These surveys found a large increase in the settled population dating to 1200 BCE.
It is not known whether the Israelites arrived in the wake of conquests or the new villages were established by former nomads or displaced persons.
A 2005 book by Robert D. Miller applies statistical modeling to the sizes and locations of the villages, grouping them by economic and political features.
This evidence does not prove there was a conquest as described in the Book of Joshua, but if the biblical reference to "daughter villages" means all villages closest to a specific town, the list of Canaanite towns not taken in the Book of Judges (Judges 1:27–35), which begins: "Nor did Manesseh drive out Bet Shean and her daughter-villages ...", the correspondence to the survey results is remarkably accurate.
Towns not captured in the central zone were Taanach, Ibleam, Megiddo, Dor, Gezer, Aijalon, Shaalbim, and Jerusalem.