Jericho, Holy Land
Jericho (Ariha in Arabic) is the oldest inhabited
town in the world, dating back more than 10,000 years.
It lies 260 meters (853 feet) below sea level, making it
the lowest town on earth.
It is located 36 km east of Jerusalem, on the road to
Amman and at the junction of the highway to Galilee.
Known as the "City of Palms", Jericho contains some
of the world's most important historic sites and is
frequently mentioned in the Bible. On a mount
overlooking the Jericho oasis, excavations have
uncovered settlements dating from 9000 BC and the Oldest
Walled Town dating from the Neolithic period (7000 BC)
yet discovered, a most unusual example of fortifications
in that prehistoric age.
first:
Its names and their
significance
The origin of the name, "Jericho" is
Semitic. The common people pronounce it "Riha". To the
Cananaites it meant "the moon". The word is derived from
the verb "yerihu", and "Yarah". Al-Yarah in the language
of southern Arabia means "a month" and "moon". In Hebrew
"yarihu" is the most ancient known city in the Jewish
Bible. "Riha" in Syriac means "scent and
odour."
The Arabs knew the city of Jericho
referred to in the Bible by the name "Raiha" and
"Ariha".Yaqut, the writer of "Mu'jam al-Buldan,"
mentions that it is the city of Al-Jabbarin (the Mighty)
in the Ghaur, and that it was called Ariha Ibn Malik Ibn
Arfakhshad Ibn Sam Ibn Noah, may peace be upon him. He
mentions another name for it, Ariha' mentioned in the
poetry of Jarir:
I shall have to increase that
suspicion which has beset the slave of Banu Numair.
The devils of the land fear my roar, and the serpent
of Aryaha' has responded to me.
Yaqut also refers to
it in the form "Ariha'. in the measure "af'al". He
quotes Al-Hutahle's saying: I searched for it (my sword)
among the swords of Jericho, and when it returned to my
hand I found no parallel to it.
Al-Bakri says. "It is
'Ariha', or perhaps 'Ariha', when attributing (a noun )
to it they just say 'Aryahiyy', It was called,
"Anthony's present to Cleopatra, when Egypt fell under
the rule of Anthony, Cleopatra, the beautiful Queen of
Egypt met him. He was so bewitched by her beauty that he
deserted his wife, sister of Octavious ( Augustus ).
Cleopatra deprived her lover of his will-power for nine
whole months. He became infatuated with her and offered
her a large section of Syria. The Palestinian shores,
together with Jericho and its groves abundant with balm,
as well as the Dead Sea, were among what he offered
Cleopatra.
The city of Jericho was called "Wadi
As-Saisaban, Valley of Sesban". It was given this name
because of the abundance of a certain plant that grows
there. It densely entwines round its groves like a
fence, and is still found there.
It was also called, " Tall As-Sultan
" ( the Hill of the Sultan ) or " Ain Alisha' " ( The
Spring of Alisha' ), as ancient Jericho was merely a
small artificial hill called " Tall as-Sultan ", which
is the precursor ( origin ) of the first city. It was
also called " Madinat an-Nakhil " (The City of Palms)
because palm trees grow in its soil and are abundantly
found in it. It was also called " Ruwaiha " ( the
diminution of Raiha' ) which is eight miles away to the
south east of present Jericho. Rousseau has defined
Ariha and Riha as each one is applicable, to the city
and region together.
Second:
Jericho in History until the time of the
Arabs
Jericho is one of the most ancient
human habitations. The most ancient human remains were
found in it, some of which go back to 5000 years B.C.
Others believe that these remains go back to 7000 years
B.C. The most recent opinion on this subject is that
they date back to 8000 years B.C.
The site of ancient Jericho is half
a kilometre away from modern Jericho at a depth of 820
feet ( 250 metres) below sea level. It lies at latitude
31 52 degrees north and longitude 35 39 degrees east.
The evidence indicating that it is
one of the most ancient cities in the world is borne up
by a series of excavations made at " Tall as-Sultan ",
which is oval in shape, formed by the successive
accumulation of ruins with the passing of time.
Excavations have been continuing successively since the
middle of the nineteenth century up till now.
The German-Austrian Mission in which
the two archeologists E. Sellin and C. Watzinger worked,
was the first one to be interested in uncovering the
antiguities of Jericho, and that was in 1911. They were
succeeded by the English, who conducted excavations at
Tall as-Sultan under the supervision of first J.
Garstang ( 1930-1936 ) and completed by Miss K. Kenyon (
1952-1961 ). She published a resume of her work in two
huge volumes ( 1960-1965 ). She is considered to be the
greatest authority on this subject. She is the one to
have estimated the age of the city to be 8000 years B.C.
Its habitation certainly started about that time which
undoubtedly makes it the most ancient known city in the
world.
That is why it is probable that the
most ancient civilization in the world did not appear in
the Nile Valley or the Tigris and Euphrates Valley, but
in the Jordan Valley. Dr. Kenyon gave the name of "
Ariha al-Ula " ( The first Jericho ) to the first
construction of the city which was sacked and destroyed
as a result of invasions, earthquakes and fire time and
again. Every time it was destroyed it rose once again on
the ruins of the past Jericho. Kenyon and the
archeologists who preceded her were able to distinguish
between the successive periods Jericho passed
through.
Jericho in the Neolithic Times or
the Late Stone Age Periods:
These ages are divided
into three parts:
1. The pre-Stone Age
or the first Neolithic Age in Jericho 6800 B.C.
Miss Kenyon's excavations have
revealed that the ancient city was inhabited during
four successive intervals during this age. The first
was the first Neolithic Time. In this it was inhabited
by a folk called " An-Natifiyyun ", who depended for
their food on collecting wild seeds. It is probable
that they did not plant seeds in reality, but owned
scythes with flint edges, straight bone handles to
harvest wild seeds, and stone mortars with handles for
grinding them. Some of these groups lived in caves,
while other groups occupied primitive villages
excelling in the art of architecture. So they started
to build round huts from sun-dried bricks flat at the
bottom curving at the higher edge. They used to bury
their dead with their personal jewellery in graves
hewn out of rock.
These folks dug out canals using
the waters of " Ain as-Sultan to irrigate their lands.
They constructed huge walls two metres wide round
their villages. They erected in them a circular huge
tower, nine metres ( thirty feet ) in diametre, and
ten metres high. In its midst there are stairs leading
from the bottom of the town to its top. They were
exposed to the attacks of groups from outside. These
folks practised agriculture, the domestication of
animals, and weaving the making chains and mats, as
well as animal hunting. They used spears and
flint-capped arrows. They also used hatchets to cut
tree branches. These groups had started to expand from
their settlements in search of new homes outside their
boundaries.
2. The pre-Clay Age
or the Second Neolithic Age in Jericho, 5500
B.C.
The building of houses in this
interval showed a great progress. Their rooms were
about 6.5 metres by 5 metres or 3 by 7 metres. They
were usually of a rectangular shape built in an open
yard, seven metres long and seven metres wide and used
for cooking. The thickness of their wall was half a
metre. They used stones to build the foundation, and
the rest of the building was built of sun-dried
bricks. Its shape was similar to the iron used for
cauterising animals. So the brick was rectangular in
shape with sharpened edges. The floor formed was of a
mud layer topped by a layer of lime, followed by soft
lime dyed red or light blue. Then it was polished to
acquire a new lustre.
Its houses were of one or two
stories. The ceiling was built of reeds and mud. Their
flint intensils were sharp-edged. Small statues were
made of unbaked mud. In the past these statues
possessed a religious significance. Female statues
might indicate the fertility goddess. It seems that
these folks practiced the worship of ancestors as nine
skulls were found whose facial features were painted
with lime with two mother-of-pearl eyes placed on
their faces.
3. The Late Neolithic
Age in Jericho : between 5000-4000
B.C.
This Age preceded by many
centuries the discovery of pottery. The people who
lived in this period were raiders coming from outside.
They settled at Tall, and might have been nomadic
Bedouins. Their looms have been found but their homes
have disappeared. Jasper beads and pierced
mother-of-pearl were found to be possessed by them.
They buried their dead collectively in special vaults
inside the city. They kept skulls in particular in the
mausoleum of prominent men of their age. The lifespan
of many of them is estimated, in the light of their
remains to be 35 years. Few of them reached the age of
50. This Age is divided into two periods:
The first Neolithic Pottery
Age:
people in this age lived in pits. They worked
in agriculture and in domesticating animals. They
introduced the manufacture of pottery to their homes,
but it was a primitive and rough one painted in red in
geometrical figures.
The Second Neolithic Pottery
Age:
People in this age were a great deal more
advanced than their predecessors, as they lived in
huts built of clay and manufactured earthenware in
inclined lines.
Jericho in the Post Neolithic
Age:
The Bronze
Age:
At the end of the Neolithic Age
which was about the year 4000 B.C., a vacancy occurred
in man's residence in Jericho and it became uninhabited
for a certain period of time. There are two different
evidences to support this: the existence of an
accumulated layer of disintegrated organic matter over
the Hill, part of which is recognizable, and the absence
of any remains from the age known as the Chalcolithic
Age which followed the Neolithic Age, and in which
metals were used for the first time.
The date of man's habitation on the
Tall ( Hill ) can be traced back to about 3200 B.C. The
best illustration of this can be found in tombs. The
main cemeteries of old Jericho are found on the site on
which the 'Aqapat Jabr refugee camp stands from the
northern part. Some graves were dug up in the streets
and courtyards of the camp. The most interesting of
these graves is one which goes back to that age, as it
was found as a result of an examination by carbon number
14, that its history goes back to 3260 B.C. ± 110 years.
That grave contained 113 skulls arranged round the
tomb's chamber. The center of the chamber contained a
heap of burnt bones. Some of the skulls carried the
traces of scorching a heap of burnt bones. Some of the
skulls carried the traces of scorching but were not
deliberately burnt. This indicates the existence of
certain strange customs in connection with burial rites.
we also conclude that the bodies of the dead were first
placed in the open until the flesh was decomposed and
separated from the bones. The collecting of these
numerous bone skeletons followed, with the skulls being
symmetrically arranged in a row round the tomb's chamber
with their faces directed towards the inside. The bones
were heaped in the middle with the necessary inflammable
material. Then it was set on fire. When the heap cooled
down after burning, the funeral offerings made mostly of
earthenware, were placed in the grave, while the burnt
bones were covered by a layer of stone chips. In
reality, the other archeological discoveries in
Palestine and Trans-Jordan did not produce any evidence
corroborating the existence on these customs, though the
custom of exposing bodies in the open, until the flesh
disintegrated was not a custom remote from what was
familiar. We have nothing about those people except that
they were the pioneers of the following age, that is the
First Bronze Age, which was the most prosperous one in
Jordan and Palestine. We see the features of the First
Bronze Age, which extends from 2900 B.C, evidently clear
in Jericho especially with regard to defensive
fortifications in the town. These fortifications were,
no doubt, supremely important.
The defensive walls were repaired
and rebuilt sixteen times during the First Bronze Age
which lasted 600 years. It is often difficult to
indicate the various periods when the renewal of the
building of the walls was made, as they used to fall
down as a result of earthquakes, or because of
infiltration of water into their foundations, and the
people were prompt to repair them. Some destruction
befell the walls as a result of enemy attacks. In any
case there appear on these walls during that period the
traces of destruction and ruin, but traces of repairs
and renewed building are also apparent on then. This
goes to show that the inhabitants of the town lived a
life devoid of security and stability.
Nevertheless, the general picture
shows a continuous improvement in the fields of
civilization and construction as people started to use
copper in large quantities in order to manufacture
weapons and tools. Pottery utensils show an abundance of
trade exchange with all neighbouring valleys.
This period revealed a great
progress in civilization, as it was accompanied by the
appearance of new towns in numerous sites that had been
hitherto uninhabited. But this civilization, along with
other civilizations preceding it, crumbled and came to
an end at the hands of Bedouin raiders. It seems that
the people at the end of First Bronze Age started to
enjoy a greater stability and tranquility leading to the
neglect of these defensive fortifications.
But then came a time in which they
woke up from their heedlessness because the latest wall,
dating back to that period reveals quick ill-contructed
repairs on the remains of a wall previously constructed.
The foundation stones appear as if they had been
hurriedly dropped and with no organization. Then the
wall started to be built of baked brick moulds over the
stones. Baked brick moulds used in other walls appear on
this wall. But calamity overtook those folks before they
completed the construction of that wall which was itself
destroyed by fire, and the town fell into the hands of
raiding Bedouin tribes.
Successive Peoples who
came to Jericho after 2300 B.C.Intoduction
After this date new inhabitants
settled in Jericho. They resided first on the top of the
Hill. They built for themselves some ramshackle homes.
The spread of these homes stretched on the Hill slopes,
as there was no defensive wall in that interval. There
is an edifice on the western side which may have been
originally a temple, as what resembles an altar was
discovered together with the remains of a small animal
under its foundations. This period is known as marking
the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age.
In reality the tombs of those people
attracted most attention, contrary to the collective
cemeteries where the dead used to be buried in previous
ages. They buried one dead person in every grave only
placing with him some chattels and jewellery. Graves
stretching 248 metres from the original three hundred
and sixty metres were discovered at Tall A-Sultan. Some
of these graves were very wide with the pit's width
being three metres and its depth five metres. The
dimensions of the mausoleum chamber were 360, 330 and a
height of 260 cms, which necessitated digging out 150
tons of rocks, and all this was for the sake of burying
one person. We can see that bodies were exposed until
the bones were stripped off before they were buried, as
the folks who came before them did. The objects placed
inside the grave varied in accordance with the models of
graves. In some of them there was nothing save a dagger,
in others pins and beads ( presumably these belonged to
women ). In some others some pottery utensils only were
found, while in other tombs a number of jars, a dagger
or a spear head. Nevertheless all these had one thing
common namely the existence of a small niche hewn out of
the wall of the mausoleum chamber. It contained a
four-headed lamp, the type which was prevalent in that
period. It appears that on the smooth surface of a rock
of the corners of a grave that someone had drawn some
small pictures in the form of a goat or an ibex or a
tree, in addition to two men armed with spears and
shields. This is, as we know, the only known
illustration from these people. Then earthenware
utensils are not distinguished for accuracy and mastery,
having no adornment except for some circular lines which
are colourless, and no paint of any sort, a proof that
they were only made then for utilitarian use without any
interest to decorate them.
It is probable that these new
inhabitants were no other than the Amorites who occupied
most of the Middle Eastern countries, including Iraq and
Egypt, during the period between 2300-1900 B.C. But they
themselves were the victims of a greater invasion by the
Hyksos.
The
Hyksos:
Jericho was one of the strong-holds
of the Hyksos or Shepherd Kings 1750-1580 B.C. as the
Bible calls them. It is believed that they brought
horses with them, and perhaps the chariot, to Palestine
and Egypt.
Their houses were well built and
covered the whole top of the Hill. Before their arrival
the town was surrounded by a strong baked bricks, wall.
They introduced a brand new system of defensive
fortifications, not to Jericho alone, but also to all
parts of Palestine. This new defensive system consisted
of a steep earth slope topped by a wall made of moulded
baked bricks.
The tombs of this period are
generally characterized by being the tombs of ancient
people reused. One can see the grave chamber covered by
a big stone, and the opening filled with earth. It seems
that the reason for the preservation of things in good
condition is accounted for by the infiltration of gases
from cracks in the rock. They were accumulated in the
chamber eradicating moth and disintegration germs.
Wooden tables, baskets, seats, stuffing and artificial
hairs, and even pieces of votive offerings' flesh were
found, all remaining in a good condition. All tombs were
in the shape of collective mausoleums. They used to
accumulate the bone skeletons and first offerings in the
corners to leave room for the new dead. In the Palestine
Archeological Museum in Jerusalem there is one of these
tombs, constructed in accordance with the condition in
which it was in the ancient times. Jericho was the third
city in importance as its geographical situation had the
advantage of controlling the direct route with the lands
rich in cereals in Trans jordan.
The
Canaanites:
These were among the folks that
emigrated from Arabia to physical Syria, and Jericho was
one of their most important cities ( 1400 B.C. ). The
name " Jericho " to them meant " the moon ". Their
houses were built near the site of Al-'Ain where the
fortress gate stood. The area of the city was six acres
in their time, and its walls reached a height of twenty
one feet.
Their type of architecture followed
this model : every building consisted of one room having
side doors and elevated platforms and was surrounded by
asphalted black soil. Their walls were built on the
Babylonian style. The grandeur of their buildings was
evident from their monuments which included stone
columns on both banks of the Jordan River, from the
inside of the Temple of Jericho, and from the buildings
erected round a courtyard in the middle of which there
was a wide arched gate which led into it. This Canaanite
style still prevails in the Palestinian rural areas as
well as cities, and in the circular type of the
architecture of the dome which appears in the villages
of 'Ain Malaha,' Ainat, Jericho and Wadi An-Nutuf. It is
one of the most prominent characteristics of Canaanite
architecture.
The Canaanites excelled in the
sculpture of statues and in pictorial sculpture which
appears in the layers of gypsum covering the skulls, and
which are similar to a head cover. It is exactly similar
to the contemporary head dress worn by Palestinian
women. It is known by its popular name, "Al-Wiqahyah" (
The protector ), or " As-Samada" or " Al- 'Usabh
al-kan'aniyyah "( The Canaanite Turban ). Weaving looms,
clothes, bedding, mats, tables, chairs, mineral pins for
binding clothes and for adornment were found.
Earthware manufacture was advanced
with them. We find plates, jugs, large copper basins,
large water-jars pots and clay ovens (bread ovens that
resemble those of present villages ). Excavations
disclosed numerous family mausoleums containing remains
of bodies next to which were found the traces of food,
cooked or grilled mutton in earthenware utensils, and
the remains of cereals, pomegranates and raisins.
It is clear that the religious
belief has become now more evident and more refined than
before as threefold statues were found in Jericho, which
remind us of the trinity in Canaanite worship, namely
the Fertility God, the Fertility Goddess, and the Enemy
of the Fertility God. The statue of the Fertility
Goddess was the statue of Goddess ' Anat known in the
texts of Agarith where she seizes her breasts in order
to give fertility and life to the land of the
Canaanites. As far as the religious places are concerned
there is a temple in Jericho containing a niche. The
plan of its architecture was taken by the Jews in their
synagogues. Then the Christians transferred it to their
churches, later it appeared in Islamic mosques.
Jericho did not reach this level of
civilization alone, many cities participated in it as (
Hazor-Na'anek and Megiddo ) on the northeast trade
route, Shkeim, Beirut and Jerusalem and others from the
categories of Canaanite cities were like Jericho, in
progress, architecture, and power. The Bible described
that when the Israelites said about the Canaanites that
they were " a people stronger than they and of greater
stature with great cities pointing to heaven. You said
to them : Do not fear them. God, your lord who leads you
fights for you."
Excavations at Salin revealed the
remains of two Canaanite fortresses, one of which rose
on one of the seven hills on which Jericho was built.
The fortress consisted of three stories reached by
stairs to the towers which protected it. Excavations
revealed, too, the remnants of Canaanite walls built of
baked bricks over stone buttresses not fewer than three
metres in width. Behind the wall there were furnished
houses containing oil jars and earthenware inscribed
with drawings of lions and gazelles. It was surrounded
by fertile oases containing palm trees. That is why it
is called " the city of palm trees " in Deuteronomy and
in Judges and in the books of the Old Testament a lot is
said about its prosperity brisk trade, numerous store
shops, warehouses, animals for transport and
consumption, vessels and utensils made of copper, iron,
silver and gold.
The Israelite
Invasion:
At the beginning of the thirteenth
century B.C. the Israelites invaded Palestine after
their exodus from Egypt and several years in Sinai and
in the region of the northern Arabian Peninsula. They
started by attacking Trans jordan where they crossed the
Jordan River Valley on foot coming from the hills of
Moab on the ( East Bank ). They pitched a camp at Abel
Shetem whence they moved on Palestine under the command
of Joshua. Jericho was among the Palestinian cities
which fell into their hands after making for them from
their camps which they had erected from clay and palm
branches, forty years after their exodus from Egypt.
Priests bore the Arc of the Covenant and compassed the
city with it, headed by the seven priests, the
trumpet-bearers, walking and blowing the trumpets with
those who were armed walking behind the Arc of the
Covenant and blowing their trumpets, and so they did
once daily for six days. On the seventh day the priests
blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, " Shout,
for the lord hath given you the city. And the city shall
be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the
lord: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that
are with her in the house, because she hid the
messengers that we sent Yoshah son of Nun Moses' boy and
Calob son of Yofnah - and it is said Kilab son of
Yofnah, Moses' nephew.
In the Bible there is a horrible
picture of the treatment by Israelites of its
inhabitants. we read in the Bible: "... so that the
people went up into the city" (that is Jericho) "And
they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both
man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and
ass, with the edge of the sword, "and they bunt the city
with all that was in it, "But all the silver, and gold,
and vessels of brass and iron are consecrated unto the
Lord: they shall come into the treasury of the
Lord,"
Thus Jericho remained in this
condition until it was repaired in the reign of Ahab the
son of Ouri who was one of the kings of Israel (874-852
B.C.) Hiel the Bethelite fortified and repaired it four
hundred years after its destruction There is a reference
to that in the Bible, namely that Joshna 's curse befell
Hiel.
Jericho after
the Israelites:
It appears that Jericho flourished
in Ruman times as is shown in the remains of canals they
dug and which can be seen at the River Kilt. In this
period Jericho started to export dates. Jericho acquired
a great importance in the time of Christ (may peace be
upon him) as Jesus Christ Himself visited it and cured
the eyes of two blind men, Bartimoeus and his friend.
While He was in it He visited Zacchaeus the publican in
his house. As Zacchaeus was of small statue he was
forced to climb up a tree to see Jesus in the crowd.
Jesus walked along the caravan rout between Jericho and
Jerusalem, which was infested with thieves and
highwaymen.
In the reign of constantine the
Great (306-337 A.D.), the founder of constantinople,
Christianity was spread in Jericho by monks and hermits
who lived in convents and churches which they
constructed to become a centre for the propagation of
Christianity. In 325 A.D. it became the centre of a
bishopric.
The Roman Emperor Justinian (527-665
A.D.) constructed a church in it. It was in his reign
that a road was built joining it with Petra. The
caravans used to cross it in 3-4 days. Another road was
built joining it with Bisan.
It appears that churches and
convents became more numerous than they were in the
seventh century. Arco Levaux said that three was a
church at Al-Juljal, and another at the place where it
is thought that Jesus took off His garment before His
baptism. Another church was built inside a large convent
under the name of St. John. It lies on a height
overlooking the Jordan River.
Nevertheless this did not prevent
the deterioration, neglect and ruin that began to befall
Jericho and the churches and convents round it,
following the diversion of the caravan route. The
hermits' caves on the Mount of Temptation overlooking
the city, remained an indication of the lofty spirit of
the early and medieval centuries.
Finally Jericho entered into the
rule of the Arab who occupied these countries in the
seventh century A.D. In the dawn of Islam Jericho became
the main city in the Ghaur inhabited by a folk{1} from
Qais, as well as a group from Quraish. During the time
of the Prophet, may peace and prayer be upon him, he
drove the Jews out of Madinah because of their tyranny,
and they left for Syria, Adhru'at and Jericho.
'Umar-Ibn-UL-Khattab may God be satisfied with him -
expelled the last of them in his reign from Hijaz to
Taima' and Jericho.
The walls of Jericho
Fortifications of Jericho
Before the Israelites entered the promised
land, Moses told them that they were now about to cross
the Jordan river, to dispossess nations which were
greater and stronger than themselves, with large cities
having walls that reached, as it were, to the sky
(Deuteronomy 9:1). The meticulous work of Kenyon showed
that Jericho was indeed heavily fortified and that it
had been burned by fire. Unfortunately, she misdated her
finds, resulting in what seemed to be a discrepancy
between the discoveries of archaeology and the Bible.
She concluded that the Bronze Age city of Jericho was
destroyed about 1550 B.C. by the Egyptians. An in-depth
analysis of the evidence, however, reveals that the
destruction took place around 1400 B.C. (end of the Late
Bronze I period), exactly when the Bible says the
conquest occurred.3
Schematic cross-section diagram of the
fortification system at Jericho based on
Kenyon's west
trench. | |
The mound, or ‘tell’ of Jericho was
surrounded by a great earthen rampart, or embankment,
with a stone retaining wall at its base. The retaining
wall was some four to five meters (12–15 feet) high. On
top of that was a mudbrick wall two meters (six feet)
thick and about six to eight meters (20–26 feet) high.4 At the crest of the embankment
was a similar mudbrick wall whose base was roughly 14
meters (46 feet) above the ground level outside the
retaining wall (see diagram). This is what loomed high
above the Israelites as they marched around the city
each day for seven days. Humanly speaking, it was
impossible for the Israelites to penetrate the
impregnable bastion of Jericho.
Within the upper wall was an area of
approximately six acres, while the total area of the
upper city and fortification system was 50% larger, or
about nine acres. Based on the archaeologist’s rule of
thumb of 200 persons per acre, the population of the
upper city would have been about 1,200. However, from
excavations carried out by a German team in the first
decade of this century, we know that people were also
living on the embankment between the upper and lower
city walls. In addition, those Canaanites living in
surrounding villages would have fled to Jericho for
safety. Thus, we can assume that there were several
thousand people inside the walls when the Israelites
came against the city.
The fallen walls
The citizens of Jericho were well prepared
for a siege. A copious spring which provided water for
ancient, as well as modern, Jericho lay inside the city
walls. At the time of the attack, the harvest had just
been taken in (Joshua 3:15), so the citizens had an
abundant supply of food. This has been borne out by many
large jars full of grain found in the Canaanite homes by
John Garstang in his excavation in the 1930s and also by
Kenyon. With a plentiful food supply and ample water,
the inhabitants of Jericho could have held out for
perhaps several years.
After the seventh trip around the city on
the seventh day, Scripture tells us that the wall ‘fell
down flat’ (Joshua 6:20). The Hebrew here carries the
suggestion that it ‘fell beneath itself.’5 Is there evidence for
such an event at Jericho? It turns out that there is
ample evidence that the mudbrick city wall collapsed and
was deposited at the base of the stone retaining wall at
the time the city met its end.
Kenyon’s work was the most detailed. On
the west side of the tell, at the base of the retaining,
or revetment, wall, she found,
‘fallen red bricks piling nearly to the
top of the revetment. These probably came from the
wall on the summit of the bank
[and/or] … the brickwork above the
revetment.’6
In other words, she found a heap of
bricks from the fallen city walls! An Italian team
excavating at the southern end of the mound in 1997
found exactly the same thing.
Artist's reconstruction of the north side of
ancient Jericho, based on the German excavations
of 1907-1909. Note the houses built against the
mud brick city wall, which rests on top of the
stone retaining wall. The Bible says that
Rahab's house was built against the city wall
(Joshua
2:15). | |
According to the Bible, Rahab’s house was
incorporated into the fortification system (Joshua
2:15). If the walls fell, how was her house spared? As
you recall, the spies had instructed Rahab to bring her
family into her house and they would be rescued. When
the Israelites stormed the city, Rahab and her family
were saved as promised (Joshua 2:12–21; 6:17, 22–23). At
the north end of the tell of Jericho, archaeologists
made some astounding discoveries that seem to relate to
Rahab.
The German excavation of 1907–1909 found
that on the north a short stretch of the lower city wall
did not fall as everywhere else. A portion of that
mudbrick wall was still standing to a height of over two
meters (eight feet).4 What is more, there
were houses built against the wall! It is quite possible
that this is where Rahab’s house was.7 Since the city wall formed
the back wall of the houses, the spies could have
readily escaped. From this location on the north side of
the city it was only a short distance to the hills of
the Judean wilderness where the spies hid for three days
(Joshua 2:16, 22). Real estate values must have been low
here, since the houses were positioned on the embankment
between the upper and lower city walls. Not the best
place to live in time of war! This area was no doubt the
overflow from the upper city and the poor part of town,
perhaps even a slum district.
After the city walls fell, how did the
Israelites surmount the four to five meter (12–15 foot)
high retaining wall at the base of the tell? Excavations
have shown that the bricks from the collapsed walls
formed a ramp against the retaining wall so that the
Israelites could merely climb up over the top. The Bible
is very precise in its description of how the Israelites
entered the city: ‘the people went up into the city,
every man straight before him [i.e., straight up and
over],’ (Joshua 6:20). The Israelites had to go
up, and that is what archaeology has revealed.
They had to go from ground level at the base of the tell
to the top of the rampart in order to enter the
city.
Destruction by fire
The Israelites burned the city and
everything in it (Joshua 6:24). Once again, the
discoveries of archaeology have verified the truth of
this record. A portion of the city destroyed by the
Israelites was excavated on the east side of the tell.
Wherever the archaeologists reached this level they
found a layer of burned ash and debris about one meter
(three feet) thick. Kenyon described the massive
devastation as follows.
‘The destruction was complete. Walls and
floors were blackened or reddened by fire, and every
room was filled with fallen bricks, timbers, and
household utensils; in most rooms the fallen debris
was heavily burnt, but the collapse of the walls of
the eastern rooms seems to have taken place before
they were affected by the fire.
Both Garstang and Kenyon found many
storage jars full of grain that had been caught in the
fiery destruction. This is a unique find in the annals
of archaeology. Grain was valuable, not only as a source
of food, but also as a commodity which could be
bartered. Under normal circumstances, valuables such as
grain would have been plundered by the conquerors. Why
was the grain left at Jericho? The Bible provides the
answer. Joshua commanded the Israelites that the city
and all that is in it were to be dedicated to the Lord
(Joshua 6:17, lit. Heb.).
Dr Wood stands at the base of the stone
retaining wall uncovered by Italian
archaeologists at the southern end of Jericho in
1997. The Israelites marched around this wall
when they attacked the city as described in
Joshua
6. | |
The grain left at Jericho and found by
archaeologists in modern times gives graphic testimony
to the obedience of the Israelites nearly
three-and-a-half millennia ago. Only Achan disobeyed,
leading to the debacle at Ai described in Joshua 7.
Such a large quantity of grain left
untouched gives silent testimony to the truth of yet
another aspect of the biblical account. A heavily
fortified city with an abundant supply of food and water
would normally take many months, even years, to subdue.
The Bible says that Jericho fell after only seven days.
The jars found in the ruins of Jericho were full,
showing that the siege was short since the people inside
the walls consumed very little of the grain.
Lessons of Jericho
Jericho was once thought to be a ‘Bible
problem’ because of the seeming disagreement between
archaeology and the Bible. When the archaeology is
correctly interpreted, however, just the opposite is the
case. The archaeological evidence supports the
historical accuracy of the biblical account in every
detail. Every aspect of the story that could possibly be
verified by the findings of archaeology is, in fact,
verified.
There are many ideas as to how the walls
of Jericho came down. Both Garstang and Kenyon found
evidence of earthquake activity at the time the city met
its end. If God did use an earthquake to accomplish His
purposes that day, it was still a miracle since it
happened at precisely the right moment, and was
manifested in such a way as to protect Rahab’s house. No
matter what agency God used, it was ultimately He who,
through the faith of the Israelites, brought the walls
down. After the people had marched around them for seven
days, it was ‘by faith the walls of Jericho fell down’
(Hebrews 11:30).
As well as showing us how vital it is not
to discount the Bible because of some apparent conflict
with secular scholarship, Jericho is a wonderful
spiritual lesson for God’s people yet today. There are
times when we find ourselves facing enormous ‘walls’
that are impossible to break down by human strength. If
we put our faith in God and follow His commandments, He
will perform ‘great and mighty things’ (Jeremiah 33:3)
and give us the victory.
