Amihai Mazar has done an excellent job in presenting current archaeological understandings of events and places appearing in the Bible's Exodus narratives. He notes that some places were not occupied in the time frame the Bible allocates to the Exodus (circa 1446 BC as per 1 Kings 6:1), NOR circa 1260 - 1230 BC and the days of the various Ramesside pharaohs. The Bible has Joshua announcing he has burned three cities, Jericho, Ai, and Hazor. Mazar points out that Ai (modern Et-Tell) came to an end circa 2400 BC, in its ruins were found ash everywhere from a severe burning, so intense stones in the foundations had been calcinated. It was reoccupied in Iron Age I times (1200 BC to 1100 BC) in the form of a small village. Mazar mentions the fall of Hazor and its being burned by Joshua, in the Book of Joshua (Joshua 11:10-11). Archaeologists verified the city had been horribly burned, its idols found smashed to pieces by the destroyers, assumed to be Israel by Excavators like Yigael Yadin and later, Ben Tor. The date for the destruction is circa the mid 13th century BC in the days of Rameses II. The problem? NOT MENTIONED BY YADIN AND BEN TOR, is the fact that another Israeli archaeologist, Moshe Dothan, in the 1980's, found TWO PHILISTINE SHERDS AT HAZOR during an emergency dig. His wife, Trude Dothan, an expert on Philistine sherds confirmed his discovery. Many scolars understand that the Philstines are the PELEST mentioned by Rameses 3rd, who noted they attempted to conquer Egypt shortly after conquering coastal Canaan. This event is dated circa 1175 BC. That is to say, HAZOR DID NOT FALL IN THE MIDDLE OF THE 13TH CENTURY BC IN THE DAYS OF RAMESES II, IT FELL IN THE DAYS OF RAMESES III, IN THE 12th century BC. Remarkably, the Bible claims that Hazor fell at at a time when the Philistines were settled in Canaan. The two Philistine sherds found at Hazor, suggest the Bible got the correct era for the city's destruction and burning, a Philistine world of the 12th century BC! Joshua is also credited with burning another city besides Hazor, and that is Jericho. Jericho's walls collapse and Israel burns the city and all that is in it (Joshua 6:20, 24). Dame Kathleen Kenyon in the 1950s excavated Jericho and found that its last defense wall collapsed due to an earthquake and that the city was set on fire by besiegers. She associated this event with the Hyksos Expulsion from Egypt circa 1540 BC by Pharaoh Ahmoses I, founder of the 18th Dynasty. SO ARCHAEOLOGY HAS CONFIRMED THREE REAL EVENTS, A BURNED AI, A BURNED JERICHO AND A BURNED HAZOR, SEPARATED IN TIME BY 1,250 YEARS (2400 BC minus 1150 BC). My conclusion: The Bible is conflating three real events, the 2400 BC fall of Ai, the 1540 BC fall of Jericho and the fall of Hazor circa 1150 BC, making them into the Exodus. BUT WHY? The Bible has the answer. We are informed that Israel, after conquering Moab (the kingdom of Sihon the Amorite) and Canaan, she intermarries with the conquered peoples and worships their gods. That is to say in Iron Age I Israel is intermarrying with the Canaanite descendants of the Hyksos. By Iron Age II (1100 BC to 587 BC) Israel can legitimately claim a bloodline descent from the Hyksos of 1540 BC due to the intermarriages of Iron Age I. The author of the Exodus (writing all this in the Babylonian Exile, circa 560 BC), wanted to preserve his ancestor's deeds, the Burning of Jericho and of Hazor. He had no idea of when these events actually occurred, just as he had no idea that Ai (Et Tell) had been BURNED THREE TIMES: circa 2860 BC, circa 2550 BC, and finally circa 2400 BC, it finally was abandoned circa 2400 BC. It would not be until pottery chronologies were developed by Sir Flinders Petrie, and his successors, that anyone would know when ancient sites came into being and were later abandoned and destroyed. Accordingly, all this means that the Exodus as presented in the Bible is fiction, it never happened as presented. We can shut down the Synagoques, Christian Churches, and Islamic Mosques, and put an end to the eternal bloodletting between Jew, Christian, and Moslem over a non-event and a spurious Bible. For Moshe Dothan's discovery of two Philistine sherds at Hazor see pages 96 and 105, Trude Dothan and Moshe Dothan. _People of the Sea, The Search For the Philistines._ Macmillan Publishing Company, New York. 1992. "Moshe had already 'done' Hazor briefly for the Israel Department of Antiquities...Moshe also found two characteristic Philistine sherds. True, two sherds out of hundreds were not much, but their very presence was provocative: Hazor was, after all, 165 miles from the core of Philistine settlement." (p. 96). For the three burnings of Ai see pp. 42, 46, vol. 1, Michael Avi-Yonah, Editor. _Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land._ Oxford University. London. 1975. "About 2860 BC...Ai was...terminated by violent destruction. The citadel at site A was stormed and burned by an unknown enemy, and the acropolis buildings were burned to the ground. Scorched stones on top of the citadel and blanket of ashes in the acropolis area underlying the Early Bronze Age II buildings attest to the fury of the destruction...Fire...smoldered with enough intensity to break down stone walls into calcinated masses...thick layers of ash lay upon the floors of the acropolis complex..."

What the hell is wrong with the camera person?? When the speaker who agreed with the norm, they showed every map, every picture with no problem. When it comes to something that may disagree with the status quo, all of a sudden they are late showing maps, pics, etc,...

Most importantly, for me, is Professor Amihai Mazar's observation (in this 2005 filmed lecture,) that archaeology does not support some Exodus narratives about sites being in existence and conquered by Moses and Joshua circa 1446-1406 BC (1 Kings 6:1). He rightly understands, however, that sites like Arad and Ai (et-Tell) had come to an end by 2300 BC rather than the 1406 BC of 1 Kings 6:1, causing archaeologists to realize the biblical account was fictional. Faced with sites destroyed and abandon by 2300 BC, Archaeologists asked a new question: If these sites were abandoned by 2300 BC.... WHAT THEN IS BEHIND THE BIBLICAL ACCOUNT, claiming they were in existence in 1446-1406 BC (1 Kings 6:1) to be destroyed by Moses and Joshua? I have sought AN ANSWER FOR ****WHAT IS BEHIND**** MOSES' SMASHING OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS AT MT. SINAI? ****WHAT IS BEHIND**** ISRAEL'S SONG AND DANCE AT MT. SINAI OF AN EGYPTIAN GOLDEN CALF? If Mazar is right about real events being embedded in the Exodus account see (his explanation about Ai's fall at 9:27 of this video) perhaps, somewhere in the Sinai, exists archaeological data, OVERLOOKED by the archaeologists? I found the archaeological data, that had been OVERLOOKED by archaeologists,,****BEHIND**** the Ten Commandments and the worship of a Golden Calf , at a siite called Gebel Serabit el Khadim. This site lies in the Sinai, to the northwest of Gebel Musa and St. Catherine's Monastery.. That is to say , I FOUND WHAT IS probably *****BEHIND**** THE SMASHED TEN COMMANDMENTS MOTIF IN THE BIBLE AND I ALSO FOUND *****WHAT IS BEHIND**** ISRAEL'S GOLDEN CALF WORSHIP WITH DRUNKEN SONG AND NAKED DANCE (Cf. the King James Version of the Bible for Israel's NAKED song and dance). Today, in an Egyptian museum, lie the shattered stones that came to be later recast in the Bible as the Ten Commandments, also found are the shattered remains of the Golden Calf, from the same general area. For more info just google "Mattfeld, Ten Commandments" and "Mattfeld, Golden Calf." (the Golden Calf being Hat-Hor and her son, the sun at sunrise, who is called the Golden Calf in Egyptian texts, Hat-Hor giving birth to the sun in texts. Regards, Walter R. Mattfeld

Amihai Mazar is also agree exodus was not historical, also the conquest

He's not arguing exodus was an historical event, is he? Smh

Apologist