Descendants of the Mesolithic hunters who had established the sanctuary by the spring at Jericho had therefore made remarkable progress. In the course of a period which Carbon-14 evidence suggests is about a thousand years, they had made the full transition from a wandering to a settled existence in what must have been a community of
considerable complexity, for the imposing defenses are evidence of an efficient communal organization ... The earliest villages known elsewhere were dated more than two thousand years later, and the pyramids of Egypt, the first great stone buildings of the Nile valley, are four thousand years younger than the great tower of Jericho" (Kathleen Kenyon).
The inhabitants of Jericho in this period had a cult of fertility and of the dead. They covered the skulls of their dead with a layer of plaster and set them up in their houses (finds in the Rockefeller Museum, Jerusalem, and Archeological Museum, Amman).
After the destruction of the town, either by war or in an earthquake, the site was occupied in the sixth millennium B.C. by men of a different race who had mastered the craft of pottery but built very simple houses.
In the Chalcolithic period (fifth millennium B.C.) the settlement moved west to the mouth of the Wadi Qilt, perhaps because the spring had altered its position, but it soon returned to the original site. Square houses were now built within a strong outer wall.
The period around 2000 B.C. is represented by pottery vessels in the form of human faces. In the Hyksos period (18th-16th century B.C.) a new town wall was built of rammed earth, with a pronounced batter. This town was destroyed about 1400 B.C.
The Bible gives a detailed account (Joshua 2-6) of the conquest and destruction of Jericho by the Israelites, coming from east of the Jordan. This event was formerly dated to the 15th century B.C., but the 13th century (the time of Pharaoh Ramesses II) is now considered a more likely date. In the distribution of territory after the Israelites occupied the Promised Land the Jericho area was assigned to the tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 18,21). In the reign of King Ahab of Israel (ninth century B.C.) the destroyed city was rebuilt. During this period the prophet Elijah and his disciple Elisha came to Jericho (2 Kings 2). Elijah crossed the Jordan, and "there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire. .. and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven" (2 Kings 2,11). Elisha returned to Jericho, where the inhabitants complained that the water of the spring harmed the crops. Then he took some salt and "went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land. So the waters were healed unto this day" (2 Kings 2,20-22). Accordingly the spring is known as Elisha's Spring.
In 586 B.C. the Babylonians held the last king of Judah, Zedekiah, who had fled from Jerusalem, as a prisoner in Jericho, blinded him and carried him off to exile in Babylon (2 Kings 25,7). During the Persian period the tell of Jericho was once again abandoned as it had been in the fifth millennium. After 332 B.C. the Hellenistic city of Jericho was built farther south, at the mouth of the Wadi Qilt. In 161 B.C. it was captured by the Maccabees. In 30 B.C. Octavian (the future Emperor Augustus) gave the oasis to Herod, who made it his winter residence, built the fortress of Cyprus (named after his mother) to defend it and died here in 4 B.C. His body was then conveyed in a splendid cortege to the Herodeion.
When Jesus was traveling for the last time from Galilee through the Jordan valley to Jerusalem he was hailed near Jericho by two blind men as "Son of David". He restored their sight, and "they followed him" (Matthew 20,30-34).
The Hellenistic/Herodian city of Jericho was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70. Later a settlement grew up on the site of the present town, to the southeast of the tell. A number of churches and a synagogue have been identified as dating from the Byzantine period. A new era began in 634 with the Arab conquest. The Omayyad Caliphs, ruling from Damascus, built a fortress and a mosque, and in 724 Caliph Hisham built a palace (Khirbet el-Mafyar). Thereafter Jericho gradually lost importance, declining into a modest village.
Under the British Mandate, between the two world wars, the old Roman road through the Wadi Qilt was replaced by a modern road from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea and Jericho. In 1940 the town had a population of 4000, who gained their living from the sale of bananas and citrus fruits grown in the oasis. The population has now risen to 7,000.
The town
Jericho is a small, friendly town predominantly inhabited by Arabs. Thanks to its abundant springs of fresh water it is surrounded by lush green vegetation. The main street is lined by garden restaurants, but as a result of the intifada it frequently has a rather derelict air.
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