Dating Jericho’s Destruction: Bienkowski Is Wrong on All Counts

Piotr Bienkowski has challenged the results of my analysis of the date of the destruction of the fortified Bronze Age city at Jericho, maintaining that Kathleen Kenyon’s date of about 1550 B.C.E.^a is correct and should be retained.

Before taking up Bienkowski’s remarks, I wish to correct a misstatement at the beginning of his paper. He states that in my article,¹ I was attempting to show that the destruction was inflicted by the Israelites as recorded in Joshua 6 and Judges 3. This is an erroneous statement. The events described in Judges 3 did not enter into my discussion at all. I dealt with the correspondence that exists between the archaeological findings at Jericho and the Biblical account in Joshua 3–6. With a correction in the dating of the destruction of the city, it is now feasible to make a connection between the two.

Bienkowski’s attempt to explain away the evidence for lowering the date of the destruction of Jericho is misguided and void of substance. Assertions made without data to back them up are unconvincing. His discussion is superficial, at best, lacking both depth and precision.