The apparent setting of Joshua is the 13th century ; this was a time of widespread city-destruction, but with a few exceptions ( Hazor, Lachish ) the destroyed cities are not the ones the Bible associates with Joshua, and the ones it does associate with him show little or no sign of even being occupied at the time.

Biblical references to Lachish include Joshua 10: 3, 5, 23, 31-35 ; Joshua 12: 11 ; Joshua 15: 39 ; 2 Kings 14: 19 ; 2 Kings 18: 14, 17 ; 2 Kings 19: 8 ; 2 Chronicles 11: 9 ; 2 Chronicles 25: 27 ; 2 Chronicles 32: 9 ; Nehemiah 11: 30 ; Isaiah 36: 2 ; Isaiah 37: 8 ; Jeremiah 34: 7 ; and Micah 1: 13.

Debris at six sites ( Hazor, Deir ' Alla, Gezer, Lachish, Tell Judeideh, and ' En Haseva ) is tightly confined stratigraphically to the middle of the eighth century B. C., with dating errors of ~ 30 years .&# 133 ; The earthquake was at least magnitude 7. 8, but likely was 8. 2 &# 133 ; This severe geologic disaster has been linked historically to a speech delivered at the city of Bethel by a shepherd-farmer named Amos of Tekoa.

Amaziah was slain at Lachish, to which he had fled, and his body was brought upon horses to Jerusalem, where it was buried in the royal sepulchre ( 2 Kings 14: 19, 20 ; 2 Chr.

The evidence which led to the abandonment of Albright's theory include: the collar-rimmed jars have been recognised as an indigenous form originating in lowland Canaanite cities centuries earlier ; while some " Joshua " cities, including Hazor, Lachish, Megiddo and others, have destruction and transition layers around 1250-1145 BCE, others, including Jericho, have no destruction layers or were uninhabited during this period ; and the Merneptah Stele indicates that a people called " Israel " were already known in Canaan by the reign of Merneptah ( 1213-1203 BCE ).

The collection of Palestinian material was strengthened with the acquisition in 1980 of around 17, 000 objects found at Lachish by the Wellcome-Marston expedition of 1932 – 1938.

" Rooster ( Gallus domesticus ) bones were identified at Lachish dating to early Iron II ", but even earlier not to be ruled out, which corresponds was well with " as for Palestine, the earliest chicken bones are present in Iron Age I strata in Lachish and Tell Hasben ".

According to the Bible, the Israelites captured and destroyed Lachish for joining the league against the Gibeonites ( Joshua 10: 31-33 ), but its territory was later assigned to the tribe of Judah ( 15: 39 ) and became a part of the Kingdom of Israel.

The next peak was the late Late Bronze Age, when Lachish is mentioned

In 701 BC, during the revolt of king Hezekiah against Assyria, it was captured by Sennacherib despite determined resistance ( see Siege of Lachish ).

Lachish was one of several city / forts guarding the canyons that lead up to Jerusalem and greater Judea.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, Lachish was identified with Tell el-Hesi from a cuneiform tablet found there ( EA 333 ).

His six-week excavation of Tell el-Hesi ( which was mistakenly identified as Lachish ) that year represents the first scientific excavation of an archaeological site in the Holy Land.

Known in Crusader times as Deirelcobebe, the ruins of the ancient Canaanite city of Lachish lay adjacent to the village, which was subject to extensive archaeological excavations by the British Mandatory authorities in Palestine, and by Israeli authorities subsequent to its capture during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

The economy was initially based on processing the agricultural produce of the Lachish region, such as cotton and wool.

(, ) According to the Book of Joshua, Adonizedek led a confederation of Jebusites, and the tribes from the neighbouring cities of Jarmut, Lachish, Eglon and Hebron against Joshua, () but was soundly defeated, and killed.

According to Second Kings 18, while Sennacherib was besieging Lachish, he received a message from Hezekiah offering to pay tribute in exchange for Assyrian withdrawal.

Another major contribution to Biblical archaeology from excavations at Lachish are the LMLK seals, which were stamped on the handles of a particular form of ancient storage jar.

Rehoboam fortified the town in his reign, along with Lachish and other strategic sites ().

Starkey at Lachish.

Hebron continued to constitute an important local economic centre, given its strategic position along trading routes, but, as is shown by the discovery of seals at Lachish with the inscription lmlk Hebron ( to the king.

Occupation at the site of Lachish began in the Neolithic period,

* Lawrence T. Geraty, Archaeology and the Bible at Hezekiah's Lachish, Andrews University Seminary Studies, vol.

* Arlene M. Rosen, Environmental Change and Settlement at Tel Lachish Israel, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no.

* D. Ussishkin, The Renewed Archaeological Excavations at Lachish ( 1973-1994 ), Volumes I-V, Monographs of the Institute of Archaeology vol.

Similarly, Ussishkin dated the " sudden destruction " level at Lachish to approximately 760 BC.

* Flinders Petrie excavates at Tell el-Hesi, Palestine ( mistakenly identified as Lachish ), the first scientific excavation of an archaeological site in the Holy Land, during which he discovers how tells are formed.

The remains are similar to those found elsewhere at Jericho, Lachish and Megiddo.

LMLK seals were stamped on the handles of large storage jars mostly in and around Jerusalem during the reign of King Hezekiah ( circa 700 BC ) based on several complete jars found in situ buried under a destruction layer caused by Sennacherib at Lachish.

For example, the majority of HBRN stamps were found at Lachish significantly to the west.

Adonizedek led a coalition of five of the neighboring Amorite rulers ( Hoham king of Hebron, Piram king of Jarmuth, Japhia king of Lachish, and Debir king of Eglon ) in resisting the invasion, but the allies were defeated at Gibeon, and suffered at Beth-horon, not only from their pursuers, but also from a great hail storm.

* The late 8th century BC siege system surrounding the site of Lachish ( Tell el-Duweir ) in Israel, built by Sennacherib of Assyria in 701 BC, is not only evident in the archaeological remains, but is described in Assyrian and biblical sources and in the reliefs of Sennacherib's palace in Nineveh.

Modern excavation of the site has revealed that the Assyrians built a stone and dirt ramp up to the level of the Lachish city wall, thereby allowing the soldiers to charge up the ramp and storm the city.

More recent excavations have identified Tell ed-Duweir as Lachish beyond reasonable doubt.

* Photo gallery of Lachish ( Tell ed-Duweir )

Charred fenugreek seeds have been recovered from Tell Halal, Iraq, ( radiocarbon dating to 4000 BC ) and Bronze Age levels of Lachish, as well as desiccated seeds from the tomb of Tutankhamen.

Stamp seals include the LMLK seals from Lachish ( ca 700 BC ) and seals in Tell Halaf.

When the Assyrians attacked Judah in 701 they did so via the Philistine coast and the Shephelah, the border region which included Micah's village of Moresheth, as well as Lachish, Judah's second largest city.

In the 1950s there were plans to set up Adullam as a formal political / economic region, on the model of Lachish, but the plans were not carried out.

The Adullam Caves park is a KKL park of 50, 000 dunams () of mostly pine forests, which were planted in the early years of the statehood, by Jewish immigrants who settled in the Lachish region.

As markets redeveloped, new trade routes that would avoid the heavy tariffs of the coast would develop from Kadesh Barnea, through Hebron, Lachish, Jerusalem, Bethel, Samaria, Shechem, Shiloh through Galilee to Jezreel, Hazor and Megiddo.