Jericho

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. 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. 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.

Jericho's Arabic name, , means and also has its roots in Canaanite rēḥ.

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,

thumb|Calibrated carbon 14 dates for Jericho as of 2013

thumb|Reconstruction of the Natufian-Jericho skull

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

right|thumb|Dwelling foundations unearthed at [[Tell es-Sultan in Jericho]]

The Pre-Pottery Neolithic eras at Jericho are divided into PPNA and PPNB. As the world warmed up, a new culture based on agriculture and sedentary dwelling emerged, which archaeologists have termed PPNA. Its cultures lacked pottery,]]

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.

thumb|upright|The 8000 BCE [[Tower of Jericho at Tell es-Sultan]]

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 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.

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

thumb|upright|Red terracotta jar, Ancient Bronze period 3500–2000 BCE, Tell es-Sultan, ancient Jericho, Tomb A IV. [[Louvre Museum AO 15611.]]

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).

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 Early Bronze IV, the strategraphic layers are Sultan IIID1 (EB IVA; 2300 – 2200 BCE) and Sultan IIID2 (EB IVB; 2200 – 2000 BCE). 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

Decades after the destruction of the Middle Bronze Age city, it recovered again on a smaller scale during the Late Bronze Age (1450–1200 BC), with the previous Middle Bronze city wall being refurbished by adding a mudbrick wall on top of its emerging crest. Excavations have found a structure known as the "Middle Building" which apparently served as the residence of the city's local rulers, then vassals of the Egyptian empire. According to Nigro (2023), the Late Bronze IIB layers of the tell were heavily cut by levelling operations during the Iron Age, which explains the scarcity of 13th century BCE materials. Lorenzo Nigro suggests that the story might have developed from local memories of the destructions suffered by the Canaanite city in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE, which were later used by the biblical writers to create their narrative.

Iron Age

Occupation in Tell es-Sultan appears to have resumed in the 11th century BCE, with the town becoming fortified again in the 10th century. Of this new city not much more remains than a four-room house on the eastern slope. By the 7th century, Jericho had become an extensive town, but this settlement was destroyed in the Babylonian conquest of Judah in the late 6th century.

Persian and Early Hellenistic periods

After the destruction of the Judahite city by the Babylonians in the late 6th century, whatever was rebuilt in the Persian period as part of the Restoration after the Babylonian captivity, left only very few remains. One of these forts, built at the entrance to Wadi Qelt, was later refortified by Herod the Great, who named it Kypros after his mother.

Hasmonean and Herodian periods

In the second half of the 2nd century BCE, Jericho became part of the kingdom of Judea, which was established by the Maccabees as a sovereign Jewish kingdom after gaining independence from the Seleucids. The kingdom was ruled by the Hasmoneans, a dynasty descending from a priestly family (kohanim) of the tribe of Levi. Around 135/134 BCE, the strategos of Jericho, Ptolemy son of Abubus, assassinated Hasmonean leader Simon Thassi, his father-in-law, at the nearby fortress of Duq.

The Hasmoneans constructed royal winter palaces at the site known as Tulul Abu el-'Alayiq. The new site of Jericho was established as a garden city around the palaces, consisting of a group of low mounds on both banks of Wadi Qelt. It is now believed that during the Second Temple period, houses spread across much of the valley. Several pools dating to the reign of Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus (r. c. 103–76 BCE) have been excavated at the palaces. The Hasmoneans also built aqueducts, which supplied water to the palaces and to a farming and workshop complex, showing evidence of the cultivation of balsam and persimmon, as well as the production of date wine. After the construction of the palaces, the city served not only as an agricultural center and a crossroads, but also as a winter resort for Jerusalem's aristocracy.

thumb|Remains from the [[Hasmonean and Herodian royal winter palaces at Jericho]]

In 63 BCE, during the Roman intervention in the Hasmonean succession war, Roman general Pompey passed through Jericho before advancing to besiege Jerusalem. After the city fell, the Jewish monarchy was abolished, and Judaea came under Roman oversight as a client territory. In 37 BCE, Herod began ruling Judea as a client kingdom of Rome. He initially leased the royal estate at Jericho from Cleopatra, to whom Mark Antony had granted it. Herod greatly expanded the royal domain in Jericho, constructing additional palaces. Excavations have uncovered the palaces themselves, a network of aqueducts, and the remains of an associated farm, as well as traces of residences for wealthy inhabitants. Herod also built a hippodrome-theatre (Tell es-Samrat) and built aqueducts to irrigate the lands below the cliffs, supplying water to his winter palaces at Tulul Abu el-Alaiq (also written ʾAlayiq).

John Wesley, in his New Testament Notes on this section of Luke's Gospel, claimed that "about twelve thousand priests and Levites dwelt there, who all attended the service of the temple".

Smith's Bible Names Dictionary suggests that "Jericho was once more 'a city of palms' when our Lord visited it. Here he restored sight to the blind (; ; ). Here the descendant of Rahab did not disdain the hospitality of Zacchaeus the publican. Finally, between Jerusalem and Jericho was laid the scene of his story of the good Samaritan."

Roman province

Josephus, a first-century CE Jewish historian from Jerusalem and a local of Judea, provides one of the most detailed ancient descriptions of Jericho, calling its district "the most fruitful country of Judea." He describes the area as rich in many types of date palms sustained by the Jericho spring, home to plentiful bees, and known for valuable plants such as balsam, cypress, and the myrobalanon, concluding that "it would not be a misnomer to describe as 'divine' this spot in which the rarest and choicest plants are produced in abundance." He also notes that Jericho was famed as the region "where they cultivate the palm tree and opobalsamum, that most excellent ointment, which, when the shrubs are cut with a sharp stone, oozes out like sap." Other classical writers also commented on the Jericho oasis. Greek historian Diodorus Siculus (1st century BCE) describes its palm trees and its production of balsam. Roman author Pliny the Elder writes that the most renowned palm trees in the area were found especially at Jericho. Greek geographer Strabo provides a detailed geographical description in his Geographica, writing that:

Demographics

thumb|Municipality of Jericho, 1967

In the first census carried out by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), in 1997, Jericho's population was 14,674. Palestinian refugees constituted 43.6% of the residents or 6,393 people. The gender make-up of the city was 51% male and 49% female. Jericho has a young population, with nearly half (49.2%) of the inhabitants being under the age of 20. People between the ages of 20 and 44 made up 36.2% of the population, 10.7% between the ages of 45 and 64, and 3.6% were over the age of 64. In the 2007 census by the PCBS, Jericho had a population of 18,346.

In a 1945 land and population survey by Sami Hadawi, 3,010 inhabitants is the figure given for Jericho, of which 94% (2840) were Arab and 6% (170) were Jews. Today, the overwhelming majority of the population is Muslim. The Christian community makes up around 1% of the population. A large community of black Palestinians lives in Jericho. Agriculture is another source of income, with banana groves ringing the city.

Tourism

thumb|Jericho cable car

In 1998, a $150 million casino-hotel was built in Jericho with the backing of Yasser Arafat. The casino is now closed, though the hotel on the premises is open for guests.

In 2010, Jericho, with its proximity to the Dead Sea, was declared the most popular destination among Palestinian tourists.

Biblical and Christian landmarks

Christian tourism is one of Jericho's primary sources of income. There are several major Christian pilgrimage sites in and around Jericho.

Ein es-Sultan, known as the Spring of Elisha to Jews and Christians;
Qasr al-Yahud on the Jordan River, across from Bethany beyond the Jordan, traditionally identified as the location of the baptism of Jesus;
Mount of Temptation (Jebel Quruntul), traditionally identified as the location of the Temptation of Jesus;
The Greek Orthodox Monastery of the Temptation halfway up the mountain, beside a cave said to be the location where Jesus fasted for 40 days. It is connected to Jericho by a cable car;

Sports

The sports team Hilal Areeha plays association football in the West Bank First Division. They play home games in the 15,000-spectator Jericho International Stadium.

Twin towns and sister cities

Jericho is twinned with:

Alessandria, Italy (2004)
Campinas, Brazil (2001)
Eger, Hungary (2013)
Estación Central, Chile (2007)
Fez, Morocco (2014)
Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil (2012)
Iași, Romania (2003)
Ilion, Greece (1999)
Kragujevac, Serbia (2011)
Lærdal, Norway (1998)
Pisa, Italy (2000)
San Giovanni Valdarno, Italy (2004)
Santa Bárbara, Brazil (1998)
Al-Shuna al-Shamalyah, Jordan (2016)

Notable people

Musa Alami

Citations

Bibliography

External links

Welcome to Jericho
Jericho City (Fact Sheet), Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem, Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem (ARIJ)
Jericho City Profile, ARIJ
Jericho aerial photo, ARIJ
Locality Development Priorities and Needs in Jericho City, ARIJ
Jericho Municipality Official Website
Survey of Western Palestine, Map 18: IAA, Wikimedia commons
Jericho Municipality Official Website Historical site
Jericho Cable Car
Resources on Biblical Archaeology
Jericho: Tel es-Sultan
The walls of Jericho fell in 1550 BCE