north Lebanon mountains and environs within the last ten or fifteen years of Akhenaten's reign, the main period of the Amarna letters that evidence this feat. In this they made full use of Apiru fighting men and auxiliaries, to expand their control over neighbouring towns, not least profitable trading ports on the Mediterranean coast. Geopolitically this represented a much more ambitious achievement on the ground than the modest initial Hebrew occupation of the Canaanite upland area from Hebron to Jericho/Ai (bypassing Jerusalem) up via Shiloh to Shechem and Tirzah. Thus the territorial achievement of Joshua and the elders (in maybe ten/fifteen years?) was certainly much less than that of Abdi-ashirta and Aziru - who also faced stiff opposition from their contemporaries, and had to cope with direct threats from Egypt and the Hittite power, as the Amarna letters and contemporary archives show. Therefore there are no grounds whatsoever for denying reality or factuality to the Joshua narratives in terms of what they actually represent on the ground, when the rhetorical component is left aside" (On the Reliability of the Old Testament, K.A. Kitchen, 2003 AD, p 165-166) "They are now attempting to take Jerusalem . ... Gezer, Ashkelon, and Lachish have given oil, food, and supplies to the Habiru. ... Labaya and the land of Shechem have given all to the Habiru ." (Amarna Tablet, A Letter from Abdu-Heba, EA 287) Towns that had already fallen: Shechem was one of the first towns the Hebrews captured entirely. Joshua built an