HOW MANY CITIES WERE IN THE VALLEY?

Joshua 15:33-36: And in the valley, Eshtaol, and Zoreah, and Ashnah, And Zanoah, and Engannim, Tappuah, and Enam, Jarmuth, and Adullam, Socoh, and Azekah, And Sharaim, and Adithaim, and Gederah, and Gederothaim; fourteen cities with their villages: Of course, it's pointed out that the cities given total fifteen, while at the end it says there were fourteen cities in the valley.

There are several explanations for how this 'error' could come to be.  One is that the original author miscounted.  Such an error, while it would technically cause a 'contradiction', would hardly reflect on the validity of the Bible.  The authors, while inspired by God, were fallable just as anyone is.  That the author would accidentally miscount just proves that he's human.  However, it's also possible that this 'error' was caused by an accident in translation.  There is no 'and' between the names of the cities in the original Hebrew, so perhaps one of these cities has a longer name that was accidentally divided into two separate names by a copyist, turning fourteen cities into fifteen.  Or perhaps the Hebrew word for 'fifteen' was accidentally translated as 'fourteen' by a copyist (the Hebrew numbers for five and four are very similar).  Since there's reasonable doubt as to whether this was a mistake in the original text, or a mistake in translation, this can't be counted as a contradiction.