3.1 Natufian

Proto-Neolithic -- construction at the site apparently began before the invention of agricultureFarming, ploughing rice paddy, in Indonesia Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and other desired products by cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock). Agriculture is also known as farming ., with construction of stone Natufian culture structures beginning earlier than 9000 BC.

3.2 PPN A

Pre-Pottery Neolithic A, 8350 BC to 7370 BC. Sometimes called Sultanien . A four hectare settlement surrounded by a stone wall, with a stone tower in the centre of one wall.

Round mud-brick houses. Use of domesticated emmer wheat, barley and pulses and hunting of wild animals.

3.3 PPN B

Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, 7220 BC to 5850 BC (but 14C-dates are few and early). Expanded range of domesticated plants. Possible domestication of sheep. Apparent cult involving

the preservation of human skulls, with facial features reconstructed from plaster and eyes set with shells in some cases.

After the PPN A settlement-phase there was a settlement hiatus of several centuries, then the PPN B settlement was founded on the eroded surface of the tell. The architecture consisted of rectilinear buildings made of mudbricks on stone foundations. The mudbricks were loaf-shaped with deep thumb prints to facilitate bounding. No building has been excavated in its entirety. Normally, several rooms cluster around a central courtyard. There is one big room (6.5 x 4 m and 7 x 3 m 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, the face covered with plaster, cowries were used for eyes. All in all, ten skulls were found. Modelled skulls were found in Tell Ramad and Beisamoun as well.

Other finds:

• Flints: arrowheads (tanged or side-notched), finely denticulated sickle-blades, burins, scrapers, a few tranchet axes. 1% obsidian, Ciftlik and green obsidian from unknown source.
• ground stone: querns, hammerstones, a few ground-stone axes made of greenstone. Dishes and bowls carved from soft limestone. Spindle whorls made of stone and maybe loom weights.
• Bone Tools: Spatulae and drills
• stylised anthropomorphic plaster figures, almost life-size
• Anthropomorphic and theriomorphic clay figurines
• shell and malachite beads

3.4 Pottery neolithic A and B

Late 4th millennium BC. Jericho was occupied during Neolithic 2 and the general character of the remains on the site link it culturally with Neolithic 2 sites in the West Syrian and Middle Euphrates groups. There are the rectilinear mud-brick buildings and plaster floors.

4 Bronze age

A walled town, continuously occupied until some time between 1580 BC and 1400 BC when it was destroyed.

The Biblical account of its destruction is found in the Book of Joshua

5 Tulul Abu el-'Alayiq

A later settlement spanned the Hellenistic, New Testament, and Islamic periods, leaving mounds located at Tulul Abu el-'Alayiq, 2 km west of modern er-Riha.

6 Current location

The present city was captured by Israel after the Six-Day War in 1967. It was the first city to be handed by Israel to the Palestinian Authority in 1994, in accordance with the Gaza and Jericho Agreement.

7 Archaeology

The first archaeological excavations of the site were made by Charles Warren in 1868. Ernst Sellin and Carl Watzinger excavated Tell es-Sultan and Tulul Abu el-'Alayiq between 1907-1909 and in 1911. John Garstang excavated between 1930 and 1936. Extensive investigations using more modern techniques were made by Kathleen Kenyon between 1952 and 1958.

7.1 References

• Digging Up Jericho, Kathleen Kenyon, ( 1957)

8 External link

• Ancient Jericho (Tell Sultan)

Archaeological sites Bible places Bible stories Hebrew Bible/Tanakh places Israeli history Palestinian Cities Torah places

<Hide>