Jericho or Jericho (Hebrew: Yerio; Greek: εριχ, Ierichó), also known as Al-Kha (Arabic: ;[aria], Arīā), Jericho (English: Jericho, /drko/, jericho, jericho, phyllabus, Jericho, Phyllonory, Phylvania) is a city on the West Bank of the Jordan River in Palestine, but the translation does not correspond to the local Hebrew and Arabic name pronunciation.
Location in the city of Jericho
In the past, our knowledge of Jericho was largely derived from the Bible, mainly because the archaeology of West Asia and North Africa was mainly concentrated in the Two Rivers Valley, the Nile River Basin and Asia Minor, while the Levant region, that is, Palestine, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and parts of Syria, had paid less attention to archaeological excavation research. Because the civilization of this region is far inferior to the once glorious Two Rivers Sumerian-Akkadian civilization, Babylonian civilization, Assyrian civilization, and Egyptian and Hittite civilizations, the light has long been covered, and the most impressive people are the many countries and cities mentioned in the Bible, in addition to the once glorious Phoenician city-state civilization and the ancient civilization of Ebla. So, when archaeologists discovered the ancient city of Jericho from 9000 BC to 6000 BC in the Jordan Valley, they were shocked, which can be said to be a shock to the civilization of the Two Rivers Valley, breaking the discovery of Elidus as the oldest city.
Excavations of the ruins of the city of Jericho
In the 19th century, after the gradual decline of the Ottoman Empire, traveling explorers and archaeologists began to enter the Levant region to conduct expeditions. Among them, in 1838, the travel expedition of the American Edward Robinson attracted widespread attention from the archaeological community, and he identified more than 100 ancient sites in one go; subsequently, in the 1850s and 1860s, British and French archaeologists began to enter the area for archaeological excavations.
From 1867 to 1868, the British Charles Warren led the Royal Sappers to investigate the underground passages of Jerusalem, which should be the earliest underground expedition; by the 1890s, the British Palestine Expedition Foundation invited archaeologist Flinders Petrie to Jerusalem, and after 6 weeks of excavation of the multicultural superimposed mound - el-Hessy mound, the stratigraphic method to draw the various sections of the site, and formulated a chronology for Palestinian archaeology. It also created a ready-made reference chronology for future archaeological work, and the American Friedrich Bliss revised the chronology; after entering the 20th century, other European countries began to recognize the importance of archaeology in the Levant region, and archaeology in this area began to gradually become a hot spot, the excavation of Samaria, the former capital of the Kingdom of Israel, by the American George Risner, and the excavation of the Vienna Academy of Sciences by Ens Sellin led by the Austrian Ens Serling on the city of Jericho, which opened the prelude to the official excavation of the ruins of the Levant region.
The city of Samaria
But it was very unfortunate to catch up with the First World War, after which peace was restored to the West Asian region and the archaeological cause was resumed. Between 1931 and 1935, new advances were made in the re-excavation of the city of Jericho, and in the British archaeological team led by Gastown, a famous female archaeologist appeared, Catelyn Kenyon, who had received professional practical training in the archaeological excavations of the Roman Empire and mastered the rigorous stratigraphic analysis methods, and Catelyn Kenyon's father was the curator of the British Museum, so she also undertook the main archaeological tasks for Jerusalem and Jericho. In addition, during this period, many excellent female archaeologists and archaeologists joined the archaeological team of the Levant, breaking down cultural discrimination.
Ruins of Jericho
By the mid-20th century, Catherine Kenyon had become the leader of the Yeligo Archaeological Team, and between 1952 and 1958 she directed this large archaeological team to complete the thorough excavation of the ruins of The City of Jericho. Archaeological excavations have advanced the history of the city of Jericho from the Bronze Age and The Neolithic to the Late Paleolithic Period, the end of the Ice Age, the period of the Nathurian culture from 10500 BC to 9000 BC. Not only the early Neolithic agricultural settlements were found here, but also the defensive wall that surrounded the entire city was found, and after the carbon 14 method was determined, the city wall was found to exist around 9000 BC - 6000 BC. It soon attracted more attention, and news of the existence of Jericho, the oldest city in the world, began to spread widely.
The once prosperous old city of Jericho
The city of Jericho is located on the Dead Sea, the Jordan River flows through the city into the Dead Sea, the city is between Jerusalem and Amman, the altitude is very low, about 250 meters below sea level, and it is very close to the estuary, it can be said that it is a city built on a desert oasis, although the rainfall is relatively small, but the amount of water is sufficient, because there are two springs of Sudan Spring and Irisa. The ruins of the city of Jericho are buried under a huge mound 350 meters long from north to south, 150 meters wide from east to west, and 21.5 meters high.
In archaeological research, it was found that the inhabitants of Jericho had already begun a settled life around 10500 BC, engaged in settled hunter-gatherer activities on a daily basis, they made a lot of tools from stone, including many fine stone tools, there were also utensils made of animal bones, people used various tools to hunt and build houses, ordinary people lived in houses similar to caves, but the public temples built have been very different, built with stone, can be used for many residents to hold primitive religious activities, The temple holds the spring water for sacrifice. However, at that time, "Jericho" was still a relatively large village.
Around 9000 BC, the number of inhabitants of Jericho began to increase, the infrastructure was getting better and better, and life was getting better and better, in order to prevent foreign invasions, people began to build outside walls during this period. According to the survey results, the city wall should be 4 meters high, the highest place can reach 6 meters, and the thickness is up to 2 meters, which is made of stone. A large ditch 6.44 meters wide and 2.43 meters deep was also excavated outside the wall; a tower was also built as a defensive system along the wall, up to 9 meters high, from which people could climb to the top of the tower, and some scholars believed that the tower was used as a fortification for diverting floodwaters; by this period, the residential houses in the city had been made of adobe round and top semi-conical houses or square houses, and the temple was still a place for the public activities of residents. The construction of the city walls and towers shows that at this time Jericho had transitioned from an agricultural tribe to an organized city, and under the productivity conditions of the Stone Age, large-scale civil engineering construction needed to rely on the power of organized groups, so a large number of people were mobilized, and authoritative command and tight organization were required, which made the ancient city begin to be born.
The city of Jericho is about 4 hectares in size and is estimated to have a population of around 2,000. By the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, people had not only engaged in hunting and gathering, but also began to carry out agricultural production, raising pigs, cattle and sheep and other animals, in addition to agriculture, but also engaged in commerce and manufacturing, the city began to appear in a variety of shops, selling a variety of goods, such as meat, staple foods, spices and so on. Because of its proximity to the Mediterranean Sea and its important trade routes, Jericho was very well known for its trade in spices and obsidian. The development of agriculture and commerce has created the splendor of Jericho, and people call it the "City of the Moon".
After rising and falling, the glory passed, and the city of Jericho was reduced to ruins
Although the city of Jericho has flourished over hundreds of years, it is very likely that it will begin to decline under the influence of the Earth's climate change and harsh natural conditions, which is very similar to the decline of the ancient culture of the Iranian plateau.
We can find some clues in the biblical 2 Kings account, "There was a time when the springs on which Jericho depended began to become unclear, the soil began to be unharmed, and the people began to panic and disturb, at which point Elijah asked each to take out a bowl filled with salt and sprinkle it into the water, and then the water became clear and the soil became fertile." ”
This record has a certain mythological color, but it is not difficult to see that the climate and natural environment of Jericho have indeed changed, which has a very large impact on people's living conditions, and it is good and bad. Around 7300 BC, the inhabitants of the city of Jericho began to migrate because of the decline of the city, leaving only the decaying abandoned houses; by 6770 BC, another tribe had moved south from syria to the city of Jericho, a period that may have been restored because the oasis had been restored, so they settled here.
The new residents will restore the original walls, stone towers, temples, and houses, which fully reflects that they belong to a different cultural system from the original residents, in addition to architecture, but also religion and way of life. New residents pay more attention to religion, some also set up shrines inside the houses, and there are more religious worship buildings in the city; square residential houses belong to the cultural characteristics of new residents, they no longer follow the circular houses, using flat adobe and fired mud bricks to build houses, and the walls will be smeared with a layer of stucco. By this time the Yericho people had more animal species, and had changed from two-grain to single-grain wheat in agriculture, because religious activities had begun to appear as works of art.
By around 6000 BC, probably because the oasis had disappeared or had been affected by the plague, the city of Jericho was abandoned again and the inhabitants began to migrate. About 1500 years later, another ethnic group migrated here, and the cultural difference from the previous ethnic group is that they have been influenced by the Two Rivers culture and began to make pottery, not only plain pottery, but also colorful pottery, mainly for life and religious sacrifice activities; but these residents have obvious nomadic characteristics, they are mainly herding, do not attach importance to agriculture, are not interested in civil construction, they live in vertical cave houses, so after another 500 years, They were also affected by changes in grazing conditions and left Jericho.
After 1500 years of abandonment, around 3000 BC, the Near East had entered the Bronze Age, and unlike the inhabitants of the Neolithic Age, they not only built walls with dry adobe and mud bricks, but also built irrigation systems, rebuilt temples, and neat houses, and central squares, a tribe that had been clearly influenced by the civilization of the Two Rivers Valley and began to bring the rejuvenated Jericho into a real stage of urban civilization.
Under the influence of the manufacture of bronzes, social production and people's way of life have undergone very great changes, the level of agricultural production has been greatly improved, industry and commerce have been more prosperous and developed, the social division of labor has begun to be refined, all walks of life are thriving, religious activities have gradually become systematic, and customs and habits are also increasing. But at this time, the tribes around Jericho also began to rise, people began to plunder and conquer by force, the prosperous Jericho naturally became the target of attack, coupled with the impact of earthquakes and famine, Jericho's walls can be said to be constantly rebuilt, and the residents of the city are constantly changing.
By around 1900 BC, another tribal area that had migrated south from Syria came to the city of Jericho, saw the oasis city in the low-lying area on the high hill, and people lamented the beauty of the palm trees, calling Jericho the city of palms, but the Amori people living in the city of Jericho had not yet been civilized, the productivity was very low, the weapons were primitive, and they were not the opponents of this Syrian tribe at all, and they could only hand over the city of Jericho after the defeat.
The City of Palms
This tribe from the Syrian region, influenced by the Sumerian-Akkadian civilization, was already at a very high level of productivity and had greater organizational coordination, and soon entered a state of rebuilding the city of Jericho. They were not only engaged in traditional agriculture and animal husbandry, but also particularly keen on commercial trade, and established friendly trade relations with the city-states of the Two Rivers Valley, hittites, Egypt, and Mycenae, and soon accumulated a lot of wealth, and urban construction projects were also able to develop at a high speed. There was a return to riches and prosperity. Unfortunately, it attracted the covetousness of other tribes in the surrounding area, but Jericho, who was in a period of vigorous development at this time, successfully resisted wave after wave of foreign enemies.
The mighty Hyksos Egyptian dynasty army
But it was very unfortunate that by 1560 BC, the expedition of the Strong Hyksos, who had ruled Egypt for more than 100 years, was caught, and although the Jericho people fought hard, it was very obvious that the Hyksos were more effective, their army was very professional, and after the invasion of the city, the two sides fought fiercely, the Jericho people could only resist desperately, and in the melee, I don't know who caused the fire, and soon the dry city was burned. One view is that the Jericho people could not resist the attack and did not want the wealth to be taken away from them, and the other is that someone accidentally caused a fire in battle.
The city of Jericho was destroyed by fire
Archaeological studies have shown that there have never been ancient archaeological remains in Jericho since. Historians speculate that the Israelites attacked the city of Jericho between about 1400 BC and 1250 BC, but archaeological excavations have found no evidence. So how do we understand the description in the Israelite Bible? What is the opinion of everyone on the fact that the truth has been buried and disappeared into the long river of history, and privately believe that the Israelites may be witnesses of history? In short, the once prosperous ancient city of Jericho, like many ancient cities, has indeed disappeared from history, which is lamentable. It is believed that with the in-depth development of archaeological excavation research, more buried ancient city ruins in the world will eventually be excavated.