The Archaeology of Collapse and Resilience-Ancient Jericho

[Angela]

This summary of the "life" of this ancient city reads like a primer for a huge chunk of history, from the mesolithic hunter gatherers, through the beginnings of agriculture, the pre-pottery neolithic, the pottery neolithic, the Chalcolithic, the Early and Late Bronze Age, and then the destruction by nomadic herders from the periphery.

The topics touched upon include insights into the choice of sites for habitation, the response to natural disasters common to the area (earthquakes and climate change)and threats from other humans, the adoption of technology in pottery and later in metals, the role of wealth and both its benefits and the dangers it brings in terms of the stresses caused by class stratification and its attraction for groups on the periphery, and changes in defense in response to aggression.

It's all pretty general, given that it's a summary, but I found it interesting, both because Jericho has always fascinated me, and because we are awaiting papers soon to be published on the steppe peoples and their role in European history.

https://www.academia.edu/8688397/Th...ell_es-Sultan_ancient_Jericho_as_a_Case_Study

There are some very nice photos of the site as well.

 

[Maleth]

All very interesting Angela and well presented. Jericho is certainly fascinating in terms of human evolution studies and all the time periods in the history of human settlements process. Some skeletons have been excavated but like most of the Southern regions DNA is never mentioned for various reasons I guess, probable inaccurate results as we are always told.

 

[bicicleur 2]

it was interesting to read
I don't think resilience is the right word
the town was rebuilt many times because of its prime location, but not always by the people who lived there before

to many people claim the long history of 'their city'
they forget, they may well be the descendants of the last tribe that looted that place

 

[oriental]

it was interesting to read
I don't think resilience is the right word
the town was rebuilt many times because of its prime location, but not always by the people who lived there before

to many people claim the long history of 'their city'
they forget, they may well be the descendants of the last tribe that looted that place

Ha, ha! How true!

 

[LeBrok]

It would be interesting to see few more details about early bronze cultural changes in Jericho. They've mentioned that it was accompanied with population replacement, at least partial.
The summary abruptly stops in year 2350 BC, for some reason. I'm sure Jericho was occupied till much later.
2350 BC is interesting, when the whole city was cleared up off people and then burned to the ground. Wow, a very dramatic chapter which will always go unexplained. Unless someone finds it described in sumerian script.

 

[Angela]

It would be interesting to see few more details about early bronze cultural changes in Jericho. They've mentioned that it was accompanied with population replacement, at least partial.
The summary abruptly stops in year 2350 BC, for some reason. I'm sure Jericho was occupied till much later.
2350 BC is interesting, when the whole city was cleared up off people and then burned to the ground. Wow, a very dramatic chapter which will always go unexplained. Unless someone finds it described in sumerian script.

Yes, it was occupied until much later...by some accounts, it's the oldest continually occupied settlement in the world. The Wiki article isn't bad...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jericho#History

The Canaanite period when the Bible holds that the walls came tumbling down is very interesting, and discussions of it always stir up controversy.

Parts of its story are fictionalized in the James Michener book The Source.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Source_(novel)

I would highly recommend it...it's a really great read as well as providing a wonderful summary of the march of civilization from the beginning hunter gatherers, to the first farmers, the beginnings of religion, the great ancient empires, and on and on. It's regularly assigned in high schools around here as summer reading. (well, for honors classes)

In terms of resilience, I don't think they meant the resilience of one particular group of people, but of mankind, and of civilization.