Let the Stones Speak

Hosted by Brent Nagtegaal

Let the Stones Speak brings you archaeology from a biblical perspective. Host Brent Nagtegaal is on location in Jerusalem to give you the most important developments happening on the ground—and emerging from beneath it. Nagtegaal is a contributor for ArmstrongInstitute.org.

#54: Khirbet el-Maqatir: Evidence of Biblical Ai

Aired Wednesday, July 2, 2025   ·   11:32 AM CDT   ·   18 minutes

The biblical city of Ai was one of three cities that met a fiery demise when the Israelites conquered the Promised Land: “So Joshua burnt Ai, and made it a heap …” (Joshua 8:28). Over the years, archaeologists have proposed a few sites as being biblical Ai. One such site is Khirbet al-Maqatir.

Al-Maqatir was excavated by the Associates for Biblical Research for 14 seasons. This small site conforms with a number of key parameters for Joshua’s Ai.

In today’s interview, which was recorded in May, Let the Stones Speak co-host Christopher Eames speaks with Abigail Van Huss, one of the site’s excavators, about the history of the site and its identification as Ai.

Download: MP3 (17 MB)