Jericho excavations

Jericho excavations
Name	Tell es-Sultan (ancient Jericho)
Location	Palestine
Type	Tell
Epochs	Natufian, Pre-Pottery Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic
Archaeologists	Charles Warren, Ernst Sellin, John Garstang, Kathleen Kenyon, Giorgio Buccellati, Barbara Porter, Lorenzo Nigro

Jericho excavations Jericho excavations comprise a long sequence of archaeological investigations at Tell es-Sultan near Jericho, involving fieldwork, stratigraphic analysis, and interpretive scholarship across the 19th century to the 21st century. The project history links early explorers, colonial-era surveys, twentieth-century stratigraphers, and contemporary teams from institutions such as the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology, and university departments including University College London, University of Liverpool, and Sapienza University of Rome. Work at the site has engaged specialists in prehistoric studies, Near Eastern archaeology, and Biblical archaeology funded or supported by bodies like the Palestine Exploration Fund, the British Museum, the American Schools of Oriental Research, and the European Research Council.

History of Excavations

Excavations began with exploratory visits by figures such as Nelson Glueck, Charles Warren, and Gertrude Bell in the late 19th century and moved into systematic campaigns by Ernst Sellin and Carl Watzinger during the British Mandate for Palestine era. The interwar period saw work by John Garstang under the auspices of the Palestine Exploration Fund and later campaigns by Kathleen Kenyon funded by the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem. Post-World War II projects involved scholars like Giorgio Buccellati affiliated with University of California, Los Angeles and Italian missions coordinated by Lorenzo Nigro with links to Sapienza University of Rome and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Recent investigations include collaborations with the Palestinian Department of Antiquities, the British Museum, and the University of Turin.

Major Archaeological Campaigns

Major campaigns are conventionally grouped by lead archaeologists: the early surveys of Charles Warren and the German team of Ernst Sellin (1907–1909), the systematic trenches of John Garstang (1929–1936), the stratigraphic program of Kathleen Kenyon (1952–1958), and later multidisciplinary programs by Giorgio Buccellati (1972–1990) and the Italian-Palestinian teams from the 1990s onward led by Lorenzo Nigro and Barbara Porter. International expeditions have included personnel from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of Chicago, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. Funding and scholarly exchange involved the British Academy, the National Geographic Society, and the Ford Foundation.

Stratigraphy and Chronology

Stratigraphic sequences at Tell es-Sultan underpin debates in Pre-Pottery Neolithic A, Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, Pottery Neolithic, and Bronze Age chronologies framed against regional frameworks like the Levantine chronology and the Radiocarbon dating calibration curve. Kenyon’s stratigraphy emphasized meticulous layer-by-layer recording influenced by methods developed at Wales University and the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, while later programs integrated absolute dating from laboratories such as the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit and the D-REAMS facility. Chronological models reference key periods attested across the Southern Levant and compared with sequences from Tell Abu Hureyra, Çatalhöyük, Beidha, Ain Ghazal, and Megiddo.

Key Discoveries and Artefacts

Excavations yielded notable finds: Neolithic architecture (round houses and plastered floors), proto-urban fortifications including a stone tower and defensive walls, burials with grave goods, plastered skulls, lithic assemblages with sickle blades, and pottery typologies spanning Early Bronze Age to Iron Age II. Significant artefacts were published in monographs and catalogues by institutions like the British Museum and deposited or exhibited in museums including the Palestine Archaeological Museum (Bethlehem), the Jordan Museum, and the Louvre. Finds relevant to Biblical archaeology attracted commentary from scholars linked to University of Cambridge, Yale University, Princeton University, and Harvard University.

Methods and Techniques

Field methodology evolved from trench-and-plan approaches used by John Garstang to the Wheeler-Kenyon stratigraphic box-grid system advocated by Kathleen Kenyon and influenced by Mortimer Wheeler and the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. Later campaigns incorporated geoarchaeology, micromorphology undertaken in laboratories at University College London, archaeobotanical flotation processed with equipment from the Smithsonian Institution, and zooarchaeology comparative collections at the Natural History Museum, London. Analytical methods included petrography at the British Geological Survey and stable isotope analyses conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Interpretations and Debates

Interpretations center on the emergence of sedentism, social complexity, and fortification chronology, engaging scholars from the New Archaeology movement, cultural-historical proponents, and proponents of processual and post-processual frameworks affiliated with University of Cambridge and University College London. Debates include the date and function of the stone tower, the interpretation of collapse layers vis-à-vis conquest narratives debated by researchers at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Princeton Theological Seminary, and the relationship between Tell es-Sultan and contemporaneous centers like Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Shechem. Controversies over radiocarbon calibration, site formation processes, and the role of ritual architecture involve teams from the Oxford University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Conservation and Site Management

Conservation efforts have been coordinated by the Palestinian Department of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage with technical assistance from the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the ICOMOS advisory networks, and international partners including the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities. Site management addresses threats from tourism, urban encroachment near Jericho Governorate, and environmental degradation, relying on conservation techniques developed at the Getty Conservation Institute and training programs at the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM). Ongoing documentation uses digital recording systems maintained in collaboration with the University of Oxford and the Digital Archaeology Archive.

Category:Archaeological sites in the State of Palestine Category:Neolithic sites in the Levant Category:Bronze Age sites in the Levant