Ai (Canaan)

In light of these findings, scholars interpret the biblical account of Ai's conquest as an etiological story explaining the origin of the place name.

The biblical account portrays the failure as being due to a prior sin of Achan, for which he is stoned to death by the Israelites.

[5]: 86 However, excavations at Et-Tell in the 1930s, undertaken by Judith Marquet-Krause, found that there was a fortified city there during the Early Bronze Age, between 3100 and 2400 BC, after which it was destroyed and abandoned.

[5]: 117  These findings, along with excavations at Bethel, posed problems for the dating that Albright and others had proposed, and some scholars including Martin Noth began proposing that the Conquest had never happened but instead was an etiological myth; the name meant "the ruin" and the Conquest story simply explained the already-ancient destruction of the Early Bronze city.

[9]: 331–32 Five main hypotheses exist about how to explain the biblical story surrounding Ai in light of archaeological evidence.

[10]: 80–82  Fourth, Callaway has proposed that the city somehow angered the Egyptians (perhaps by rebelling, and attempting to gain independence), and so they destroyed it as punishment.

Koert van Bekkum writes that "Et-Tell, identified by most scholars with the city of Ai, was not settled between the Early Bronze and Iron Age I.