one would have to take great pause

10:41 Mar 31, 2004 

Wood's conclusion is that the 20 phases must have taken a substantially longer period of time and therefore accepting Kenyon's date for the beginning of the series the logical conclusion is that it must have lasted until 1400 BC, his date for the conquest. Our conclusion however is much more logical. The Middle Bronze Age is the age of the Judges and that very satisfactorily answers the questions of both the time period and the constant changing of the site. There is of course a larger question for both Livingston and Wood. If the problems between the archaeology and the Biblical account were restricted to just Ai and Jericho, then one would have to take great pause. The problem however is much wider. Practically none of the sites in Israel show that there were any cities of substance during the Late Bronze Age and worse those that did exist were not destroyed in the way the Biblical account describes. Hence both Livingston and Wood have an immense task in re-evaluating practically every archaeological site in the Holy Land. A task which we think is admirable in its objective but futile in the long run.