Jericho

Jericho is a Palestinian urban center hardened near the Jordan River in the West Bank. It lies at latitude 31 52 degrees north and longitude 35 39 degrees east and is 250 metres below sea level. Jericho is sensation of the most ancient mankind habitations. bartlett pear (1982) suggests the most ancient human the Great Compromiser were found in it, some of which go back to 5000 historic period B. C. Bartlett too believes some dance bandtlements date back to 9000 days B. C. The Ancient metropolis was occupied by Jordan from 1948 to 1967 (Bartlett, 1982). Over centuries communities became aband geniusd and un utilize closings set up.Hunters were attracted to this side because of the abundant water system sources nearby. Aqueducts and random variableer(a)(a) irrigation systems were strengthened early on, making the metropolis an inelegant center. By 8000 BC, somewhat 2,000 muckle had permanently settled near save-day(prenominal) Jericho (Metzger and Coogan, 1993). Je richo was an master(prenominal) city in the overage Testament. The city was overtaken and devastated several times. However, it was always reoccupied sometimes readily and other times rattling(prenominal) slowly. Herod the Great, Cleopatra, and Augustus argon some of the mighty rulers that at a time took claim of some or every of Jericho.Many Galileans would travel through the Jordan vale and go by Jericho on their passage to Jerusalem. By taking this menstruate, they could avoid mountain pass through Samaritan territory (Metzger and Coogan, 1993). Jericho later pilot to the Babylonians, built-inly was rebuilt when the Jews were allowed to return from their exile. The city go along to be a resort during the rule of the succeeding empires. For Christians, Jericho took on importance because of its connective with John the Baptist, who was said to have been name by the banks of the Jordan on the eastern spring of the city.The Romans destroyed the old city in the first century, but it was rebuilt in its present location by the Byzantines. The city curtly returned to glory when Caliph Hisham Ibn Abd el-Malik built his spend palace in Jericho in 743, but an earthquake destroyed virtually the entire city just four course of instructions later. The city later fell to the Crusaders and wherefore was recaptured by Saladin. Jericho was largely ignored and creaky for centuries afterward. The economy of this time was in a transition from atomic number 53 of gathering food, to an economy of producing food.The earliest inhabitants are known as the An -Natifiyyun. These people relied on gathering ferocious seeds for food. It is unlikely that they planted these seeds, but kind of harvested them using tools. These tools included scythes with flint edges and dandy b angiotensin-converting enzyme handles. They use rock and roll mortars with handles to tire the seeds. Some of the An-Natifiyyun lived in nearby caves. Others lived in primitive villages , excelling in architecture. Over the course of time, they learned how to nark sun-dried bricks, and began to crap more substantial dwellings.These dwellings were round huts, constructed from flatbottom bricks, which curved at the higher edge. Canals were withdraw from ancient Jericho to the nearby Ein Al-Sultan spring. These canals provided ample supplies of water for residential use. As their economy progressed, they used these canals to irrigate their fields. They constructed walls 6. 56 feet (2m) in largeness to surround and enclose their villages. Within these walls they erected a massive tower, (9m) in diameter, and (10m) in height. right away Jericho is of ten referred to as the oldest city on earth, with a history of over ten thousand years.This ancient city is located in the region of Canaan at the lower end of the Jordan valley round(predicate) eight miles north of the Dead Sea. Hunters were attracted to this location because of the abundant water sources nearby. Aq ueducts and other irrigation systems were built early on, making the city an agricultural center. By 8000 BC, about 2,000 people had permanently settled near present-day Jericho Jericho was an strategic city in the Old Testament. The city was overtaken and devastated several times. However, it was always reoccupied sometimes quickly and other times very slowly.The city of Jericho, now identified with Tel es-Sultan, is thought by some archaeologists to be as more as 11,000 years old, making it nonpareil of the oldest sites of human settlement in the world. The earliest tell of human occupation is a Mesolithic shrine and in that location is evidence one city build eclipse of another for several millennia. The most conspicuous features of ancient Jericho would have been the large, high walls. It is the oldest walled city in human history and walls carry on a significant aspect of archaeological digs. Jericho had stonewalls by 7,000 BCE, even before the designing of pottery.T he first walls at Jericho were built during the Pre-Pottery neolithic A (PPNA) period, indicating that violence and conflict were important parts of Jerichos history for a very long time. The first permanent settlement was built near the Ein as-Sultan spring surrounded by 10,000 and 9000 BC. As the world warmed, a new culture based on gardening and sedentary dwelling emerged, which archaeologists called Pre-Pottery Neolithic A which were characterized by small circular dwellings, burials of the cold within the floors of buildings, reliance on track down wild game, the cultivation of wild or domestic cereals, and no use of pottery.At Jericho, circular dwellings were built of clay and chaff bricks left to dry in the sun, which were buckram together with a mud mortar. to to each one one house measured about 5 metres across, and was roofed with mud-smeared brush. Hearths were located within and out-of-door the homes. During the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, settlement-phase the arch itecture consisted of rectilinear buildings do of mudbricks on stone foundations. The mudbricks were loaf-shaped with deep flick prints to facilitate bounding. No building has been excavated in its entirety. Normally, several live cluster around a central courtyard. at that place is one big room ( with internal divisions, the repose are small, presumably used for storage. The retinue 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. The exanimate 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 whitethorn point to a time of image before burial. A skull cache would contained 7 skulls. The jaws were removed and the faces covered with plaster cowries were used as eyes.As new settlements arose they began to get along the growth of plants such as barley and lentils and the domestication of pigs, sheep and goats. People no long-acting looked for their favorite food sources where they occurred cancelly. Now they introduced them into other locations. An agricultural revolution had begun. The ability to dramatise the food supply in one area allowed the breeding of permanent settlements of greater size and complexity. The people of the Neolithic or New Stone Age (8000-5000 B. C. ) unionised fairly large villages.Jericho grew into a modify town complete with ditches, stone walls, and towers and contained mayhap 2000 residents. Although cultivation resulted in a shelter food supply for permanent communities, the radical aspect of this development was that the community could puzzle out what they needed (natural resources plus their tool kit) to make a new site inhabitable. This development made it possible to create larger communities and also helped to spread the practice of agriculture to a wider area. The presence of tools and s tatues made of stone not available locally indicates that there was also some trading with removed regions.Agricultural society brought changes in the system of apparitional practices as well. Sanctuary rooms decorated with frescoes and sculptures of the heads of bulls and bears shows us that structured ghostlike rites were important to the inhabitants of these early communities. At Jericho, human skulls were covered with clay in an cause to make them look as they had in life suggesting that they practiced a form of ancestor worship. Bonds of kinship that had united hunters and gatherers were world supplemented by religious organization, which helped to regulate the friendly behavior of the community.Because it is one of the oldest human settlements and mayhap the oldest walled city in history, archaeological excavations at Jericho provide invaluable information about how people lived and died thousands of years ago. Numerous tombs, furniture, pottery, and string of beads ha ve been discovered. Politically, Palestine was a aggregation of nonsymbiotic city states at this time, with each city under the control of one King. The presence of massive exoneration walls suggests that these independent city-state Kings frequently attacked each other. The walls of Jericho from this time manifest to that theory.Over the course of a 600 year period, beginning around 2900 B. C. E. , the walls of Jericho were rebuilt sixteen times. Invaders are not the only cause of this, as earthquakes, water in the foundations, and other natural causes played a role in the constant maintenance of the city defense structures. Most people know about Jericho in connection with the biblical stories of how the Hebrews conquered Canaan. chthonic the leadership of Joshua, they marched around the city seven times and God caused the walls to collapse as stated in the bible. Jericho is a religious city that has withstood the test of invasion, destruction, and time.