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Jericho
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Jericho city in the West Bank
Jericho city in the West Bank

Excavations at ancient Jericho, identified as Tell al-Sultan, 10 km (6 mi) north of the Dead Sea , have revealed remains of the oldest city yet discovered by archaeologists. The earliest occupation of the site, dating from the 10th millennium BC, consists of remains of the NATUFIAN culture and includes what may have been a shrine. During the 8th millennium BC the site was greatly expanded under a culture known as the Aceramic, or Prepottery Neolithic , and a wall standing 5.2 m (17 ft) high was erected around the settlement . On the west side were found remains of a round tower that stood 7 m (23 ft) high and included an internal flight of steps.

Following a break the next city was populated by a culture known as the Prepottery Neolithic (7th - 6th millennium BC). Houses of this phase were rectangular and had beaten earth floors . That the two cultures represent different groups is shown by significant changes in both the architectural tradition and in the flint tools. Extraordinary finds of this period included plastered skulls with shells replacing the eyes. These skulls, found beneath the floors of houses .

In the ceramic stage of the Neolithic (6th-4th millennium BC) the dwellers lived in pits and produced a characteristic painted pottery .

Early Bronze Age occupation (3100-2100 BC) was extensive and consisted of large , well-built homes. Tombs were constructed for mass burials, and in one such grave about 100 skulls were counted. Following the destruction of the Early Bronze Age settlement, occupation was resumed by people who have been identified with the AMORITES. They did not build a permanent settlement and buried their dead in shaft tombs, the variety of whose grave deposits may indicate tribal differences.

During the Middle Bronze Age (c.1900-1550 BC) houses consisting of small irregularly shaped rooms were built. Mass burials were excavated in a cemetery off the mound in shaft graves . The remains of wooden beds on which the deceased lay as well as pottery vessels containing food and drink have been found next to several of the bodies. The city was destroyed, probably about the end of the Middle Bronze Age (1550BC).


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