History of Jericho

als' features. These represent the first example of portraiture in art history, and it is thought that they were kept in people's homes while the bodies were buried. This was followed by a succession of settlements from 4500 BCE onward, the largest being constructed in 2600 BCE.

Bronze age

Archaeological evidence indicates that in the latter half of the Middle Bronze Age (circa 1700 BCE) the city enjoyed some prosperity, its walls having been strengthened and expanded. According to carbon dating the Canaanite city (Jericho City IV) was destroyed between 1617 and 1530 BCE, but rounded as c.1550 BCE. The site remained uninhabited until the city was refounded in the 9th century BCE.

Iron Age

In the 8th century BCE the Assyrians invaded from the north, followed by the Babylonians, and Jericho was depopulated between 586 and 538 BCE, the period of the Jewish exile to Babylon. Cyrus the Great, the Persian king, refounded the city one mile southeast of its historic site at the mound of Tell es-Sultan and returned the Jewish exiles after conquering Babylon in 539 BCE.

Classical antiquity

Jericho went from being an administrative centre of Yehud Medinata under Persian rule to serving as the private estate of Alexander the Great between 336 and 323 BCE after his conquest of the region. In the middle of the 2nd century BCE Jericho was under Hellenistic rule of the Seleucid Empire, when the Syrian General Bacchides built a number of forts to strengthen the defences of the area around Jericho against the revolt by the Macabees. One of these forts, built at the entrance to Wadi Qelt, was later refortified by Herod the Great, who named it Kypros after his mother.

The city came to be ruled by the Hasmoneans, following the success of the Maccabean