Battles & Wars › Prehistory & first cities › Prehistoric warfare: the first massacres
Wall and Tower of Neolithic Jericho
c. 8000 BC· Book, artwork, monument or document· Middle East & Africa
Well documentedSolid records, physical evidence or scientific consensus.
A stone wall and an 8.5-meter (28-foot) tower built at Jericho about 10,000 years ago, among the oldest town defenses known.
See it on the Battles & Wars map →What happened
In the 1950s Kathleen Kenyon excavated Tell es-Sultan, ancient Jericho, in the West Bank. She found a stone wall around an early farming settlement and, inside it, a round stone tower about 8.5 meters (28 feet) high with an internal staircase of 22 steps. Built around 8000 BC, before pottery was used there, the tower alone took an estimated 11,000 workdays. Kenyon saw a fortress. This is not the Jericho of Joshua's story, which is set more than 6,000 years later.
Why it matters
If defensive, it is the first known town wall, the start of a long contest between walls and attackers. Either way, it shows early farmers organizing large communal building projects.
How we know
Kenyon's excavations (1952–58), later Italian–Palestinian digs, and radiocarbon dating of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic layers. The tower still stands at the site.
Still debated
Ofer Bar-Yosef argued the wall held back floods and debris and the tower was a communal or ritual building; others link the tower to the solstice. Its purpose remains debated.
Connections (3)
▸Wall and Tower of Neolithic Jericho may be the first defense against Prehistoric warfare: the first massacresDebated
The connection
If Kathleen Kenyon was right, Jericho's early farmers built a stone wall and tower to protect their homes and stored grain from raiders. That would make it the earliest known community defense, and a sign that the threat of attack shaped how people settled.
When and how
Tell es-Sultan (Jericho), West Bank, around 8000 BC; excavated by Kathleen Kenyon in 1952–58.
How sure are we?
The wall and tower are real and dated; the defensive purpose is an interpretation. No clear signs of attack, such as burning or weapons, go with the wall.
Debates and open questions
Ofer Bar-Yosef argued for flood protection and a ritual tower. Few sites of that age have walls, so whether war was common enough to need them is unclear.
▸Wall and Tower of Neolithic Jericho began the long story of walls behind Castles and siege warfareMostly agreed
The connection
Jericho's wall is one of the first known attempts to enclose a settlement in stone. Over the next 9,000 years, walls, towers, ditches and gates grew into city walls and medieval castles, while attackers developed ladders, rams, mining and siege engines to beat them.
When and how
From Jericho around 8000 BC, through fortified Bronze Age cities, to the castles of Europe and the Middle East, about 950–1500.
How sure are we?
The long development of fortification is well documented by archaeology; Jericho is an early starting point, not a direct ancestor of castles.
Debates and open questions
Jericho's own purpose is debated, and walls were invented many times in different places, so this long story is really many parallel ones.
▸Wall and Tower of Neolithic Jericho rose some 6,500 years before the story of Battle of Jericho: Joshua's conquest (according to the Bible)Well documented
The connection
Jericho is one of the world's oldest towns, and its stone wall and tower of about 8000 BC are among the oldest known fortifications. The biblical story of falling walls is set at the same mound some 6,500 years later. The two are linked by place, not by events.
When and how
Tell es-Sultan, beside modern Jericho in the West Bank. Kathleen Kenyon excavated both the Neolithic tower and the later Bronze Age layers in 1952–1958.
How we know
Excavation shows layer after layer of settlement in one mound, so the Neolithic walls and the Bronze Age city lie in the same place.
Debates and open questions
Whether the Neolithic wall defended against people or against floods is debated, and whether any walled city existed in Joshua's time is doubted.