The first settlers of ancient Jerusalem built a small village, constructed of mud brick and limestone, on the southeastern ridge immediately west of the Gihon Spring. Relatively few traces remain of the earliest settlement. Potsherds discovered on the southeastern ridge above the Gihon Spring suggest a limited occupational presence in the Neolithic period.

Plentiful fresh water from the Gihon as well as the relative protection afforded by the southeastern ridge presumably attracted settlers to the site. The ridge provided a convenient water source, a defensible position, and plentiful surrounding arable land.

Artifacts dating to the Chalcolithic period (4300–3300 BCE) and the Early, Middle, and the Late Bronze Age were found on the southeastern ridge and its slopes. During the Early Bronze Age its people transformed their settlement into a walled town on the slopes. The walls were a distinctive characteristic of Early Bronze Age settlements.

Salem

The Hebrew Scriptures associate the settlement of Salem with Jerusalem. Salem was the place where Melchizedek was king (Genesis 14:18; Hebrews 7:1-2). Psalms 76:2 equates Salem with Zion, the place of the tabernacle (Solomon’s Temple), and the royal city. Josephus also identifies Salem with Jerusalem (Josephus, Antiquities 1.10.2§180; Whiston, The Life and Works of Josephus, 1987:39; Wars 6.10.1; Whiston, 1987:750) and (Antiquities 7.3.2§§65-68; Whiston 1987:185-186).

Josephus places the founding of Salem at 2,170 years before the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus (Josephus, Antiquities 6.10.1§435; Whiston 1987:750). This would be 2101 BCE or the 22nd century in the Early Bronze Age. Genesis 14:17 records that Salem was near the “Valley of Shaveh” [literally, valley of the plain] which was the king’s territory (Genesis 14:17). The valley of the Kidron lies on the east side of the ancient settlement and west of the Mount of Olives.

Egyptian Execration Texts

The town’s name appears is in the Egyptian Execration texts. These were Middle Bronze Age documents, written in hieroglyphics, dating to the 20th and 19th centuries BCE. The name Jerusalem appears in a form likely reading Rushalimum (Mazar 1993:698). The name “Rushalimum” also appears on some the Ma’arot Writings. These, written in the 18th and 19th centuries BCE, on small statues of prisoners or on bowls, were meant to place a curse on the enemies of Egypt.

The Amarna Letters

The Amarna letters consist largely of diplomatic correspondence written by Canaanite rulers to the 18th Dynasty Egyptian courts of Amenhotep III (1408-1372) and Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten, 1372-1354). While discounted by many scholars, these documents mention that the Habiru, also known as the Apiru, had invaded Canaan.

Written in cuneiform, in the Akkadian language, some request Egyptian help in defeating the invaders. Interestingly, six of the letters originated with the ruler of Jerusalem (Urusalim). Interestingly, organized resistance to the Israelite invasion came foremost from one Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem (Joshua 10:3-5). While inviting to conclude that the Hebrews and the Habiru are one and the same there is insufficient scholarly evidence to do so and the implication of the word Habiru remains in dispute.

The Jebusites referred to the town as Jebus (Joshua 18:28 cf. Judges 19:10, 1 Chronicles 11:4-5). This fortified village was also referred to as the stronghold of Zion. The physical location of the original Mount Zion was a hillock on Jerusalem’s middle ridge lying between the Kedron and the Tyropoeon Valleys.

The Jebusites incorporated the hillock into the town’s defense structure. The hillock, later leveled by the Maccabees, was on the middle ridge lying between the Kedron and the Tyropoeon Valleys. This was the original “Mount Zion” and not the southwest hill later called by that name.

Canaanite Jebus

In the Late Bronze Age (1550–1200 BCE) the Jebusites, a Canaanite tribe, occupied the town and settled its countryside. When the Jebusites first occupied the site is unknown, but they seem to have moved into the region early in the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 1950-1550 BCE). There is no reason to doubt that it was they who fortified the town and allied themselves with other Amorite settlements in the hill country. At its height in the time of King David, the walled city of Jebusite Jerusalem, or Jebus, supporting a population of not more than 2,000, occupied an area of about eleven acres. This included a built up area on the eastern slope known as the Millo.

Those who hold that an Israelite Exodus from Egypt occurred at an early date, such as in the fifteenth century BCE thereby placing the beginning of an Israelite Conquest of Canaan about 1400 BCE, argue that Habiru refers to the invading Hebrew tribes. Those who deny an Exodus altogether or hold to a late date for an Exodus, usually placed by liberal scholars about 1250 BCE, hold that the word Habiru has no ethnic inference whatsoever and simply means marauder, invader, raider, migrant, or persons without citizenship.

The deniers attempt to minimize any suggestion that the word as used in the el-Amarna letters could have been in reference to the Israelites although from a Canaanite perspective the words they use – marauder, invader, raider, migrant, or persons without citizenship – perfectly describe the invading Israelite tribes. Biblical minimalists argue that there is no evidence for either an Exodus or a Conquest. For more information see A Survey of Israel’s History by Leon J. Wood (Wood 1986:82-84).

Jebusite Jerusalem not counting the Millo, according to Eilat Mazar, “occupied a mere 35 dunams (1acre = 4.04686 dunams) – about nine acres” (Mazar 1989:40). Kenyon maintained that the town, including the Millo, covered about 44 dunams, that is, 10.87 acres (Kenyon, Excavating 3000 Years of History, 1967:26; Mare, The Archaeology of the Jerusalem Area, 1987:57). Shanks wrote that the town “occupied less than 11 acres” (Shanks, The City of David: A Guide to Biblical Jerusalem, 1973:31). In any case, the fortified Jebusite town of was small.

The town and the region it controlled (marked on the map as JEBUSITES), a fairly significant territory in the fifteenth century, was known as the Land of Jerusalem. It was then simply a little hill-town with walls occupying the southern part of the eastern hill.

Dominating the town was a small castle or fortification called Zion, after the hillock upon which it was built, to protect the town and the Gihon Spring. The Jebusites, presumably following the town’s capture and burning by the tribes of Simeon and Judah (Judges 1:8), enlarged the settlement by about two acres by constructing the northern section of the eastern wall known as the Millo.

This captured more space above the spring and improved the town’s northeastern defense perimeter. The Millo, however, consisted of unstable earth-filled terraced walls. Limiting the engineers’ task was the necessity of maintaining a defensible position from an attack from the ridge to the west resulting in the spring remaining outside the city wall.

The Maccabees leveled the area of both Mt. Zion and Mt. Ophel for presumably two purposes: (1) to remove the uncleanness caused by the Greek occupation; and (2) to lessen the possibility of the area being used as a fortification as the Greeks had done for many years.

The Hebrew Scriptures record that when the Israelite tribes sent spies to scout out the land of Canaan they found the peoples of Amalek living in the Negev, with the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites in the hill country, and the Canaanites in the lowlands by the sea and in the Jordan Valley (Numbers 13:29).

The Jebusites dwelled among the Amorites and Hittites claiming they the descendants of the third son of Canaan whose name was probably Jebus (Genesis 10:16). Joshua considers the population Amorite (Joshua 10:5).

Jebus as Amorite and Hittite

The implication is that the Jebusites had strong kinship ties with the Amorites and were probably an Amorite clan. When the Israelite tribes invaded Canaan the Jebusites possessed the town. After the fall of Jericho and Ai to Israel, ca. 1405, the inhabitants of Gibeon, who were Hivites claiming to descend from Canaan (Genesis 10:16), through misrepresentation talked Israel into entering a peace treaty with them. When the scam became known Israel decided to honor the treaty but placed the Gibeonites into perpetual servitude (Joshua 9:3-27). At the time Gibeon was a large settlement, like one of the royal cities of the Canaanite federation, and because it was more populous than Ai and its men were noted warriors.

The territory of Gibeon included the towns of Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim (Joshua 9:17). Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, became alarmed when he learned that Joshua had captured Ai, destroyed it, and executed its king, just as he had done to Jericho and its king; and that the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were within their land.

Adoni-zedek decided to organize an armed Amorite force from the hill country and attack Gibeon. He sent word to his allies the kings of Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon asking them to join the Jebusites in battle against Gibeon, apparently intending to frighten them back into opposing the Israelites. This may have been the point at which the six Amarna letters were sent from the ruler of Jerusalem to Amenhotep III requesting Egyptian aid in defeating the Habiru. At the time of the Exodus (1446 BCE) the Land of Canaan was dominated by Egypt and could be described as a series of puppet city states.

When the Israelites left Egypt it was in a weakened condition which allowed the Canaanites four decades to federate and gain considerable independence but not wholly freeing themselves of Egyptian influence. Hazor appears to have been the chief city of the Canaanite Federation. When the federation began to collapse at the advance of the Israelite tribes the appeal of Jerusalem’s ruler or king to their once Egyptian ally would appear to be a normal diplomatic maneuver when threatened with invasion and annihilation. The five kings mobilized their armies and attacked Gibeon. The men of Gibeon sent word to Joshua at Gilgal seeking intervention.

The Israelite forces came to the support of their Gibeonite ally and defeated the Amorites in a long bloody, devastating, brutal, hand-to- hand battle with a loss of thousands of lives. The army under Joshua’s command marched all night from Gilgal and counterattacked the Amorites. There was great carnage at Gibeon. Israel pursued the Amorites by the way of the ascent of Beth-horon and struck them as far as Azekah and Makkedah. While the Amorites were at the descent of Beth-horon, large hail stones landed on them killing them. Reportedly, more died from the hailstones than the Israelite military killed. This decimated the male Amorite population of the hill country.

Joshua and his army returned to the camp to Gilgal where he learned that the five kings were found hidden in the cave at Makkedah. Whereon: Joshua said,

Roll large stones against the mouth of the cave, and assign men by it to guard them, but do not stay {there} yourselves; pursue your enemies and attack them in the rear. Do not allow them to enter their cities, for the LORD your God has delivered them into your hand.” It came about when Joshua and the sons of Israel had finished slaying them with a very great slaughter, until they were destroyed, and the Survivors, however, who remained of them had entered the fortified cities, that all the people returned to the camp to Joshua at Makkedah in peace. No one uttered a word against any of the sons of Israel. (Joshua 17; Joshua 18; Joshua 19; Joshua 20.)

Joshua had the five kings taken out of the cave and brought before him. He had his leading military commanders place their feet on the necks of the five prostrated kings while he decapitated them (Joshua 10:23, 26; cf. 12:10). He then had their bodies hanged on trees until evening for public view. At sunset he ordered them removed from the trees and had that their bodies thrown into the cave where they had hidden and that its entrance closed by large stones.

Following the death of Joshua, ca. 1383 BCE, the tribes of Simeon and Judah joined forces to drive the Canaanites from their territories. Their soldiers defeated an armed force from Jebus, took the town, killed its inhabitants, and burnt it (Judges 1:8). They did not, however, occupy the town, which technically was in the territory allotted to Benjamin.

Rather they continued on to battle in the Negev and in the lowlands. Nevertheless, the tribe of Judah did not drive the Jebusites out and neither did the Benjaminites (Judges 1:21). In all probability at this point the Jebusites rebuilt the town and strongly fortified it by enlarging its defense system.