Jericho in Middle Bronze Age: fortifications, economy, elite symbolism
AMMAN — In the Middle Bronze Age, Jericho became a city surrounded by thick walls and the spiring area was part of the fortification. Four main streams supplied water for Jericho and the main part of the early city was around springs.
The inhabited area is terraced and divided into quarters by a main street crossing it north-south and on the central hill overlooking the spring are a temple and a public building, both carefully built with mud-bricks on robust stone foundations, said Professor Lorenzo Nigro from Sapienza University of Rome.
The professor said that the earliest monumental architecture is, thus, characterised by the wide use of sun-dried dune-yellow mud-bricks held together by abundant layers of grayish mortar.
"Nevertheless, such huge buildings made of mud-bricks – including the 650-metre-long city walls, towers and public buildings – presuppose geometric, static and mathematical knowledge that the inhabitants of Jericho may have learned from the Egyptians," Nigro continued, adding that their construction implied previous planning, including drawing and writing, all fields mastered by contemporary Egyptians.
Development went hand in hand with economic and demographic growth, with the accumulation of food surplus, and by a notable development of material culture, appreciable in pottery production, and the emergence of copper tools and weapons.
Jericho became a regional economic hub known for its intensive agricultural exploitation of the oasis (flax, barley, emmer, wheat, legumes and especially fruits), cattle breeding used as workforce in agriculture, seasonal employment of large squads of workers, labour specialisation that included potters, smiths, merchants, warriors, and city administrators forming what might be the urban elite, Nigro highlighted.
"The society, thus, became more complex and stratified, as well as the ideology supporting such an organisational model. This is also reflected in funerary customs attested in the necropolis. Tombs of EB II are characterized by the presence of several precious items associated with burials, such as personal ornaments, rank indicators [metal or Egyptianising objects], power insignia [mace-heads] and ritual tools [bone flutes]," Nigro elaborated.
He added that the symbolic role attributed to pottery in funerary equipment also seems to have increased, perhaps linked to the ideology of the funerary consumption as attested by burnished plates, red polished jugs with high stump bases, and metallic and painted jars.
During EB II (3,000-2,700 BC), items imported from Egypt primarily belong to two categories of status symbols: Mace-heads and make-up palettes made of schist or siltstone, Nigro said.
He noted that both objects refer to the symbolism of power- the maces were depicted in numerous scenes in the hands of sovereigns during ritual actions, or held by triumphant kings to strike the enemies down, while the palettes and cosmetic holders for makeup showed that they belonged to the elite that governed the city.
The archaeological team also found luxurious cosmetic items that belonged to the political and social elites of Jericho.
"The nacreous shells of scalar dimensions were found stacked on top of each other and arranged in a cache. Two still contained remnants of manganese dioxide, a pulverised mineral used as the main component of kohl eye makeup," said Nigro, noting that the makeup came from the Sinai, where the Egyptians had exploited manganese dioxide veins since the Thinite era.
Thus, these kinds of imports to Jericho reflect the interests of urban elite that considered the privileged access to Egyptian luxury goods as an indicator of a high rank and used eye makeup as a distinctive element.
In the opposite direction, the numerous Palestinian jars found in the royal tombs of Abydos in the Thinite period clearly illustrate which goods were imported into Egypt: Oils, resins and wine, which were traded in small to medium-sized pottery, transported by mule and in ship, Nigro concluded.