page_title: Jericho
section_title: Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA)
hierarchical_section_title: Jericho / History and archaeology / Stone Age: Tell es-Sultan and its spring / Pre-Pottery Neolithic, c. 9500–6500 BCE / Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA)
caption_attribution_description: English: Ancestor Statue, Jericho, c. 9000 BC, Replica Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel. Complete indexed photo collection at WorldHistoryPics.com. (in English) (2016) Biological Anthropology and Prehistory: Exploring Our Human Ancestry, Routledge, p.&#160;636 ISBN&#58; 9781317349815.&#32;
context_page_description: Jericho is a Palestinian city in the West Bank. It is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. It is the administrative seat of the Jericho Governorate, and is governed by the Palestinian National Authority. In 2007, it had a population of 18,346. The city was annexed and ruled by Jordan from 1949 to 1967, and has been held under Israeli occupation since 1967; administrative control was handed over to the Palestinian Authority in 1994. It is believed to be one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world and the city with the oldest known protective wall in the world. It was thought to have the oldest stone tower in the world as well, but excavations at Tell Qaramel in Syria have discovered stone towers that are even older.
  Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of more than 20 successive settlements in Jericho, the first of which dates back 11,000 years, 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 Hebrew Bible as the "city of palm trees".
context_section_description: The first permanent settlement on the site of Jericho developed near the Ein es-Sultan spring between 9,500 and 9000 BCE. As the world warmed up, a new culture based on agriculture and sedentary dwelling emerged, which archaeologists have termed "Pre-Pottery Neolithic A" (abbreviated as PPNA). Its cultures lacked pottery, but featured the following:
  small circular dwellings
  burial of the dead under the floor of buildings
  reliance on hunting of wild game
  cultivation of wild or domestic cereals
  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 5 metres (16 ft) across, and was roofed with mud-smeared brush. Hearths were located within and outside the homes.
  By about 9400 BCE, the town had grown to more than 70 modest dwellings.
  The Pre-Sultan
  (c. 8350 – 7370 BCE)
  is sometimes called Sultanian. The site is a 40,000 square metres (430,000 sq ft) settlement surrounded by a massive stone wall over 3.6 metres (12 ft) high and 1.8 metres (5 ft 11 in) wide at the base (see Wall of Jericho), inside of which stood a stone tower (see Tower of Jericho), over 8.5 metres (28 ft) 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 ever to be discovered. The wall may have served as a defence against flood-water, with the tower used for ceremonial purposes. The wall and tower were built during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) period around 8000 BCE. For the tower, carbon dates published in 1981 and 1983 indicate that it was built around 8300 BCE and stayed in use until c. 7800 BCE. The wall and tower would have taken a hundred men more than a hundred days to construct, thus suggesting some kind of social organization. The town contained round mud-brick houses, yet no street planning. The identity and number of the inhabitants of Jericho during the PPNA period is still under debate, with estimates going as high as 2,000–3,000, and as low as 200–300. It is known that this population had domesticated emmer wheat, barley and pulses and hunted wild animals.
caption: Ancestor Statue, Jericho, c. 9000 BC (Replica). Israel Museum.[27]
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