EduNETConnect.com - Time Machine

Please select a historical period:

25 years ago / 50 years ago / 80 years ago / 125 years ago / 150 years ago
250 years ago / 400 years ago / 700 years ago / 1,200 years ago
1,500 years ago / 2,000 years ago / 3,000 years ago / 4,000 years ago / 5,000 years ago / 10,000 years ago

10,000 Years Ago in Mediterranean

A large village of what is called the Natufi culture (which is usually dated between 10,000 BC-7500 BC), one of the earliest identified cultures in the region, is Ain Mallaba (ain means well or spring), located by lake Huleh in the upper Jordan valley. It was made up of about 50 circular houses, with open storage pits. With an average of 10 people per house, that would make a maximum population of about 500. The dwellers of Ain Mallaba survived by collecting wild cereals and by hunting gazelle (it is also possible some of these antelopes were semi-domesticated and were kept in herds). They also hunted other large animals. The houses were between 7 and 9 metres in diameter, built into hollows in the ground. Many had paved stone floors with centrally placed stone-lined hearths, and the roofs were probably of reeds and branches. One early house, with a paved stone floor and red wall plaster, was later re-used as a tomb of a man and a woman of some importance, as the woman was adorned with a shell head-dress. Burial items such as this shows long distance trade was occurring.

Jericho, the world's first city, would have had little more than 3000 people living behind its cut-stone walls, but it would have been considered the New York City or Hong Kong of its day. Very shortly after the end of the last ice age, between 8000 and 7000 BC, Jericho was already a thriving settlement on the main trade routes between the farming communities of West Asia and Egypt. Trade goods found in Jericho include obsidian from Turkey, shells from the Red Sea and turquoise from the Sinai.

The first settlement of Jericho was likely a large open village. Like Ain Mallaba, it was built at a natural fresh water spring. But the settlement could not grow all its own food and supplies had to be brought into the city. This was possible because wheat was now being grown by farming villages throughout the region.

Why do we call Jericho a city? In part, because of the number of people that lived here. While most other settlements of the time were based on one or two extended families--maybe up to 200 people, the 3000 people that made Jericho home must have come from many different families. But Jericho is also the oldest human community that we know of that was surrounded by walls. These famous walls, made of dry-laid stone, were first made about 7000 BC. Dry-laid stone does not use cement or mortar, but a very strong wall can still be built. Jericho's first wall was 2 metres thick and 7 metres high in places, with one stone tower. Such strong fortification was obviously made to defend against more than just wild animals or roving bands of thieves. This suggests that Jericho was threatened by enemies who had both large and well organized military forces, and who were tempted to rob the wealth that was accumulated in such a community.

back to map