Was My Excavation of Ai Worthwhile?

Two very important issues in Professor Zevit’s paper need further comment: First, he is right in concluding that archaeology has wiped out the historical credibility of the conquest of Ai as reported in Joshua 7–8. The Joint Expedition to Ai worked nine seasons between 1964 and 1976 and spent nearly $200,000, only to eliminate the historical underpinning of the Ai account in the Bible.

Was the undertaking worthwhile? Instead of finding neat answers to the questions that have been raised about the Israelite conquest account for the last half-century, we are confronted with the ultimate question: Did the Biblical writers simply create a story in Joshua 7–8? In Zevit’s words, is it an account that is “historically not true”? Many readers will no doubt instinctively respond, “Say it isn’t so, archaeology!” So I ask, was our excavation worthwhile?

My answer is yes! What has been demolished are the “positivistic” historical reconstructions of various scholars, including mine, over two generations. These views have not survived the tests of material support from the site. Our loss, then, is a collection of scholarly hypotheses. We still have the Bible, and archaeology is seeking to redirect our thinking into more profitable directions. We are being pressed to find a more realistic perspective from which to understand Joshua 7–8.