Ai Excavations

Overview

Et-Tell ('the ruin-heap') lies east of Beitin, which is identified with Bethel. It is the usual candidate for the Ai of Joshua 7-8 ('Ai, which is beside Bethaven, on the east side of Bethel', Josh 7:2). John Garstang made soundings there over a few days in 1928. Judith Marquet-Krause excavated it for the Rothschild expedition in 1933-1935, and Joseph Callaway led the Joint Archaeological Expedition in 1964-1972.

Both main excavators found a large walled Early Bronze city, with a citadel, a sanctuary and houses, which ended in the Early Bronze III period. The site then lay empty until a small unwalled village was built on the ruins in Iron Age I. Marquet-Krause wrote that the Middle and Late Bronze Ages were 'nonexistent' and that 'this city had therefore long since been destroyed by the time of Joshua's arrival.' Callaway, whose JBL article of 1968 was titled 'New Evidence on the Conquest of Ai', reached the same gap.

Two responses followed. The Associates for Biblical Research (B. G. Wood, S. Stripling) excavated Khirbet el-Maqatir, 1 km west of et-Tell. They found a small Late Bronze I fortress with a two-chambered gate, destroyed by a 'massive conflagration', and dated it c. 1400 BCE. Others have reopened et-Tell itself: in 2025 J. Kramer publicized Garstang's brief 1928 note of Late Bronze pottery and an unpublished 2019 sounding by T. Kennedy that reportedly yielded Late Bronze pottery and a burned layer.

What the evidence shows

• Et-Tell: an Early Bronze city (EB IB to EB IIIB, c. 3300-2400 BCE) with walls, citadel and sanctuary, ending in destruction and abandonment (Marquet-Krause 1935; Callaway & Schoonover, BASOR 207, 1972; NEAEHL summary).
• Marquet-Krause (1935, as quoted by Eames 2025): 'The Middle and Late Bronze Ages are nonexistent.'
• Et-Tell Iron I: a small unwalled village on the acropolis, c. 1220-1050 BCE (NEAEHL summary).
• Garstang's 1928 soundings were never fully published. A three-page report mentions Late Bronze material alongside Early Bronze (Eames 2025).
• A 2019 sounding at et-Tell (T. Kennedy) reportedly produced Late Bronze pottery and a burned layer. As of Eames (June 2025) the dating of that layer was unpublished.
• Khirbet el-Maqatir: a fortress of about 1 ha with a two-chambered gate (socket stones and an upper pivot stone), LB IB pottery throughout, and a 'massive conflagration' with calcined stones and ash, dated by the excavators to c. 1400 BCE (Wood 2012, ABR).
• No inscription at either site gives the ancient name.

Open questions

• Is et-Tell Ai? Marquet-Krause (Syria 16, 1935) and Callaway (JBL 87, 1968; BASOR 207, 1972) found no Middle or Late Bronze city at et-Tell. Taken with Josh 8, that yields either no conquest at et-Tell or a wrong identification; L.-H. Vincent (1937, as quoted by Eames 2025) put it as 'Either et-Tell… cannot be identified with Ai, or this identification goes directly against the Bible.' J. Kramer (Expedition Bible video, May 2025) argues that Garstang's note and T. Kennedy's 2019 soundings put Late Bronze material and a burn layer at et-Tell, and that the stone heap over the et-Tell gate fits Josh 8:29. C. Eames (Armstrong Institute, 2025) replies that the destruction layer's date is unpublished, that the gate was already blocked before the stones piled up, and that the stone pile covers a passage only about 1 m wide. The dispute is unresolved until Kennedy's material is published.
• Is Khirbet el-Maqatir Ai? B. G. Wood and S. Stripling (ABR, 1995-2016) argue that its Late Bronze I fortress, burned c. 1400 BCE, fits Josh 8 on a 15th-century conquest date. The fortress's small size fits Josh 7:3 ('they are but few'), but Josh 8:25 counts 12,000 dead at Ai. Their case also depends on where Bethel lay relative to Maqatir. That question is argued in their publications and was not re-checked here. The Bronze Age volume of the final report has not been located for this entry; Volume 2 (2023) covers the later periods.

Since 2024

• 2025-05J. Kramer (Expedition Bible) publicizes Garstang's 1928 Late Bronze note and T. Kennedy's unpublished 2019 soundings at et-Tell (Late Bronze pottery and a burned layer), arguing that et-Tell is Joshua's Ai after all. Eames (June 2025) responds that the layer's date is unpublished and that the gate and stone-heap arguments do not hold. [6]

Sources

1. J. Marquet-Krause, 'La deuxième campagne de fouilles à ʿAy (1934). Rapport sommaire', Syria 16/4 (1935): 325-345. doi:10.3406/syria.1935.3858 link excavation report
2. J. A. Callaway, 'New Evidence on the Conquest of ʿAi', Journal of Biblical Literature 87/3 (1968): 312-320. doi:10.2307/3263542 link study
3. J. A. Callaway & K. Schoonover, 'The Early Bronze Age Citadel at Ai (Et-Tell)', Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 207 (1972): 41-53. doi:10.2307/3218846 link excavation report
4. B. G. Wood, 'Excavations at Khirbet el-Maqatir: 1995-2000 & 2009-2011' (Associates for Biblical Research, 4 April 2012) link excavation report
5. The Excavations at Khirbet el-Maqatir: 1995-2001 and 2009-2016, Volume 2: The Late Hellenistic, Early Roman, and Byzantine Periods (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2023). doi:10.32028/9781803272115 link excavation report
6. C. Eames, 'Et-Tell: Joshua's Ai After All?', ArmstrongInstitute.org (23 June 2025) link study
7. Interactive Archaeological Map, 'Ai' (biblical-archaeology.org), summarizing E. Stern (ed.), New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land (1993) link study

Checked against new publications through 2026-09.