Khirbet Nisya was the first site ABR excavated. The excavations were led by Dr. David Livingstone, ABR's founder, who believed Nisya was a candidate for the lost city of Ai. 

David founded ABR in 1969 as a response to the scholarly assertions claiming that there was no evidence for the Conquest of Joshua and that the city identified as Ai was never destroyed at the time or in the way the Bible describes. Through careful original research, he concluded that scholars had misidentified the location of ancient Ai (at et-Tell) and worked tirelessly to bring about a new paradigm and understanding for the location of this important Conquest city of Joshua. This effort led to many years of archaeological excavation and investigation at Kirbet Nisya, which was David's candidate for Ai. An important corollary study to this effort included correcting a related scholarly blunder: the misidentification of Bethel. Properly identifying Bethel was the key to finding Ai. David concluded that Ai was at Khirbet Nisya, directing 15 seasons of excavations there.

As an organization, ABR believes Khirbet Nisya did not satisfy all of the biblical criteria for being Joshua's Ai since it was unfortified in the Late Bronze Age. This led ABR to move to Khirbet el-Maqatir, which we believe is a better candidate for the lost city of Ai. However, since Khirbet Nisya was our first official dig, we have included the following items for posterity. 

Articles

Click here for an article written by Dr. Livingstone about Khirbet Nisya from the Winter 1999 issue of Bible & Spade. 

Video

Dr. Livingstone gives a tour of Khirbet Nisya

Excavation Report

Click here to download the Introduction to Dr. Livingstone's final excavation report on Khirbet Nisya.

Click here to purchase Dr. Livingstone's final excavation report on Khirbet Nisya.

Dr. David Livingstone

To learn more about ABR's founder, Dr. David Livingstone, click here.