Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

On  04 June 2000  I made a public apology on this List and retracted my
assertion that Kenyon had found no evidence of Hiel the Bethelite's
rebuilding of Jericho in the early 9th century BCE in reaction to John
Ronning's assertion that the ISBE article on Jericho claimed she had found
this occupation.

John Ronning (02 June 2000):

" I'd also point out that in Kenyon's ISBE article on Jericho, she says she
uncovered remains attributable to Hiel the Bethelite."

Walt Mattfeld (04 June 2000):

"As to Hiel the Bethelite, if Kenyon says she found this occupation, then I
am in error, and I retract my statement about no archaeological evidence
being found at Jericho for this biblical episode."

I have since come across an article from Kenyon's own hand, bearing her
"signature," in which she states quite explicity, contra the ISBE article,
that she found no evidence of Hiel's Jericho.

I will leave it up to the b-haverim audience to decide who is
misunderstanding Kenyon's own words:


"Hiel the Bethelite was responsible for the first re-occupation, occurring
in the time of Ahab (early ninth century B.C.). No trace of an Iron Age
occupation as early as this has so far been observed, but it may have been a
small-scale affair. In the seventh century B.C., however, there was an
extensive occupation of the ancient site. Evidence of this does not survive
on the summit of the mound, but is found as a thick deposit, with several
successive building levels, on its flanks. On the western slope, a massive
building of this period was found, with a tripartite plan common in the Iron
II. The pottery suggests that this stage in the history of the site goes
down to the period of the Babylonian Exile. Thereafter, the site by `Ein
es-Sultan was abandoned, and later periods are represented only by some
Roman graves and a hut of the early Arab period. Kathleen M. Kenyon"
(Vol.2, p.564, Kathleen M. Kenyon, "Jericho," in Michael Avi-Yonah, Editor,
Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, Englewood
Cliffs, New Jersey, 1976, ISBN 0-13-275123-2)

If Iron Age Jericho is no older than the extensive 7th century BCE ruins
found at `Ein es-Sultan, then a period of 100/200 years would have had to
have elapsed allowing the national memory to forget when Jericho had been
rebuilt. This anomaly suggests the narrative is either of the 6th or the 5th
century BCE.

All the best,

Walter

Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld
Walldorf by Heidelberg
Baden-Wurttemburg
Germany