On Wed 6 Jan 99 (08:45:45 +0100), mc2499 AT mclink.it wrote:
> There is no doubt about the location of Ai.
>
> The name actually says it all: (heap of) ruins. It doesn't augur well
> for a report written about a functioning city.
Dear Ian
There may be some textual confusion between Ha`iYR the city and Ha`aY
the ruin (Joshua 8). Bethel is not necessarily Beitin, and Ai not is
necessarily Et-Tell. D Livingston argues cogently for Bireh to be the
site of Bethel. The topography agrees with that of the book of Joshua,
and one and a half miles east of Bireh is another small Tell, as yet
unnamed and unexcavated, which could be Ai. I don't have the bibliography
I'm afraid: it's my note from something I read about 10 years ago.
There are, of course, no convincing explanations of this conflict between
archaeology and the Book of Joshua.
$aLoWM
Ben
--
Revd Ben Crick, BA CF
<ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk>
232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK) http://www.cnetwork.co.uk/crick.htm