If the Conquest is ca. 1406 BCE (with an Exodus ca. 1446 BCE), then we
should expect to find a number of destroyed Late Bronze Age cities and
villages in Transjordan, rebuilt and occupied by Israelites in Late Bronze
Age times, "to- including- and- through" Iron I and II times. This is NOT
the situation. There's hardly anything in the Late Bronze Age in
Transjordan, and the destruction occurs at the END of the Late Bronze Age
and the REBUILDING occurs in Iron I, but many other sites are New for Iron
I, just as described in the Bible (Israel building OTHER villages beside the
ones destroyed). The situation described in Transjordan in the Bible does
NOT match the Late Bronze Age and ca. 1406 BCE, it MATCHES Iron I. I have
already mentioned Stiebing's work, another excellent work for Transjordan in
particular is Professor Burton MacDonald, _East of the Jordan, Territories
and Sites of the Hebrew Scriptures_. 2000. Boston. American Schools of
Oriental Research. He exhaustively covers every known site in Gilead, Ammon,
Moab and Edom, and concludes the best match of the Exodus/Conquest is late
Iron II, the 7th-6th centries BCE.
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