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Conquest & Judges
c. 1400 BC · one of the six stops on the atlas era rail
Slide the atlas to the Conquest & Judges era and the map redraws itself as the world stood about 1400 BC: cities rise to their height, fall to ruin, or have not yet been built. Every change below comes from the era notes written for this stop.
Dating note: Follows the early biblical dating (1 Kgs 6:1); much of archaeology places the Conquest nearer 1200 BC.
Painted vignettes
The map at this stop
- Jerusalem · standing. The Jebusites held this stronghold; Israel could not drive them out.
- Jericho · in ruins. Its walls fell before Israel, and Joshua cursed whoever would rebuild them. Scholars date the ruin differently, near 1550 or 1400 BC, and the great walls seen today are older still.
- Shiloh · standing. Israel set up the Tent of Meeting here, and the ark rested at Shiloh through the days of the judges.
- Samaria · absent from the map.
- Ur of the Chaldeans · standing. An old city already past its greatness.
- Hazor · at its height. Head of all those kingdoms, burned in Joshua’s war; its great ash layer is dated by many nearer 1230 BC.
- Dan · standing. Still Canaanite Laish at this hour; the Danites came north in the days of the judges and gave it their father’s name.
- Bethel · standing. The house of Joseph took this city after Joshua’s day.
- Megiddo · at its height. A great stronghold of Canaan; its king fell to Joshua, but Canaan held this plain for years.
- Lachish · standing. Joshua took Lachish in the southern campaign.
- Thebes (No-Amon) · at its height. Egypt’s vast southern capital at the height of the New Kingdom, city of Amun’s great temples.