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[Curfew]

What did the The City of Jerocho before the battle of Jericho that happened in the old testament in the Book of Joshua? I find these sources online showing the shape but I cannot find anything that says it's before the battle of Jericho.

[jimwalton]

Jericho is a very complicated archaeological site. It's the oldest known city in the world, having been settled around 9000 BC or perhaps earlier. Between 2900-2300 BC, 17 rebuilding phases are evident. Earthquakes, which are frequent in the area (as many as 4 times per century; Jericho lies on a fault line) often flatten the city. Five phases of building have been identified from 1750-1550 BC. Then the city was unoccupied until about 1400 BC. There was a small garrison there between 1400-1300 or so, then the city was abandoned. It was re-inhabited briefly in the early 1st millennium, but destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC. The Jericho of Jesus's day was built on a nearby but different site.

Sometimes through the eras the walls were stone, sometimes mud brick. No city walls or other structures survived the erosion of centuries of abandonment after the 14th c. BC. In the time of Joshua (and we can't even be sure what time what was, but let's go with Bronze Age or Late Bronze Age, somewhere between 1400-1200 BC), Jericho was an 8-12-acre site—little more than a garrison or a small town, depending on when it was. It's difficult to tell the exact shape because there has been so much erosion on the site, making the archaeology of the site very complicated and controversial. Archaeologists have disagreements about it and take various positions. No one knows the exact shape at that time. Some would say we can have no confidence that the "walls" of Joshua renown have been found.

I've been there to see it. The site is a mess. It's tough to tell what you're even looking at.