Walls of Jericho
The excavations of the ancient city Jericho yielded several walls. In the early stages of archaeology, one of these walls was seen as connected to Joshua’s conquest of the city. However, in the meantime research could demonstrate that Jericho was not a fortified settlement around 1200 BCE, the time in which the conquest by the Israelites took place. At that time Jericho was at best occasionally visited by nomads. The narrative about the conquest of Jericho in Josh 6 originated at a time when people had no longer a special memory of the events around 1200 BCE. Only when the location became important again due to its nearness to the frontier of the empire, and next to a pass over the Jordan River, a foundation legend was needed. With the stylized narrative about he conquest people wanted to show that the place was not conquered in battle, but was given to the Israelites by God’s grace.
Josh 6
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