Known as the world’s first skyscraper, and built 11,000 years ago, the Jericho tower was intended to promote the farming life, say archeologists after releasing their latest study.
Long before Jericho came under attack from Israel, the town’s residents were involved in a battle of another kind: the age-old struggle between farmers and nomads. Archaeologists believe the tower was built by leading figures in the town in an attempt to intimidate people into moving away from hunting and gathering and to start farming for a living.
For years archaeologists have argued over the reason for the building of the mysterious 8.5-meter (28-foot) stone tower on the edge of town, but now using the latest computer technology they believe it was built to mark the summer solstice and as a symbol that would entice people to abandon their nomadic ways and settle down.
“The tower was constructed by a major building effort. People were working for a very long time and very hard. It was not like the other domestic buildings in Jericho,” said Ran Barkai of the Department of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University.
Barkai and fellow archaeologist Roy Liran used computers to reconstruct sunsets and found that when the tower was built the nearby mountains cast a shadow on it as the sun set on the longest day of the year. The shadow fell exactly on the structure and then spread out to cover the entire village.
“The tower is an indication of power struggles at the beginning of the Neolithic period and of the fact that a particular person or people exploited the primeval fears of the residents and persuaded them to build it,” Barkai said in an interview with The Media Line.
Barkai said architecture was often used to intimidate and inspire, and even without any obviously functional purpose, isn’t unique to the megalithic period. This technique is still used in modern times with governments building monuments like the Arc de Triomphe to influence public opinion and improve popularity.
“This was a time when hierarchy began and leadership was established. This was the time that social formations took place and many scientists have wondered why people were moved to produce food, to make the transition to agriculture,” Barkai stated. “Agriculture worked for the benefit of certain individuals in the community, because people produce surplus that was stored and then divided by individuals.”
“It has been proven that people worked much harder during the Neolithic period than before. It was easier to live by hunting and gathering so we believe this tower was one of the mechanisms to motivate people to take part in a communal lifestyle,” he said.
Barkai does not believe the tower, which would have been utterly alien to the conceptual world of the builders, was ever used for defensive purposes. He supported this statement by quoting historical records that prove no invaders were present in the area at the time it was built, about 8300 BC.
Archaeologists estimate that the tower took approximately 11,000 working days to build.
“It is something out of time and place and looks like it doesn’t belong where it was. It was a monumental effort to build, like the pyramids [built 5,000 years later], only among a village of former hunters and gatherers,” Barkai concluded.