Jericho, in the Jordan River Valley in Palestine, inhabited from ca. 9000 BC to the present day, offers important evidence for the earliest permanent settlements in the Near East. Explored during the 1930—36 excavations of British archaeologist John Garstang and more extensively in 1952—58 by his compatriot Kathleen Kenyon, the first settlements at Jericho surprise us still with a variety of features of town layout unexpected (and still unparalleled) at such an early date.
Two early levels from the mound at Jericho are of particular interest for us: the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (“PPN”) A and B phases, ca. 8500—6000 BC. They lie on top of the earliest known settlements at Jericho, seasonal occupations attributed to so-called “Natufian” Mesolithic and Proto-Neolithic (= earliest Neolithic) hunters and gatherers. A key attraction for all these early inhabitants was the spring, a reliable source of water.
Spread over an area of ca. 4ha, the PPNA settlement has yielded both houses and a fortification wall (Figure 1.3). The houses are round, and made of sun-dried mud bricks with a distinctive rounded top (“hog backed,” or “plano-convex”). The town was protected on the west side, at least, by an impressive stone wall 3.6m high with an internal circular tower of undressed stones measuring 9m in diameter at its base and preserved 8m in height, and a rock-cut ditch in front. Internal stairs led to the top of the tower, perhaps the site of cultic activities. Exactly what the wall and ditch were protecting the town against has been the subject of controversy; enemies both human and natural (such as seasonal flash floods) have been proposed. The mere existence of this complex fortification system implies a society organized in a way quite different from
Figure 1.3 Tower with staircase, PPNA, Jericho
Figure 1.4 Anthropomorphic figurine, PPNB, Ain Ghazal. Archaeological Museum, Amman
That of earher hunters and gatherers. Confhcts with people outside were serious enough to warrant a major fortification wall, and nature need not dominate but could be subdued. The actual construction of the wall demanded a concerted, sustained effort on the part of the inhabitants. It was a remarkable architectural and social achievement.
The presence of obsidian objects in the town indicates trade contacts with far-off lands. A volcanic glass prized as a material for sharp blades in this era before metalworking, obsidian occurs in only a few scattered and, for the inhabitants ofJericho, distant sources. Finding it here demonstrates that even at this early period materials could be transported long distances, in this case from the volcanic mountains of central and eastern Anatolia.
Jericho in the subsequent PPNB phase featured new architectural forms, possible indicators of social changes. House builders abandoned the round house in favor of the rectangular plan, with rectangular rooms arranged around a central courtyard. Construction used a different form of sun-dried mud brick: “cigar-shaped’’ bricks with finger impressions across the top to key in the mud mortar. House decoration now included walls often painted red or pink, floors plastered with gypsum, and the occasional reed mat, attested by impressions surviving on the floors.
The PPNB has also yielded evidence for religious practices. One particularly large room (6 X 6m) may represent a shrine. A dramatic find from beneath a house floor was a series of ten human skulls with faces carefully recreated from added plaster and, for the eyes, pieces of shell. Related are two anthropomorphic figurines made of lime plaster on a wicker core, with painted decoration and shell for eyes. These two are now supplemented by thirty-two examples found at Ain Ghazal, near modern Amman; they measure 0.35—1.00m in height, thus monumental in relation to the smaller images of earlier times (Figure 1.4). These objects must have had some cultic purpose, the former perhaps relating to the veneration of ancestors, the latter perhaps representing deities. Ancestor worship has been an important practice in those farming societies in which the extended family is the major social grouping, for a long chain of ancestors lends authority to a family’s claim to its land and helps justify and stabilize the family unit.
In terms of the economy, the PPNB period marked a growing agricultural prosperity. The success of plant cultivation in PPNA led to the spread of domesticated plants elsewhere in the Near East during PPNB. In addition, animal husbandry began at this time. Wild game would have dwindled in the immediate vicinity of settlements, so the domesticated herd animals were relied on for food. In addition to this primary product, meat, the so-called “secondary products” of these animals (such as milk, hair, skin, transport, and their use for traction, that is, pulling plows and vehicles) now became valuable. Consequences of this agricultural prosperity included agricultural surpluses, an increase in human population, specialization of occupation (not everyone had to be a farmer), and an increasing complexity in social organization. No wonder, then, that Bar-Yosef and Meadow have called the PPNB “the brewing period for the emergence of major civilizations” (1995: 92).
Following the end of the PPNB town at Jericho, a gap in occupation lasted some 1,500 years. This collapse of the social “proto-urban” system was general throughout the southern Levant, with a few exceptions in Transjordan. The reasons for this change are not clear. Eventually Jericho was resettled, but by a pastoralist community smaller than the earlier PPNB town. The newcomers counted pottery-making among their skills. But Jericho was no longer at the forefront of innovation. Already in the seventh millennium BC, at the same time as the PPNB phase at Jericho, the art of pottery had emerged in Iran, northern Iraq, and Anatolia.
World History
