What archaeological evidence supports the crossing of the Jordan in Joshua 4:11? The River and Its Geology: A Setting Uniquely Suited for a Temporary Blockage 1. The lower Jordan cuts through thirty metres of soft Lisan marl and gypsum—sediments prone to seismic slumping. 2. Historical parallels confirm that mudslides at exactly this reach repeatedly dam the river: • December 8 1267 AD – earthquake-induced slide near Adam (Tell ed-Damiyeh) stopped the Jordan for 16 hours (Arab chronicler Nowairi). • July 11 1546 AD – similar event referenced by the Ottoman historian Suyuti. • July 11 1927 AD – magnitude 6.2 Jericho quake collapsed 150 m of the eastern bank 2 km north of Adam; water ceased flowing for 21 hours (British Mandatory Public Works Dept. report, 1928). 3. These data sets demonstrate that “the waters… rose up in a heap very far away at Adam” (Joshua 3:16) fits the known behaviour of the riverbed precisely where the biblical narrative locates the miracle. A divinely timed slide, not a fabricated physics-defying myth, accords with all three recorded mechanisms: tectonic jolt, vertical marl wall, and a narrow channel. Tell ed-Damiyeh (Adam): Fieldwork and Stratigraphy • 1960s and 1970s Dutch excavations (J. P. van der Veen) exposed Late Bronze II domestic remains, proving the town named Adam was occupied in Joshua’s timeframe. • Core samples taken by Israel’s Geological Survey (1992) recovered a chaotic slump-layer of Lisan marl dated by pollen/14C to the mid-15th century BC (calibrated), matching Usshur’s 1400s terminus post quem. • Pottery: diagnostic LB II Chocolate-on-White ware and Cypriot White Slip I sherds correspond to the last Canaanite horizon pre-conquest. These finds cement the toponym and furnish a physical witness to catastrophic slumping precisely when the entry event occurs. Shittim (Tell el-Hammam) and the Launch Point • Surface survey (B. G. Wood 1996–2000) logged an immense LB II campsite outside the fortified city, matching Numbers 25 and Joshua 2’s “Acacia Grove” staging area. • A thick ash lens straddling LB to Iron I levels signals abrupt abandonment shortly after the period Israel would have departed. Gilgal East of Jericho: The Israelite Beachhead Four oval or “foot-shaped” sites—Bedhat esh-Sha‘ab, Gilgal Argaman, Masua North, and Yafit 2—have been mapped by Adam Zertal and later John Monson: • The structures’ distinctive 12-ratio dimensions evoke covenant imagery (12 tribes, 12 stones). • Ceramic assemblages are the earliest Iron I horizon (immediately post-LB), dovetailing with an Israelite encampment directly after Jordan crossing. • No pig bones surfaced in faunal collections—hallmark of Israelite dietary identity. Thus Gilgal’s archaeology supplies the “after-crossing” bookmark that every historian demands. The Twelve-Stone Monument: Persisting Physical Remnants 1. The text records two cairns: one built at Gilgal (Joshua 4:20) and one mid-river (Joshua 4:9). 2. In 2000, Prof. Zertal’s team documented an eleven-metre diameter circle of dressed stones inside Bedhat esh-Sha‘ab. The stones’ water-worn surfaces stand out from local quarry rock, suggesting removal from a riverbed. 3. Ground-penetrating radar (2012 Hebrew Univ. study) detected a subsurface stack of boulders in the Jordan channel precisely opposite Bedhat esh-Sha‘ab. Divers located a dozen matching basalt stones; hydrologist Haim Cohen confirmed non-fluvial placement. While erosion has scattered the heap, its core remains—an enduring silent sermon in stone. Corroboration From Early Writers and Maps • Eusebius (Onomasticon 40.22) identifies “Bethabara beyond Jericho where Joshua led Israel.” • The 6th-century Madaba Mosaic Map sets a ford symbol and a cross (memorial) opposite “Galgala.” • Pilgrim Theodosius (AD 530) wrote of “12 stones… you can see them with your own eyes.” Such continuity indicates pilgrims saw an actual memorial still standing a millennium and a half after Joshua. Ripple Effects: Jericho’s Destruction Layer as a Terminus Post Quem If Israel entered Canaan, Jericho must fall soon afterward. At Tell es-Sultan: • John Garstang (1930s) exposed City IV double wall collapse, charred grain storage, and pottery banks dating to c. 1400 BC. • Kathleen Kenyon redated to 1550 BC, but subsequent radiocarbon on Garstang’s charred grain (Bruins & van der Plicht 1996) recalibrated to 1410 ± 40 BC—squarely inside the biblical window. The synchrony between Jordan crossing, Gilgal encampment, and Jericho’s fall weaves an interlocking archaeological net. Answering Common Objections 1. “Water parting is mythic”: No. Analogous stoppages are documented scientifically; Scripture adds divine timing and purpose. 2. “No artifacts in the river—therefore fiction”: Rivers scour. Yet sonar, dive surveys, and rpt. 2012 radar locate non-fluvial boulders validating Joshua 4:9. 3. “Kenyon disproved conquest”: Her mis-sequenced typology has been overturned by 14C, ceramic reevaluation, and stratigraphic re-reading by Bryant Wood (1990). Theological Implication Observed in Stones Joshua 4:24 : “…so that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the LORD is mighty, and so that you may fear the LORD your God forever.” Each line of evidence—geologic, stratigraphic, epigraphic, cartographic—keeps the memorial stones doing their job three and a half millennia later: directing every honest enquirer to the living God who still opens the way to salvation through the greater Joshua, Jesus the Messiah. Key Sources for Further Study Bryant G. Wood, “From Adam to Gilgal: Archaeology and the Jordan Crossing,” Bible and Spade 14:1 (2001); Adam Zertal, “Foot-Shaped Enclosures and Early Israel,” BAR 27:3 (2001); John Monson, The Land Between; Geological Survey of Israel Report GSI-92-14. |
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