Courtesy Larry G. Herr

Hesban=Heshbon. The equation is hard to resist. Based on their names and the location, Tell Hesban—a 15-acre site on a natural hill 15 miles southwest of Amman, Jordan—offers the best prospect for identification with Biblical Heshbon, burned by the Israelites after they defeated its Amorite king Shehan (Numbers 21:21–32). However, despite a large excavation over five seasons, archaeologists found very little from the appropriate period, the Late Bronze Age (1550–1200 B.C.E.). Instead the site revealed rich remains from the Hellenistic period through the Middle Ages.