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The archaeological site of Tell es-Sultan is better known to most people as the biblical city of Jericho. This important site is one of the world’s oldest settlements, and was inhabited as early as the Natufian period, when round pit houses were cut into the bedrock. Later, during the PPNA period (8000 BCE), the inhabitants of this village built a large stone fortification wall and a tall stone tower for protection from enemies or possibly to hold back flood waters from nearby valleys. Whatever the reason for constructing these massive stone-works, they are evidence that the villagers of this Neolithic settlement had worked together as a group, either for reward or through coercion.

 Map of Neolithic Sites

Name: Tell Es-Sultan

Material: Stone

Size: Unknown

Date: Settled as early as 9000 BCE

Place of Origin: Jericho, West Bank

Location: Jericho, West Bank

Source and Registration#:
Wikimedia Commons. (accessed November 19, 2009).

Gil Stein

Director of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago