Editing Bethel (section)

=== Bronze Age ===
[[File:Jeroboam's Temple in Bet El IMG 1944.JPG|thumb|Early Bronze Age Canaanite ritual site, cut through the [[High place|bamah]] by Middle Bronze Age II city wall. Tel Beit El, Beitin, 2017.]]In the [[Early Bronze Age]] (around 3200 BCE) normally nomadic populations settled in the area. [[Canaan|Canaanite]] tombs, houses and olive presses were discovered to the north and southeast of the village. The remains of a Canaanite temple were also excavated by archaeologists.<ref name="TWP">{{cite journal |date=2007-07-09 |title=Site of the Week: Beitin |url=http://thisweekinpalestine.com/details.php?id=762&ed=68&edid=68 |url-status=dead |journal=This Week in Palestine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426002133/http://thisweekinpalestine.com/details.php?id=762&ed=68&edid=68 |archive-date=2012-04-26 |access-date=2011-12-19}}</ref>

In the [[Middle Bronze Age]] (around 1750 BCE) its status was elevated from a village to a fortified Canaanite town which is believed to be [[Hebrew Bible|biblical]] [[Luz (biblical place)|Luz]].<ref name="JMCC">{{cite web |title=Palestinian Cultural Sites: Beitin-Ramallah |url=http://www.jmcc.org/palculture/sites.htm#beitin |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310193404/http://www.jmcc.org/palculture/sites.htm#beitin |archive-date=2007-03-10 |access-date=2011-12-19 |publisher=Jerusalem Media and Communications Center (JMCC)}}</ref><ref name="STFJ">[http://www.christusrex.org/www1/ofm/mad/discussion/048discuss.html Luza, also Bethel - (Beitin)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131003050538/http://www.christusrex.org/www1/ofm/mad/discussion/048discuss.html|date=2013-10-03}} Studium Biblicum Franciscanum - Jerusalem. 2000-12-19.</ref> Two city gates dating to this period have been excavated, one in the northeast and the other northwest of the wall.<ref name="TWP" /> A second temple was built in Luz during this period, but was destroyed as a result of an earthquake.<ref name="TWP" />

The [[Late Bronze Age]] city at Bethel was destroyed at some point during the late 13th or early 12th century BCE.<ref name="Lipschits">{{cite book |title=Rethinking Israel: Studies in the History and Archaeology of Ancient Israel in Honor of Israel Finkelstein |last=Lipschits |first=Oded |publisher=Penn State Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-57506-787-2 |pages=233–246 |editor-last=Lipschits |editor-first=O. |chapter=Bethel Revisited |editor-last2=Gadot |editor-first2=Y. |editor-last3=Adams |editor-first3=M. J. |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/35303818}}</ref>{{rp|235}}<ref>Gary A. Rendsburg, “[https://jewishstudies.rutgers.edu/images/documents/faculty/Rendsburg/51VTDateoftheExodus.pdf The Date of the Exodus and the Conquest/Settlement: The Case for the 1100s],” Vetus Testamentum 42, no. 4 (1992): 510–527.</ref>