Current research on ancient historiography concentrates on the relation between history and ideology, while the archaeology of the Southern Levant is more and more viewed as a discipline of its own. What happens when these new directions are applied to the historiography of Israel's settlement in Canaan? This study offers a fresh analysis of scholarly debate, a synchronic and diachronic reading of Joshua 9:1--13:7, and a critical evaluation of all the relevant archaeological evidence. This leads to a new historical picture of the Late Bronze - Iron Age transition in the Cisjordanian Southern...