Ai

Town, eastern Canaan, ancient Palestine. In the Bible (Joshua 7–8), it was destroyed by the Israelites under Joshua. Biblical references agree in locating Ai just east of Bethel (modern Baytin) in the West Bank, at the Early Bronze Age site now called Al-Tall. Excavations at Ai in 1933–35 uncovered a temple of the 3rd millennium BC. The biblical events at Ai are assigned to the period c. 1400–1200 BC, when evidence indicates it was not in fact occupied; early tradition may have identified the Canaanite town under Bethel with the nearby ruins of Al-Tall.