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Israel: Archaeologists begin dig where Biblical Joshua is believed to be buried

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Israeli archaeologists have begun excavating a site in the West Bank that is believed to be where the Biblical Joshua lived and was buried, the Jerusalem Post reports. Known as Khirbet Tibnah, the excavation site is located in southwest Samaria and is believed to have been inhabited from the Bronze Age until the beginning of the Ottoman rule.

The excavation at Khirbet Tibnah is being led by Dr. Dvir Raviv from Bar-Ilan University’s Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology in Tel Aviv, JPost said.

The Biblical book Joshua identifies the site as Timnath-heres or Timnath-serah, a town given to Joshua by the Israelites, JPost said. The Biblical Israelite Caleb is also believed to be buried at the site.

In a press statement announcing the excavation on Monday, Raviv said: “This area is the largest and most accessible of its kind in the space between Jerusalem and Samaria. In addition, it is the capital of a district and was an important fortified site throughout many periods.”

“My goal in this project is to understand the architectural outline of the settlement,” Raviv added. “Who lived there in the pre-Hasmonean period? Did the settlement spread beyond the top of the mound, towards the slope? Will we discover items in it that can be linked to military presence in different periods? It seems that [Khirbet] Tabna is expected to yield significant and interesting findings.”