For centuries, scholars have used archaeological methods to supplement our knowledge and test the Bible’s accuracy. Even then, the results are controversial and difficult to interpret. A new study methodology using magnetic data may change some of that.
According to the Bible, and a religious song you may know, Joshua fought a battle at Jericho. The one-time spook and former assistant to Moses led the Israelites around the city walls on successive days until, after seven circuits on the seventh day, the walls fell down. Then the Israelites, following divine commands, slaughtered every living thing in the city—adults, children, and their pets. It’s not a happy story so you should breathe a sigh of relief that these events never took place.
Unlike more conventional archaeological methods like stratigraphy , archaeomagnetic dating is interested in the magnetic field generated by the Earth’s core. It examines the layer of liquid iron in the planet’s outer core.
Tel Beth-Shean, in the northern district of modern Israel, was previously thought by archaeologists to have been destroyed by the Aramean king Hazael in 830 BCE. Vaknin and his co-authors suggest that it was actually sacked between 70 and 100 years earlier. This would mean, argues Vaknin, that the city was most likely destroyed during a military campaign by Pharaoh Shoshenq I.