SocietyThe Middle East

Jericho builds a wall

9,001 BCE

The oldest known town wall, raised before pottery existed

In depth

Jericho's wall and tower required thousands of working days from a society with no king, writing or metal. What they guarded against is disputed — raiders, floods, or perhaps neither: a newer reading sees the tower as a ritual structure sited so the mountain's shadow strikes it at the summer solstice. Either way it shows large-scale organised labour long preceded the state.

For children

Beside a spring in the Jordan Valley, a few hundred people built a stone wall around their homes and a tower eight metres high. They had neither metal nor writing. It is the oldest wall we know of anywhere.

Connects to

Farming begins9,501 BCE
Göbekli Tepe9,501 BCE
Çatalhöyük7,401 BCE – 6,001 BCE

Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org