Editing Jericho (section)

===Late Bronze Age===
Decades after the destruction of the Middle Bronze Age city, it recovered again on a smaller scale during the Late Bronze Age (1450–1200 BC), with the previous Middle Bronze city wall being refurbished by adding a [[mudbrick]] [[wall]] on top of its emerging crest.{{sfn|Nigro|2020|p=202}}<ref name=Nigro23>{{cite book |title=Durch die Zeiten - Through the Ages: Festschrift für Dieter Vieweger / Essays in Honour of Dieter Vieweger |last=Nigro |first=Lorenzo |publisher=Gütersloher Verlagshaus |year=2023 |isbn=978-3-579-06236-5 |pages=599–614 |editor-last=Soennecken |editor-first=Katja |chapter=Tell es-Sultan/Jericho in the Late Bronze Age: An Overall Reconstruction in the Light of most Recent Research |editor-last2=Leiverkus |editor-first2=Patrick |editor-last3=Zimni |editor-first3=Jennifer |editor-last4=Schmidt |editor-first4=Katharina}}</ref> Excavations have found a structure known as the "Middle Building" which apparently served as the residence of the city's local rulers, then vassals of the [[Egyptian empire]].<ref name=Nigro23/>{{rp|605}} Ultimately, the Middle Building was destroyed, although it was later reused in the early [[Iron Age]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Scientific Report of the Italian-Palestinian Expedition to Tell es-Sultan (2020), Palestine: XVI Campaign |url=https://sites.google.com/uniroma1.it/sapienzatojericho/results/season-2020 |last=Nigro |first=Lorenzo |access-date=2025-02-23 |website=Sapienza Expedition to Tell es-Sultan/Jericho |year=2020 |quote=The Late Bronze Age building, to be identified with John Garstang's 'Middle Building' was also destroyed and was in turn reused in the Early Iron Age |ref=none}}</ref> According to Nigro (2023), the Late Bronze IIB layers of the tell were heavily cut by levelling operations during the Iron Age, which explains the scarcity of 13th century BCE materials.<ref name=Nigro23/>{{rp|602}}
;Hebrew Bible narrative
The Hebrew Bible tells the story of the [[Battle of Jericho]] led by [[Joshua]], leading to the fall of the [[Canaan]]ite city, the first one captured by the [[Israelites]] in the [[Promised Land]]. The historicity of biblical account is not generally accepted by scholars.<ref name=Miller1986>{{Cite book|last1=Miller|first1=James Maxwell|author-link1=J. Maxwell Miller (biblical scholar)|last2=Hayes|first2=John Haralson|title=A History of Ancient Israel and Judah|pages=71–72|publisher=The Westminster Press|location=Philadelphia|year=1986|isbn=978-0-664-21262-9|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofancient00mill/page/71/mode/1up}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Dever|first1=William G.|title=Recent Archeological Discoveries and Biblical Research|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ab7_GFJ-dKQC&q=Dever+Joshua+destroyed+even+there&pg=PA47 |access-date=7 January 2013|year=1990|orig-year=1989|publisher=University of Washington Press|location=US|isbn=0-295-97261-0|page=47 |chapter=2. The Israelite Settlement in Canaan. New Archeological Models|quote=(Of course, for some, that only made the Biblical story more miraculous than ever—Joshua destroyed a city that wasn't even there!)}}</ref> Italian archaeologist [[Lorenzo Nigro]] suggests that the story might have developed from local memories of the destructions suffered by the Canaanite city in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE, which were later used by the biblical writers to create their narrative.{{sfn|Nigro|2020|p=204}}