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How Did Permanent Settlement Change Early Human Cooperation? - The Neolithic Wall and Tower of Ancient Jericho | Sleepy Facts About History · Sleepy Facts About History

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Welcome to Sleepy Facts About History. When we
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hear the name Jericho, most of us think of the
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biblical story of Joshua and the walls tumbling
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down. But thousands of years before those Bronze
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Age kingdoms existed, a very different community
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lived near a reliable spring in the Jordan Valley.
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These were pre -pottery Neolithic farmers who
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had recently learned to stay in one place. and
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around 9 ,000 years before the Common Era, they
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undertook one of the earliest monumental construction
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projects in human history. Using only tools of
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flint, bone, and wood, they cut a massive ditch
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into solid bedrock and built a stone tower with
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an internal staircase of 22 steps. This episode
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examines why these early farmers built such massive
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structures. and what their labor reveals about
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the moment humans transitioned from nomadic life
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to permanent settlement. Staying in one place
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created new vulnerabilities, exposing stored
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grain to seasonal floods, pests, and the need
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to define a permanent territory. We explore the
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archaeological evidence at Telles Sultan, the
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scholarly debate over whether the wall served
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as a defense, a water management system, or a
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communal monument and how this site fundamentally
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differs from the later biblical city i wanted
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to understand why a community of a few hundred
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people would organize such grueling sustained
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labor without kings armies or professional builders
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the stones they moved and the bedrock they carved
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offer a rare physical record of a profound social
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transformation showing how the simple act of
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settling down forced early humans to learn how
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to cooperate on a scale the world had never seen.
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9 ,000 years before the biblical walls of Joshua,
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farmers who had just learned to stay in one place
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cut a ditch into bedrock with flint and bone.
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They built a stone tower with 22 steps. They
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did this not for kings, not for armies, but because
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the spring flowed, the wadi flooded. And stored
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grain does not protect itself. Imagine a group
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of farmers, perhaps two or three hundred people,
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living in round houses made of dried mud brick
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near a spring that never runs dry. They grow
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wheat and barley. They store grain in pits lined
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with plaster. They have decided, for reasons
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that took generations to become clear, to stay
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in one place rather than move with the seasons.
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and now they face a problem that nomadic people
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never had to solve. The rains come. The nearby
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wadi floods. The stored grain needs protection.
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The place where they live needs to be marked,
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defined, and defended against forces that are
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not human enemies at all. So they begin to gather
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stones. They begin to cut a ditch into the bedrock
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with tools of flint and bone. They begin to build
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something that will still be standing 9 ,000
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years later, long after their names and their
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language have been lost. This is ancient Jericho,
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not the city of the biblical story, not a fortress
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of kings and armies, but a settlement of early
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farmers who, around 9 ,000 years before the Common
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Era, undertook one of the earliest known examples
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of monumental communal construction in human
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history. The wall they built was approximately
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3 .5 meters thick at its base. The tower they
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added was roughly 8 .5 meters in diameter, with
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an internal staircase of 22 stone steps. The
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ditch alongside the wall was cut into solid rock,
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8 meters wide in places, 3 meters deep. No single
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family could have done this. The work required
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coordination, planning, sustained labor over
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seasons or years, and a shared understanding
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of what needed to be built and why. We do not
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know their names. We do not know their words
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for wall or tower or spring or home. But we know
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they learned to act together to reshape the world
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they had decided to inhabit. The site is called
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Tell Es -Sultan now, a mound of accumulated human
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occupation near the modern city of Jericho in
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the Jordan Valley, about 10 kilometers northwest
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of the Dead Sea. The spring, Ein Es -Sultan,
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still flows. Archaeologists have been working
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here since the 1930s, and a story of what they
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found has itself required correction and reinterpretation.
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John Garstang Excavating in the 1930s, thought
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the Great Stonewall belonged to the Bronze Age,
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the period of cities and kingdoms that produced
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the familiar stories of the ancient Near East.
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It was Kathleen Kenyon, working in the 1950s
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with more careful stratigraphic methods, who
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established that the wall and tower belonged
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to a much earlier period, the pre -pottery Neolithic
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A. roughly 9600 to 8800 BCE, with the monumental
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construction dating to around 9000 to 8500 BCE.
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This was thousands of years before pottery, before
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writing, before metal tools, before the pyramids
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of Egypt or the ziggurats of Mesopotamia. The
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people who built these structures were farmers
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at the very beginning of the experiment with
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permanent settlement. To understand what they
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built and why, we need to understand what it
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meant to settle down. For most of human history,
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people moved. They followed game. They followed
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seasonal plants. They moved to where water was
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available. The Neolithic period in the Levant,
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beginning around 9600 BCE, represents a gradual
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shift towards staying in one place, cultivating
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domesticated cereals and legumes. storing surplus
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for the dry season, and building houses that
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were meant to last. This was not a sudden revolution.
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It took generations, perhaps centuries, for the
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fall implications to become apparent. And the
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implications were not all positive. Permanent
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settlement created new vulnerabilities that mobile
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people simply did not face. The spring at Jericho
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provided reliable water in a dry landscape. The
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alluvial soil of the valley floor was fertile,
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but the same geography that made farming possible
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also created risks. The wadi, a seasonal watercourse,
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could flood during winter rains, carrying mud
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and debris down from the hills. The stored grain,
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accumulated surplus that made survival through
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dry months possible, needed protection from moisture,
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from pests, and possibly from other people. The
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settlement itself, now a fixed point in the landscape,
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needed to be defined, marked and understood as
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a place of belonging rather than a temporary
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camp. And the people who lived there, now tied
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to their fields and their stores, could not simply
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move away when difficulties arose. They had to
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solve their problems where they stood. This is
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the context in which we must understand the wall,
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the ditch and the tower. The wall itself was
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built of undressed stone, roughly shaped and
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stacked without mortar. Its base was massive,
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over three and a half meters thick, though we
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do not know exactly how high it originally stood.
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Only the lower cores survive, buried under later
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occupation layers. The ditch was cut into the
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bedrock alongside the wall, a laborious process
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of striking stone with stone, removing debris,
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and creating a barrier. or channel that separated
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the settlement from the surrounding landscape.
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The tower was built against the wall, a conical
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structure of stone with an internal staircase
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that spiraled upward, narrow steps worn by feet
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climbing to whatever space existed at the top.
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The physical reality of this construction is
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worth dwelling on. These were farmers, not professional
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builders. Their tools were of flint and obsidian,
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bone and wood. They had no metal. They had no
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wheeled vehicles to transport stone. They had
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no draft animals to pull loads. Every stone was
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moved by human hands, perhaps two people carrying
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a larger block, others working in teams to roll
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or drag heavier pieces. The ditch was cut into
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bedrock, not soil, which means the workers were
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striking stone with stone tools, breaking off
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flakes, clearing debris. Working day after day
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in the heat of the Jordan Valley, the tower required
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not just labor but planning. The staircase had
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to be designed. The walls had to support the
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weight above. The structure had to be stable
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enough to last. This was not improvised. This
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was organized. And that organization is the central
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fact. Whatever purpose the wall and tower served.
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and scholars have debated this for decades. The
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construction itself reveals something about social
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transformation. For the first time in this region,
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as far as the archaeological record shows, a
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community was coordinating labor on a scale beyond
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the household. A family could build its own house.
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A group of families could help each other in
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times of need. But a wall three and a half meters
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thick, a ditch cut into bedrock, A tower with
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an internal staircase. These required a different
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kind of social mechanism. Someone, or some group,
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had to decide to build. Labor had to be mobilized,
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perhaps through persuasion, perhaps through obligation,
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perhaps through emerging authority that we would
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not recognize as government, but that was nonetheless
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effective. Food had to be provided for workers
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who were not farming. Schedules had to be coordinated.
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The work had to continue across seasons, through
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heat and cold, until the structure was complete
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enough to serve its purpose. What was that purpose?
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This is where the evidence becomes interpretive,
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and where we need to be careful not to project
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later assumptions onto earlier people. The most
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intuitive explanation, especially for modern
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listeners familiar with medieval city walls or
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ancient fortresses, is defense. The wall was
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built to keep enemies out. The tower was a lookout
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or a defensive platform. The ditch was an obstacle
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to attackers. This interpretation has been proposed
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and defended by archaeologists who point to the
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wall's thickness, the tower's commanding position,
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and the ditch's barrier function, and it cannot
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be entirely dismissed. The possibility of conflict
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between settlements or between groups competing
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for resources, is real even in this early period.
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But other scholars have questioned whether defense
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was the primary or sole purpose. Ofer Bar Yosef,
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in a careful reassessment published in 1986,
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pointed to the site's location near the wadi
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and the spring. The ditch and wall together,
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he suggested, may have functioned as a water
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management system. diverting floodwaters, controlling
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erosion, and protecting the settlement from the
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seasonal damage that the Wadi could inflict.
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The wall's massive base could have served as
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a retaining structure, stabilizing the ground
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against water damage. The tower with its internal
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staircase does not obviously serve a military
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function. It is not positioned for maximum visibility
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in all directions, and its conical shape is not
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ideal for defense. The staircase suggests regular
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access, perhaps for ritual purposes, perhaps
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for communal gatherings, perhaps for storage.
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Other interpretations emphasize symbolism and
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identity. The wall marked the boundary of the
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settlement, defining who belonged and who did
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not. It created a physical manifestation of community
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that had not existed before. The tower, visible
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for some distance across the flat valley floor.
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announced that this was a place of significance,
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a center of human activity in a landscape that
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was otherwise largely empty of permanent construction.
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The act of building itself requiring communal
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labor may have been as important as the finished
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structure, creating bonds of obligation and shared
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purpose among people who were learning what it
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meant to live together permanently. The most
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cautious and, to my mind, most persuasive interpretation.
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is that the wall and tower served multiple purposes
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simultaneously. They managed water and erosion.
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They protected stored resources. They marked
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territory and created communal identity. They
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may have had ritual functions that we can barely
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glimpse. They may have provided some defensive
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capability, though probably not against organized
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military assault in the modern sense. The people
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who built them were not working from a single
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blueprint with a single purpose. They were solving
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multiple problems created by their new way of
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life, using the materials and social organization
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available to them. This multifunctionality is
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important because it corrects a common misconception.
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Many listeners will associate Jericho with the
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biblical story of Joshua and the walls that came
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tumbling down. belongs to a much later period,
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the Late Bronze Age, roughly the 13th century
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BCE, more than 7 ,000 years after the Neolithic
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War was built. The biblical Jericho was a city
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in a sense that the Neolithic settlement was
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not. It was part of a regional political system,
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with kings and armies and diplomatic relationships,
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the walls of the biblical story. Whatever historical
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kernel they may contain are not the walls we
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are discussing. To confuse them is to collapse
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seven millennia of human history into a single
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image and to misunderstand both periods in the
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process. The Neolithic settlement was not a city.
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Whether it should be called a town, a village,
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a proto -city, or simply a large settlement is
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a matter of scholarly debate. The terminology
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matters less than the reality, a community of
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early farmers who have learned to act collectively
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to reshape their environment. The population
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is uncertain. Estimates range from a few hundred
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to perhaps a thousand people. But these are inferences
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based on the area of the settlement and assumptions
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about household size. We do not know. The wall's
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original height is unknown. The tower's upper
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levels have not survived. The social organization
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of the builders, whether they had leaders, councils,
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kinship -based obligations, or some other mechanism
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for coordination, cannot be recovered from the
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stones alone. What we can say with confidence
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is that the construction marks a threshold. After
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the wall and tower were built, the settlement
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continued. The pre -Pottery Neolithic A gave
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way to the pre -Pottery Neolithic B. roughly
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1800 to 7000 BCE, with new forms of architecture,
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rectangular houses rather than round, plastered
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floors, more elaborate ritual practices including
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the plastering of human skulls, larger and more
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complex settlements. The wall and tower at Jericho
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were not isolated phenomena. Other sites in the
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region show communal construction of various
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kinds. in southeastern turkey has massive stone
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pillars and enclosures that are roughly contemporary
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with or slightly earlier than jericho's wall
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though the form and probably the function were
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different the neolithic was a period of experimentation
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with new social forms new ways of organizing
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collective life and new relationships between
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people and the landscapes they inhabited But
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Juroko's wall and tower remain among the most
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evocative early examples because of their scale,
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their preservation, and the clarity with which
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they reveal the labor involved. You can stand
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at Tale Sultan as archaeologists have for generations,
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and see the lower courses of the wall emerging
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from the tell. You can enter the tower, climb
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the narrow stone staircase, feel the cool darkness
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of the interior, and emerged to look out over
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the valley that these farmers inhabited. The
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physical experience connects us to people whose
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names we will never know, whose language we will
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never hear, whose thoughts and beliefs we can
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only infer from what they left behind. The settlement
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was not continuously occupied. The archaeological
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record shows cycles of abandonment and reoccupation,
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periods when people left, perhaps because of
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environmental stress. perhaps because of social
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conflict perhaps for reasons we cannot recover
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followed by periods of return and rebuilding
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the permanence of settlement was not inevitable
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the experiment could fail and sometimes did but
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the wall and tower remained buried under later
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layers waiting for archaeologists to uncover
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them and try to understand what they meant this
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is the larger significance of jericho's early
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walls They are not simply ancient fortifications,
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nor are they evidence of inevitable progress
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towards civilization. They are a physical record
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of a social transformation, the moment when permanent
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settlement created new problems that could only
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be solved through organized communal labor. The
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problems were practical, water, erosion, storage,
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definition of space, but the solution required
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something new in human experience. It required
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the ability to coordinate action on a scale beyond
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the household, to plan and execute projects that
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would outlast any individual life, to create
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structures that embodied collective intention.
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The people who built the wall and tower were
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not primitive people waiting to become civilized.
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They were skilled farmers and builders, solving
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real problems with the tools and social resources
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they possessed. They did not know that their
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work would still be visible 9 ,000 years later.
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They did not know that later peoples would tell
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stories about different walls at the same place,
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stories of conquest and divine intervention that
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had nothing to do with their own lives. They
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knew that the spring flowed, the wadi flooded,
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the grain needed protection, and that they could
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solve these problems together if they organized
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their labor. and sustained their effort. The
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wall and tower are, in the end, a monument to
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cooperation rather than conquest. They testify
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to the social consequences of settling down,
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the new vulnerabilities and new capacities that
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permanent settlement created. The early farmers
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of Jericho learned that staying in one place
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meant facing problems that mobility had avoided,
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and that solving those problems required them
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to act as a community in ways their ancestors
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never had. The stones they moved, the ditch they
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cut, the tower they raised with its staircase
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of 22 steps, these are the material evidence
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of that transformation. We cannot recover their
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exact motives. We cannot know whether they felt
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pride, or obligation, or coercion, or religious
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devotion as they worked. But we can understand
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that they were engaged in something new in human
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history. the collective reshaping of their environment
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to solve problems created by their own decision
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to stop moving and start building a permanent
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home the scholarly debate about the wall's primary
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function continues and probably will continue
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as long as archaeologists work at telesultan
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defense water management ritual identity storage
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protection the evidence supports multiple interpretations
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and the most responsible conclusion is that the
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structures served several purposes at once. What
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is established and what matters for understanding
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this threshold in human history is that the construction
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required communal labor, that it responded to
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problems created by permanent settlement, and
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that it represents one of the earliest known
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examples of people organizing themselves collectively
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to reshape their world on a monumental scale.
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When we look at Jericho's early walls, we are
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not looking at the beginning of civilization
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in any simple or inevitable sense. We are looking
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at a community of farmers who faced the consequences
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of their own choices and found ways to act together.
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The walls stood. The tower rose. The spring continued
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to flow. And the people who built these structures
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created something that would outlast them by
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millennia. Not just stone piled on stone, but
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the demonstration that human communities could
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coordinate their labor to solve problems that
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no individual could solve alone. That capacity,
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for better and for worse, has shaped every subsequent
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period of human history. Its first clear expression,
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in the archaeological record of the ancient Near
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East, is visible still in the stones of Tal -e
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-Sultan. waiting for those who will climb the
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narrow staircase and try to understand.