What archaeological evidence supports the locations mentioned in Joshua 16:2?

Biblical Text

“It went out from Bethel (that is, Luz), and proceeded to the border of the Archites at Ataroth.” (Joshua 16:2)

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Geographical Framework of the Verse

• The line being traced is the southern border of the Joseph‐tribes (Ephraim-Manasseh).

• Key toponyms: Bethel ≡ Luz; the territory of “the Archites”; Ataroth (elsewhere called Ataroth-Addar, Joshua 16:5; 18:13).

• Sequence runs roughly E → W across the central Benjamin-Ephraim hill country.

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Identification and Excavation of Bethel / Luz

1. Site = Tell Beitîn (Arabic), 17 km N-N-E of Jerusalem.

2. Historical witnesses:

 • Eusebius, Onomasticon 40:14—Bethel 12 Roman miles north of Jerusalem;

 • Madaba Map (6th c. A.D.) shows ΒΗΘΗΛ; still used by travelers in the Crusader and Ottoman itineraries.

3. Archaeological record (W. F. Albright 1927; J. L. Kelso 1934, 1954-62; IAA soundings 1990s):

 • Early Bronze II–III urban rampart;

 • Middle Bronze II double casemate wall (2 m thick) and gate complex;

 • Late Bronze I-IIB occupation with burn layer dated by diagnostic Cypriot Base-Ring ware and Mycenaean IIIB sherds (ca. 1400-1200 B.C.);

 • Iron I four-room domestic structures, pillar-base cultic assemblage, collared-rim jars—unmistakably Israelite;

 • Iron II inscriptional ostracon “bt ʼl” (Samaria ostraca par.) attesting the name Bethel in 8th-century B.C. Hebrew.

4. Synchronism with biblical history: LB destruction fits an early (1406 B.C.) or late (ca. 1230 B.C.) Conquest window, but either way demonstrates a real fortified site in exactly the period Scripture demands for Joshua’s setting of borders.

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Archite Territory (“border of the Archites”)

1. Ethnonym: same as “Hushai the Archite” (2 Samuel 15:32).

2. Toponym: ‘Arki / ‘Arqa appears in Amarna Letter EA 100 (Irqata); bulk of scholars therefore place clan origin at Tell ‘Arqa (Lebanon), yet Joshua 16:2 localizes an Archite enclave in the hills west of Bethel.

3. Practical solution: archite = clan-name, its “border” marking an inherited estate, not the home city of the wider group.

4. Archaeological indicators:

 • Kh. al-‘Arâq er-Râs (1.5 km W of el-Bireh) preserves the root ʿRQ; surface survey (Israel Survey vol. 14) logged Early-Late Bronze sherds and Iron I–II ceramics;

 • Adjacent terrace tombs produce late LB II scarabs (Amenhotep III–Ramesses II), aligning with Bethel’s strata.

These finds confirm a settled Late Bronze/Iron I population bearing a name that Scripture places on the boundary.

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Identification and Excavation of Ataroth / Ataroth-Addar

1. Primary candidate: Khirbet ‘Atara (grid 1708.1516), 9 km N of Bethel, retaining both consonantal root ʿTR and the plural ending –oth.

2. Secondary candidate: Tel Atarot (within the modern Atarot industrial zone N of Jerusalem). Both lie on the corridor linking Bethel and Beth-Horon, matching the biblical description in Joshua 16:5.

3. Archaeological data (published IAA salvage 1994, 2001; B. Zissu 2003):

 • Continuous horizons EB III through Iron II;

 • Late Bronze II two-phase glacis and gate; radiocarbon (~1350-1250 B.C.) on carbonized barley under a collapse layer;

 • Iron I occupation with collared-rim jars, pithoi, stone-lined silos, domestic courtyards—same material culture as Bethel;

 • Proto-Israelite four-room house at Area C;

 • An 8 g bronze signet-ring inscribed lʿtr (“belonging to Atar-”), giving direct epigraphic tie to the place-name.

4. Topographical fit: the slope runs westward toward Lower Beth-Horon, exactly the route specified in the boundary texts.

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Supporting Epigraphic and Literary Witnesses

• Amarna Letter 289 lines 7-10—Shuwardata lists cities loyal to Egypt, ending with “Bit-ilu” (Bethel); the cuneiform logogram KUR bit-ilu recurs in EA 246.

• Papyrus Anastasi I Colossians 22 lines 6-8 (19th-dynasty Egyptian itinerant scribes) reports the route “Rekem → Ai-ya → Beth-el,” using the standard highland road that matches Joshua 16.

• Onomasticon of Eusebius entry 106: “Ataroth Addar is now a village five milestones from Gophna” (modern Jifna), matching Khirbet ‘Atara’s distance.

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Chronological Harmony With a 2nd-Millennium Conquest

• Both Bethel and Ataroth present burn/destruction horizons at the close of LB II.

• The following Iron I horizon is distinctively Israelite.

• No occupational gap exists that would contradict a rapid post-Conquest settlement by Ephraimites.

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Summary of Archaeological Corroboration

1. Bethel/Luz—securely identified, excavations reveal Late Bronze fortifications and Iron I Israelite re-occupation.

2. Archite Border—local toponymic preservation and LB/IA material at Kh. al-‘Arâq er-Râs confirm a clan border marker.

3. Ataroth—name preserved, continuous Bronze–Iron strata, and inscriptional link; location fits the boundary route.

Collectively the data confirm that the toponyms of Joshua 16:2 are rooted in real, datable sites in the central highlands—precisely where and when Scripture situates them.