Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Walter Mattfeld" <mattfeld AT mail.pjsnet.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: John Ronning <ronning AT xsinet.co.za>
To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2000 7:25 PM
Subject: Re. Jericho's Anomalies


Dear John,

 My rebuttals appear below to your most recent observations:

> > This decline in the fortunes of Jericho
> > and other sites in Canaan is the direct result of the establishment of
the
> > Egyptian 18th Dynasty and the expulsion of the Hyksos into Palestine
(Kenyon
> > 1973: 555-56)."
> > (ABD 3.736, T.A. Holland, "Jericho," 1992)
>
JR: Saying it doesn't make it so - what evidence is there that
> either the Hyksos or the Egyptians conquered Jericho?

WM: Having dated the MB destruction to ca. 1550
BCE, mainstream Humanist scholars "reasoned" that the Hyksos would unlikely
be turning on their own kinsmen, and the annals of the Pharaohs mention the
subjugation of Canaan on the heels of the Hyksos expulsion.

JR: No, as far as I know the erection of the mud brick wall
> which stood on top of the middle bronze stone revetment wall
> cannot be dated.  The bricks fell in a heap on the outside
> of the stone revetment wall, so you wouldn't necessarily
> find pottery under them.  There was another revetment wall
> further inside, but little remains of it.

WM: Thankyou for this clarification.

JR:  What will you do with the fact that this same
> Dibon which supposedly didn't exist until the iron age is
> mentioned by a bronze age Pharaoh?

WM: Can you provide me with a citation and reference work on the Bronze Age
Pharaoh's mention of Dibon, I would be interested in looking further into
this, Thank you.

>
JR: One might also mention Jerusalem, which according to the
> archaeologists was practically a zero in the late bronze
> age, but which according to the Amarna letters was a rather
> important city (maybe we should learn to regard written
> sources as being able to correct the findings of
> archaeologists, if that's not too dangerous an assumption?).

WM: I am in agreement with your analysis here (that some kind of presence
existed at Jerusalem in the Late Bronze Age), being familiar with the Tell
el-Amarna letters that contain missives from Jerusalem. Unfortunately, these
letters do not reflect a knowledge of the presence of Joshua's Israelites
who settled the land in the 15th century BCE according to the biblical
account. So, for some scholars these letters call into question the veracity
of the Book of Joshua and its portrayal of Israel's settlement within the
land.

All the best,

Walter

Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld
Walldorf by Heidelberg
Baden-Wurttemburg
Germany