Is there evidence for the battle of Jericho?

The evidence to look for is: (i) evidence that the city of Jericho actually existed at the time attributed to the battle, and that there any damage to the walls occurred at that time; or (ii) evidence for the military invasion of Canaan, which would be circumstantial evidence for the Battle of Jericho; (iii) evidence that the authors of the Book of Joshua understood the military and political realities of Palestine at the time of the battle, to provide some level of plausibility to the account.

The respected arcahaologist, Israel Finkelstein and historian, Neil Asher Silberman (authors of The Bible Unearthed) say that Jericho, Ai, Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth and Kiriath-jearim did not exist at the time. Professor Isserlin, Head of Department of Semitic Studies and Reader in Semitic Studies at the University of Leeds, and author of The Israelites, says that Jericho had fallen c 1550BCE and afterwards there was only a very limited and impoverished settlement, apparently unwalled, between 1425 and 1275, then entirely abandoned. So, on the first test, there is no evidence for the Battle of Jericho - in fact evidence that it could not have happened.

As for evidence that there even was a military invasion of Canaan, Professor Finkelstein said, "Today more than 90% of scholars agree that there was no Exodus from Egypt, 80% feel that that the Conquest of the Land did not take place as described in the Bible ..."

Palestine was under Egyptian rule until the middle of the 12th century BCE and Egyptian administrative centres were located in Gaza, Yaffo and Beit She'an. Evidence of Egyptian presence has also been discovered in many locations on both sides of the Jordan River. That this is not mentioned in the biblical account makes it clear that it was unknown to its author. So, on the third test, for plausibility, the story of the Battle of Jericho fails. Not only is the Bible account of the capture of Jericho historical it is confirmed substantially by the discoveries of archeology in numerous places. Such confirmation is startling in its accuracy in terms of its correspondence to the the Bible account.