Hi Art,
A few different sites have been proposed for Ai, but Ai really is the only plausible location for the biblical narrative, and if we leave the biblical narrative and assign any evidence of destruction at any other site to Joshua then we MAY be stealing someone else's history and giving it to Israel.
Calloway had a nice response to people who tried to place Ai elsewhere, he simply asked them, " so, tell me, where have I been excavating for the last 9 years!"
Calloway was a southern baptist minister who went to Ai to try and prove the Joshua narratives, he admitted that he had to change his view of the Bible in light of the evidence.
One thought I have about Ai could be that it is an aetiological tale, thnk about it, why were people living in a city called 'the ruin'? Is it not more plausible that people living long after the city had became a ruin just claimed its destruction for Joshua's armies?
There's actually 2 exodus myths woven into one, and there's also a different 'conquest' given in the Book of Judges.
The one in Judges is far more plausible, but the real problem is identifying remains that we can definitely call 'Israelite'.
Archaeologists have suggested various material culture that they thought we unique to Israel, the four pillar house and the rim collared jar were the two main ones, but evidence of these have been found all over the near east now so these are rejected.
It is a massive subject, and I don't think Joe Public realise the intensity of the debate that is going on in academia about this. I got into this subject whilst studying under Keith Whitelam, at Stirling Uni, if you do a Google you will see he is a big player in this debate.
I also had the pleasure of spending a few hours chatting (and drinking!) with Philip Davies, another major player, whilst studying at Glasgow Uni.
It is a massive area of research, and probably the only thing that is agreed upon by both sides is that we need to reinterpret the biblical texts, they really cannot be taken at face value, which is fine, all ancient peoples exaggerated their history, so why should we expect Israel to be any different?
Nice to have you here.