=Incompleteness of the Initial Conquest.= It is probable that certain other small villages in the uplands near Ai and Bethel, were captured by the Hebrew tribes that turned northward. The later traditions record an important battle near Gibeon, which swept westward down through the pass of the Upper and Lower Beth-horons. The older narrative, however, found in the first chapter of Judges, states very definitely that the Hebrews did not capture any of the important cities on the plain except Jericho and that all the important towns in central Canaan still remained in the possession of the older inhabitants. One zone of strong cities, beginning with Gezer on the west, including Shaalbim, Ajalon, Gibeon, and Jerusalem, remained in possession of the Canaanites. Farther north, beginning with Dor on the Mediterranean coast, another line of strong Canaanite cities extended across the Plain of Esdraelon to the Jordan, including Megiddo, Taanach, Ibleam, and Bethshean. These cities commanded all the important highways from north to south. Still farther north the chief cities of Galilee were still held by the Canaanites. Thus, in the early stages of the settlement in Canaan, the Hebrews, who at this time came in from the east-Jordan land, succeeded in intrenching themselves only at two points: (1) in the heights of Judah, from whence they gradually extended their conquests, first to the south and then to the north; and (2) in the highlands of southern Samaria, gradually spreading down the western hills and pressing northward through the valleys of Samaria and Galilee. In the north they readily affiliated with their kinsmen who, like the Asherites, had probably remained in the land since the first invasion in the days of Amenhotep IV.