DID YOU KNOW?
The answer
John Garstang's 1930s excavation read Jericho's destruction as matching Joshua. Kathleen Kenyon re-excavated in the 1950s with far more rigorous stratigraphy and ceramic dating, and placed the walled city's destruction around 1550 BCE, with the site largely unoccupied through the Late Bronze period. Kenyon's chronology superseded Garstang's and remains the standard view; a minority still contests the ceramic dating.
Why it’s interesting
A great deal rides on how layers of dirt are dated, and on the methods available when a site is dug. Kenyon's re-excavation didn't just offer a second opinion — it had tools Garstang's dig lacked.
Scholarly consensus
You can know the Bible.
Not just the stories, but the history, authorship, and scholarship behind it.