostly supported a date around 1550 BC. Wood and others have responded. Some scholars also note that erosion has removed much of the later layers, which could explain why little from Joshua’s time remains.
Where they meet
The archaeology shows a walled city that was burned and whose walls collapsed. The question is only when. If the destruction dates to around 1400 BC, it fits Joshua; if around 1550 BC, it doesn’t, unless the biblical chronology is rethought.
What’s still open
- The date of the destruction of City IV.
- The extent of occupation at Jericho around 1400 BC and 1260 BC.
Bottom line
Excavators found collapsed walls, but disagree on dating them to Joshua’s time. This is rated Debated.