Biblical Hebrew Forum

[John Ronning <ronning AT xsinet.co.za>]

Ian wrote (June 4):

> 
> Please, be explicit, John, how would you locate Ai??
> 

The Ai of Joshua 7-8 should be a small (compared to Jericho
and Gibeon) Canaanite fortress of the Late Bronze age to the
east of Bethel and near (or beside) Beth-Awen.  There should
be a valley between Bethel and Ai, deep enough to conceal an
ambush force.  There should be a valley to the north, and
then another hill, from which the ambush force could see
Joshua.  There should be a descent from Ai to the "shebarim"
(possibly quarries).

When Robinson made his journey through Palestine in the
1800's, some of the locals identified Khirbet el-Maqatir as
Joshua's Ai.  This location admirably suits the above
criteria.  There was a 15th century Canaanite fortress with
a gate on the north side currently being excavated.  It is
small compared to both Jericho and Gibeon, but had five
meter thick walls.

Khirbet el-Maqatir works well as Ai with Bethel at el Bireh,
(about two miles west) and Beth Awen at Beitin (about a mile
northwest).  El Bireh as Bethel agrees with Eusebius'
location for Bethel as 12 (Roman) miles north of Jerusalem,
and Beitin as Beth Awen agrees with the Pilgrim of Bordeux'
location of Beth Awen as 1 mile north of Bethel.

The popular site for Ai, et-Tell, is obviously eliminated
for consideration by the fact that it lacks a valley to the
north, it is a huge site compared to Jericho and Gibeon, and
there was no MB or LB occupation.  Quite possibly, however,
Joshua's Ai derived its name from the conspicuous ruins
about a kilometer to the east.

In light of the above, I leave the reader to draw his own
conclusions about the quality of scholarship displayed in
the following sample, to which many others could be added:

"Since the writer has scoured the district in question in
all directions, hunting for ancient sites, he can attest the
fact that there is no other possible candidate for Ai than
et-Tell" (Albright, The Biblical Period from Abraham to
Ezra, 29)

[the remains of the Canaanite fortress at Kh. el-Maqatir lie
on the surface, ready to be found by anyone "scouring the
area"]


"Ai is simply an embarrasment to every view of the conquest
that takes the biblical and archaeological evidence
seriously" (Callaway, New Evidence on the Conquest of Ai,
JBL 87, 312).

[I would think the one to be embarassed would be the one who
paid such little attention to the biblical data that he
didn't realize he could not be excavating the right place
for all those years.]

Such examples should perhaps encourage us to take the
confident pronouncements of archaeologists in general with a
large dose of MELAX.

Regards,

John Ronning