Jericho ( ; , ; ) is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, and the capital of the Jericho Governorate. The city is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west.
Jericho is among the oldest cities in the world.Murphy-O'Connor, 1998, p. 288. Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of more than 20 successive settlements in Jericho, the first of which dates back 11,000 years (to 9000 BCE), almost to the very beginning of the Holocene epoch of the Earth's history. Copious springs in and around the city have attracted human habitation for thousands of years.Bromiley, 1995, p. 715 Jericho is described in the Bible as the "city of palm trees".
Following the era of Mandatory Palestine, the West Bank was annexed and ruled by Jordan starting in 1950, then was occupied by Israel in 1967. Administrative control of Jericho was handed over to the Palestinian Authority in 1994.
The city had a population of 20,907 in 2017. In 2023, the archaeological site in the center of the city, known as Tell es-Sultan / Old Jericho, was inscribed in UNESCO's list as a World Heritage Site in the State of Palestine, and described as the "oldest fortified city in the world".
Etymology Jericho's name in Biblical Hebrew, Yəriḥo () is generally thought to derive from the Canaanite word rēḥ , but other theories hold that it originates in the Canaanite word Yaraḥ or the name of the lunar deity Yarikh, for whom the city was an early centre of worship.Schreiber, 2003, p. 141.
Jericho's Arabic name, , means and also has its roots in Canaanite rēḥ.Bromiley, 1995, p. 1136.
History and archaeology
The first excavations of the site were carried out by Charles Warren in 1868. Ernst Sellin and Carl Watzinger excavated Tell es-Sultan and Tulul Abu el-'Alayiq between 1907 and 1909, and in 1911, and John Garstang excavated between 1930 and 1936. Kathleen Kenyon worked there between 1952 and 1958.
Subsequently, Lorenzo Nigro and Nicolò Marchetti excavated in 1997–2000. Since 2009, the Italian-Palestinian archaeological project of excavation and restoration was resumed by Rome ("La Sapienza" University and Palestinian MOTA-DACH) under the direction of Nigro, Hamdan Taha, and Jehad Yasine since 2015. The Italian-Palestinian Expedition carried out 13 seasons in 20 years (1997–2017), with some major discoveries, like Tower A1 in the Middle Bronze Age southern Lower Town and Palace G on the eastern flanks of the Spring Hill overlooking the Spring of 'Ain es-Sultan dating from Early Bronze III.
Stone Age: Tell es-Sultan and spring The earliest excavated settlement was located at the present-day Tell es-Sultan (or Sultan's Hill), a couple of kilometers from the current city. In both Arabic and Hebrew, tell means "mound"; consecutive layers of habitation built up a mound over time, as is common for ancient settlements in the Middle East and Anatolia. Jericho is the type site for the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) and Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) periods.
Natufian hunter-gatherers,
Epipaleolithic construction at the site appears to predate the invention of agriculture, with the construction of Natufian culture structures beginning earlier than 9000 BCE, the beginning of the Holocene epoch in geologic history.
Jericho has evidence of settlement dating back to . During the Younger Dryas period of cold and drought, permanent habitation of any one location was impossible. However, the Ein es-Sultan spring at what would become Jericho was a popular camping ground for Natufian hunter-gatherer groups, who left a scattering of crescent-shaped microlith tools behind them. Around 9600 BCE, the droughts and cold of the Younger Dryas stadial had come to an end, making it possible for Natufian groups to extend the duration of their stay, eventually leading to year-round habitation and permanent settlement.
Pre-Pottery Neolithic, 9500–6500 BCE
The Pre-Pottery Neolithic eras at Jericho are divided into PPNA and PPNB.
Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA)
The first permanent settlement on the site of Jericho developed near the Ein es-Sultan spring between 9,500 and 9000 BCE. As the world warmed up, a new culture based on agriculture and sedentary dwelling emerged, which archaeologists have termed PPNA. Its cultures lacked pottery, but featured the following: small circular dwellings burial of the dead under the floor of buildings reliance on hunting of wild game cultivation of wild or domestic cereals
At Jericho, circular dwellings were built of clay and straw bricks left to dry in the sun, which were plastered together with a mud mortar. Each house measured about across and was roofed with mud-smeared brush. Hearths were located within and outside the homes.
The Pre-Sultan ( – 7370 BCE) is sometimes called Sultanian. The site is a settlement surrounded by a massive stone wall over high and wide at the base, inside of which stood a stone tower, over high, containing an internal staircase with 22 stone steps and placed in the centre of the west side of the tell. This tower and the even older ones excavated at Tell Qaramel in Syria are the oldest towers ever to be discovered.
The wall and tower were built during the PPNA period around 8000 BCE. Carbon dates published in 1981 and 1983 indicate that the tower was built around 8300 BCE and stayed in use until . The wall may have served as a defence against flood water (possibly to prevent the erosion of agricultural soil), with the tower used for ceremonial purposes. The wall and tower would have taken a hundred men more than a hundred days to construct, suggesting some kind of social organization. The town contained round mud-brick houses, but no street planning. The identity and number of Jericho's inhabitants during the PPNA period is still under debate, with estimates as high as 2,000–3,000 and as low as 200–300. It is known that this population had domesticated emmer wheat, barley and pulses, and hunted wild animals.
Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB)
The PPNB was a period of about 1.4 millennia, from 7220 to 5850 BCE (though carbon-14-dates are few and early). The following are PPNB cultural features: Expanded range of domesticated plants Possible domestication of sheep Apparent cult involving the preservation of human skulls, with facial features reconstructed using plaster, and eyes set with shells in some cases
After a few centuries, the first settlement was abandoned. After the PPNA settlement phase, there was a settlement hiatus of around five centuries, then the PPNB settlement was founded on the eroded surface of the tell. This second settlement, established in 6800 BCE, perhaps represents the work of an invading people who absorbed the original inhabitants into their dominant culture. Artifacts dating from this period include ten plastered human skulls, painted so as to reconstitute the individuals' features. These represent either teraphim or the first example of portraiture in art history, and it is thought that they were kept in people's homes while the bodies were buried.Janson and Janson, 2003.
The architecture consisted of rectilinear buildings made of mudbricks on stone foundations. The mudbricks were loaf-shaped with deep thumb prints to facilitate bonding. No building has been excavated in its entirety. Normally, several rooms cluster around a central courtyard. There is one big room ( and ) with internal divisions; the rest are small, presumably used for storage. The rooms have red or pinkish terrazzo-floors made of lime. Some impressions of mats made of reeds or rushes have been preserved. The courtyards have clay floors.
Kathleen Kenyon interpreted one building as a shrine. It contained a niche in the wall. A chipped pillar of volcanic stone that was found nearby might have fitted into this niche.
The dead were buried under the floors or in the rubble fill of abandoned buildings. There are several collective burials. Not all the skeletons are completely articulated, which may point to a time of exposure before burial. A skull cache contained seven skulls. The jaws were removed and the faces covered with plaster; cowries were used as eyes. A total of ten skulls were found. Modelled skulls were found in Tell Ramad and Beisamoun as well.
Other finds included flints, such as arrowheads (tanged or side-notched), finely denticulated sickle-blades, burins, scrapers, a few tranchet axes, obsidian, and green obsidian from an unknown source. There were also querns, hammerstones, and a few ground-stone axes made of greenstone. Other items discovered included dishes and bowls carved from soft limestone, spindle whorls made of stone and possible loom weights, spatulae and drills, stylised anthropomorphic plaster figures, almost life-size, anthropomorphic and theriomorphic clay figurines, as well as shell and malachite beads.
In the late 4th millennium BCE, Jericho was occupied during Neolithic 2 and the general character of the remains on the site link it culturally with Neolithic 2 (or PPNB) sites in the West Syrian and Middle Euphrates groups. This link is established by the presence of rectilinear mud-brick buildings and plaster floors that are characteristic of the age.
Chalcolithic A succession of settlements followed from 4500 BCE onward.
Early Bronze Age
In Early Bronze I, the stratigraphic layers are Sultan IIIA1 village (EB IA, c. 3500 – 3200 BCE) and Sultan IIIA2 rural town (proto-urban, EB IB, c. 3200 – 3000 BCE).Nigro et al 2019
In Early Bronze II, the strategraphic layers are Sultan IIIB1 foritifed town (EB IIA, c. 3000-2850 BCE) and Sultan IIIB2 with added towers and bastions to the fortification (EB IIB, c.2850 – 2700 BCE).
In the Early Bronze IIIA ( – 2500/2450 BCE; Sultan IIIC1), the settlement reached its largest extent around 2600 BCE.
During Early Bronze IIIB (/2450–2350 BCE; Sultan IIIC2) there was a Palace G on Spring Hill and city walls.
In Early Bronze IV, the strategraphic layers are Sultan IIID1 (EB IVA; 2300 – 2200 BCE) and Sultan IIID2 (EB IVB; 2200 – 2000 BCE).
Middle Bronze Age
Jericho was continually occupied into the Middle Bronze Age; it was destroyed in the Late Bronze Age, after which it no longer served as an urban centre. The city was surrounded by extensive defensive walls strengthened with rectangular towers, and possessed an extensive cemetery with vertical shaft-tombs and underground burial chambers; the elaborate funeral offerings in some of these may reflect the emergence of local kings.
During the Middle Bronze Age, Jericho was a small prominent city of the Canaan region, reaching its greatest Bronze Age extent in the period from 1700 to 1550 BCE. It seems to have reflected the greater urbanization in the area at that time, and has been linked to the rise of the Maryannu, a class of chariot-using aristocrats linked to the rise of the Mitannite state to the north. Kathleen Kenyon reported "the Middle Bronze Age is perhaps the most prosperous in the whole history of Kna'an. ... The defenses ... belong to a fairly advanced date in that period" and there was "a massive stone revetment ... part of a complex system" of defenses. Bronze Age Jericho fell in the 16th century at the end of the Middle Bronze Age, the calibrated carbon remains from its City-IV destruction layer dating to 1617–1530 BCE. Carbon dating 1573 BCE confirmed the accuracy of the stratigraphical dating 1550.
Chronology (Nigro 2016) Middle Bronze IA, Tell es-Sultan IVa1 (c. 2000/1950-1900 BC) Middle Bronze IB, Tell es-Sultan IVa2 (c. 1900-1800 BC) Middle Bronze IIA, Tell es-Sultan IVb1 (c. 1800-1700 BC) Middle Bronze IIB, Tell es-Sultan IVb2 (c. 1700-1650 BC) Middle Bronze IIC/III, Tell es-Sultan IVc (c. 1650-1550 BC)
Late Bronze Age