One of the oldest cities
Tell es-Sultan, beside the spring of Ain es-Sultan, preserves traces of human activity from around 10,500 BC and, in the Neolithic, a wall and a stone tower. It was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2023.
Biblical context · Approved edition
Jericho: the account and the archaeology
The book of Joshua tells how Rahab protects the spies and how the walls of Jericho fall. We will first observe the sacred text and then the site of Tell es-Sultan, the history of its excavations and the debate about the date of its destruction.
By the end: you will be able to distinguish what the sacred text affirms, what the excavations at Jericho show and what remains an open question of dates.
- Passage
- Joshua 2:1–24 and 6:1–27
- Central question
- What does the account of the fall of Jericho affirm, and what can the excavations at Tell es-Sultan contribute?
- Estimated reading time
- 10–12 minutes
- Status
- Approved for publication · version 1.0
First, look at the sacred text
Observe before reconstructing
Read Joshua 2 and 6 and follow the movement of the account: who protects the spies, what does she confess, what does God command and what happens to the walls and to Rahab’s house?
Compare with a guided observation
| Element | What the passage tells us |
|---|---|
| The spies | Joshua sends two spies from Shittim; they enter Rahab’s house, and she hides them on the roof under stalks of flax (Joshua 2:1–6). |
| The confession | Rahab declares that the Lord, the God of Israel, is God in heaven above and on earth beneath (2:9–11). |
| The sign | Rahab’s house is on the wall; the spies escape through a window and ask her to tie a scarlet cord to it (2:15–18). |
| The promise | Before anything happens, God tells Joshua: “I have given Jericho into your hand” (6:2). |
| The procession | Priests with trumpets and the ark go around the city once a day for six days, and seven times on the seventh (6:3–4, 15). |
| The fall | At the sound of the trumpets the people shout and the wall falls down (6:20). |
| Rahab rescued | Rahab and her family are spared and live in the midst of Israel (6:22–25). |
The account does not describe the city in architectural detail: it mentions a wall, a house built into it and a gate that is shut at night (2:5, 15), but no dates, measurements or population size.
Degrees of certainty
What can be recognized and what remains open
Archaeology helps when three things are kept apart: the site that can be studied, the excavators’ interpretations and the event narrated by Scripture.
A walled city destroyed by fire
The excavations of Garstang, Kenyon and the Italian-Palestinian expedition documented a fortified Bronze Age city that ended in a violent destruction: bricks fallen at the foot of the wall, a thick burn layer and jars full of burnt grain.
When did that destruction happen?
Kenyon and the Italian-Palestinian expedition place it at the end of the Middle Bronze Age, around 1550 BC; Garstang and later Bryant Wood date it to around 1400 BC on the basis of pottery and a carbon-14 sample. The date of the Exodus and the conquest is also debated (fifteenth or thirteenth century BC). The debate remains open.
Jericho in the Late Bronze Age
Kenyon found few Late Bronze Age remains and concluded that there was no strongly fortified city at that time; the Italian-Palestinian expedition is studying a building from 1500–1200 BC. How large the population was and what defences existed in that period is unresolved.
Three complementary lenses
How to read the account and the site
These three lenses do not compete with each other: they answer different questions and must keep different degrees of certainty.
Theological reading: victory as a gift and Rahab’s faith
What it contributes
It brings to the fore that the city is God’s gift before it is a human conquest: “I have given Jericho into your hand” (Joshua 6:2; 6:16). Israel does not take it with siege engines but by obeying and trusting.
Which details it helps explain
The procession with the ark and the trumpets, the silence and the shout (6:10, 20), Rahab’s confession (2:11) and her rescue. Hebrews 11:30–31 cites both the fall of the walls and Rahab as examples of faith, and James 2:25 praises her deed.
Which limit must remain
The theological reading does not by itself fix the date of the destruction or the archaeological appearance of the city.
Related readings: source 2.
Tell es-Sultan: one of the oldest cities
What it contributes
It places the account in a concrete location: the mound of Tell es-Sultan, in the oasis of Jericho, beside a perennial spring that sustained life for millennia.
Which details it helps explain
Remains from around 10,500 BC; in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, a settlement of about 2.5 hectares with a wall and a stone tower some 8 metres high; in the Early and Middle Bronze Ages, a fortified Canaanite city with earthen ramparts. Inscribed as a World Heritage site in 2023.
Which limit must remain
The age of the site and its walls do not by themselves identify the city that fell in Joshua’s time: one has to ask which layer belongs to which period.
Related readings: source 1 and source 2 and source 4 and source 7.
The excavations and the dating debate
What it contributes
It explains why specialists disagree. John Garstang (1930–1936) dated the fall of the city to around 1400 BC. Kathleen Kenyon (1952–1958) showed that the walls he had attributed to Joshua belonged to the Early Bronze Age and dated the destruction of the last fortified city to around 1550 BC. In 1990 Bryant Wood re-examined Garstang’s pottery and argued once more for a date around 1400 BC.
Which details it helps explain
Kenyon’s stratigraphic method, the painted pottery and a carbon-14 sample (1410 BC ± 40) cited by Wood, the fallen bricks and the grain jars; and the Italian-Palestinian expedition of Sapienza University of Rome and the Palestinian Department of Antiquities (since 1997, directed by Lorenzo Nigro), which dates the Middle Bronze destruction to around 1550 BC and is studying Late Bronze Age remains.
Which limit must remain
Neither date has been conclusively demonstrated: both depend on how the pottery, the layers and the biblical chronology are interpreted.
Related readings: source 3 and source 4 and source 5 and source 6 and source 7.
Comparison of lenses
What each approach answers and leaves unanswered
| Approach | Basis | Main contribution | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Theological reading | The sequence and motives of Joshua 2 and 6. | Shows victory as God’s gift and Rahab’s faith. | Does not fix a date or describe the archaeology. |
| Tell es-Sultan | Excavations and the UNESCO record. | Gives the account a real and very ancient setting. | Antiquity alone does not identify Joshua’s city. |
| Dating debate | Garstang, Kenyon, Wood and the Italian-Palestinian expedition. | Explains the two proposed dates and their arguments. | Neither date is conclusively demonstrated. |
Criterion: the sacred text, the data from the site and the interpretations of dates are presented as different levels of evidence.
What you can now recognize
What archaeology contributes to the Jericho account
Tell es-Sultan is one of the oldest inhabited places in the world, and a walled Bronze Age city stood there that ended in destruction by fire. But the excavators do not agree on when that destruction happened or on what Jericho was like in the Late Bronze Age, so the ruins should not be presented either as proof or as a refutation of the account.
The centre of the account lies in what God does: he gives the city, calls for trust and obedience, and saves a Canaanite woman who believed in him. Archaeology illuminates the setting; the sacred text defines the message.
Return to the sacred text
What does this add to my reading?
1. Rahab’s confession
According to Joshua 2:9–11, what does Rahab know about the Lord, and what leads her to protect the spies?
See a guided answer
Rahab has heard how the Lord dried up the Red Sea and defeated the Amorite kings, and she confesses that he is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. Her act of protection springs from that faith, which is why Hebrews 11:31 remembers her among the examples of faith.
2. Who gives the city?
In Joshua 6:15–20, to whom does the text attribute the fall of Jericho, and what part do the people play?
Return to Joshua 6:20See a guided answer
Joshua says: “The Lord has given you the city” (6:16). The people walk, keep silent, shout and obey, but the walls fall without a siege or engines of war. Hebrews 11:30 sums it up: “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down.”
Result of the journey: you can now recognize the central message of the account, place it prudently at the site of Tell es-Sultan and explain fairly why the date of its destruction is still debated.
Key terms
Brief glossary
- Tell
- Artificial mound formed by the accumulated ruins of successive cities built on the same spot.
- Ain es-Sultan
- Perennial spring beside the mound of Jericho, which explains the occupation of the site over millennia.
- Middle Bronze / Late Bronze Age
- Archaeological periods of the second millennium BC; the transition from one to the other is placed around 1550 BC.
- Stratigraphy
- The study of a site’s layers to establish their order and relative date; Kenyon applied it rigorously at Jericho.
- Devoted thing
- What is consecrated to the Lord and excluded from the plunder (Joshua 6:17–19); in Hebrew, herem.
Editorial record
Scope and review
- Responsible person
- Jose A Bejarano V
- Version
- 1.0 · trilingual edition
- Last reviewed
- Approved for publication by the responsible editor on 27 September 2026
- Method
- A guided reading that distinguishes the sacred text, the historical and archaeological context and theological interpretations.
About the images: the illustrations are conceptual visual aids; they do not constitute historical, archaeological or geographical evidence.
Sources for further study
Works consulted
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Ancient Jericho/Tell es-Sultan — official record of the site, inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2023.
- Bible Odyssey (Society of Biblical Literature): “Jericho” — overview of the site’s antiquity, the Neolithic tower and the relation between the ruins and the account in Joshua.
- Bible Odyssey (Society of Biblical Literature): “Kathleen Kenyon and Jericho” — Kenyon’s excavations (1952–1958) and her correction of Garstang’s dates.
- Durham University, Oriental Museum: “Jericho: An Ancient City Revealed” — online exhibition on Kenyon’s excavations, the tower and the periods of the site.
- Bryant G. Wood (Associates for Biblical Research): “Did the Israelites Conquer Jericho? A New Look at the Archaeological Evidence” — article published in Biblical Archaeology Review (1990) arguing for a destruction around 1400 BC.
- Bryant G. Wood (Associates for Biblical Research): “The Walls of Jericho” — summary of the fallen bricks, the burn layer and the grain jars.
- Sapienza Università di Roma: Sapienza Expedition to Tell es-Sultan, Jericho — Seasons 1997–2000 — results of the Italian-Palestinian expedition directed by Lorenzo Nigro.