THE WALLS OF JERICHO.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2489, 12 July 1909, Page 8

THE WALLS OF JERICHO.

(By Robert Orozier Long.) Not since the excavations of Layard in the dead metropolis of the Assyrian empire bAs archaeology accomplished’ a greater feat than the re-discovery, by German enterprise and German science, of Jericho, the impregnable fortress city of biblical Canaan. , Jericho, frowning defiance on the king and conqueror, Joshua, but quickly humbled to the dust at the sound of his trumpets, has always struck the imagination of man as a type of mightiness suddenly brought low by divine decree. But, whether it was because the city had passed, utterly into oblivion, so that even its site was uncertain, or whether it was because earlier biblical critics doubted the legend of its strength and renown, Jericho has always seemed to the average man a much, less real city than, for instance, Nineveh, a city so unsubstantial that in the Eng* lisb-speaking world its name has associations of levity rare in connection with Scriptural things. Less than two years ago, with the support of the Austrian Ministry of Education, Professor Ernst Beilin and a small party of archaeologists made a three •weeks’ trial excavation on one side ot the mysterious Jordan plateau. The experiment was a mere gamble, for the site ot Jericho was still unknown and even its existence unproven. The result, however, was astonishing. The whole elevation, it appeared, was mainly artificial, the upper strata being the remains of a great fortress city, and undoubtedly Canaanitish Jericho. Rows of houses were come upon with rich collections of pottery; sections of great fortifications were laid bare ; ana one digging revealed a magnificently preserved brick wall, nearly ten feet high, resting intact upon 'its original cyclopean foundation of stone. That the plateau was worth thoroughly excavating became at once plain. Four parts of the plateau were chosen for excavation. It was quickly shown that the whole elevation was a mere heap of ruins, and that the slope of the plateau represented the boundaries of the city. The plateau is exactly egg-shaped, the sharper curve being on the south. Ims ellipse was found to be circumscribed by a gigantic wall, of which both the northern curve, with the exception of an interrupting ruin-heap (perhaps the breach by which the fortress was entered), and the southern curve were laid bare. In order to make sure that this wall really surrounded the town, a small pit was also dug on the west, and here too was found v the same waJl. Trial diggings were also undertaken in the centre of the town. But the greatest work of all was the uncovering of a large area within the curve of the northern wall, and here the excavators disinterred Jericho’s impregnable inner citadel, with its double walls flanked by strong towers, and, within the citadel, whole streets of Canaanitish houses, of which the walls stood to the height of several feet. Finally, also, in the°northern curve, but between the outer wall and the citadel, was disclosed a vast area, covered with houses and cultured deposits of various periods. Those who have visited Pevensey, m England, with the .great Roman wall of Anderida, and within it the strong Norman castle, will have a good idea of Jericho as a fortress. The only difference is that the citadel, Jericho s Norman castle, was in this case doublewalled, so that three ramparts, each impregnable to any engines of war known to ancient Israel, stood between the town and its assailants. , ’’Cyclopean” is the word used by Doctor Langenegger for the walls of Jericho. The outer wall alone most have employed thousands of men for years. This wall is everywhere built upon the same system. First, upon well-laid foundations, rises a massive, escarped wall of broken stone. The excavators express amazement at the technical skill of the Canaanitish builders, who, as it afterwards appeared, worked without even bronze weapons. > “The construction of the mighty bastion, ’ says Dr Langenegger, “is magnificent Modern wall-building with broken stone can boast no superiority over Jericho’s.” What especially struck Dr Langenegger was the magnificent buttressing of this wail, and the fact that after so many thousand years it shows not a single vertical fissure. The Canaanitish architects had their own method of building. They avoided angles. The outer wall follows the curves of the plateau, and shows no Cornells or joinings. Local stone was used. Although it was not squared, the builders had taken care to fill every interstice with smaller stones, so “that no instrument of destruction could be inserted.” The lower part of the wall is constructed of enormous blocks, about two square yards in face area. The total height varied, with an. average of about fifteen feet, but this wall was merely a foundation, being surmounted by the brick wall, which was _ juch dnmaged, while the stonework beneath remained almost as on the day it w as built. The brick wall which crowned the outer circumvalllation was originally six and one-haif feet thick and from nineteen to twenty-five feet high. To-day it still stands, in parts, to five feet. The Canaanitish brickmasters were inferior to those of Babylori, in that they had no normal format. All the bricks are oblong, but they differ much in size, and rest in mortar not very well laid, irregularities being got over by the insertion of smaller bricks and fragments of stone. Traces of the straw used to bind the bricks durdirying were still clearly visible. The brick wall, curiously enough, rests partly on the hillside and not altogether on the escarped stem*-wall beneath, this wall diminishing rapidly in breadth as it goes up, until its crown is only half as broad’ as the first layer of brick. Not until nearly a quarter of a mile of this cireumvallation was unearthed were the excavators content. For the import of this mighty bulwark, and its tactical value against the Israelitish foes, I quote again Doctor Langenegger. “Jericho, with its mighty outer fortifications,” says his report, ‘‘must in those days have been unconquerably strong, an impregnable fortress, in fact, against any weapons in use.” He adds that “Its menacing sky-line was visible from afar in the level plain of Jordan.” The imagination pictures the stem warriors of Joshua sighting the fortress rising in the dry air of Canaan like a threatening mirage, the trepidation of the feebler folk at its towering peaks and overhanging bastions, the solemn procession of the Ark of the Covenant, the seven fearful days of waiting, the repeated marches round the walls, the sounding of the trumpets proclaiming Jericho’s last day, and the sudden trembling and overthrow of the unscalable walls. For strange as reads to-day the Bible chronicle of Jericho, yet its main feature is abundantly proved. Jericho was in truth a city which no warrior would hope to conquer without intervention from a higher power. Remarkable as is the titanic outer wall, still more remarkable is the double-walled citadel within. The citadel is a rightangledl structure, the inner walls, fortified with corner towers, being twice as thick as the outer wall. This citadel, as far as unearthed, is not unlike a mediaeval castle. It is about two hundred and fifty feet broad, but as only the two northern walls have been excavated, its real shape Is gtjJ] unknown. The comer towers are exceptionally strong, that upon the west covering about seventy square yards. Infinite labor seems also to have been expended on the eastern tower, of which ihe foundations are formed of six layers of roughly hewn limestone blocks altogether over six feet high. The brickwork, of which the upper part of the citadel is formed, shows defects in ■vertical orientation j indeed, all the brick-

building found 1 at Jericho is muich inferior to the work in stone. Underneath the citadel run, transversely, remains of still more ancient houses, which the builders had not taken the trouble to clear away. What is the exact age of the citadel is uncertain. But the existence of older, probably Canaanitish, houses underneath it, and other details of construction have led the excavators to the conclusion that the citadel as it stands to-day, unlike the outer wall, belongs to a later period than Canaanitish domination. Between the north outer wall of the citadel and the circumvall'ation a still larger tract was cleared. Here first of all were found Moslem graves, then relics of late Jewish-Hellenistic times, characteristic shards and jugs, handles with Rhodic stamps, and afterward with Aramaic legends. , Finally, the excavators came to the fairly-well-preserved ruins of about thirty houses with'common connecting walls and separated only in one direction by a narrow lane. The baked clay walls still stood here to a height of three feet, door apertures were intact, and in one spot was found a sewer. In the building of these houses the remains of still older walls had been used. What hero was Canaanitish and what late Jewish has not been exactly defined, but it is clear that the northern slope of the hill had been inhabited continuously from the end of the second millennium B.C. to the last pre-Christian centuries. All houses here were oneroomed, but a lew had small entiancchalls. The finds in the houses cleared within the citadel proved unmistakably that this part of the city was old Canaanitish. The streets here were curved, but never sinuous, and about five hundred square yards of them were exposed, but the results in finds were comparatively meagre, whereas in the newer parts ot the town enormous quantities of domestic articles were recovered. Doctor Watzinger classifies the articles found in the various excavations into three periods. First comes .what was found in the purely Canaanitish houses in the citadel ; secondly, Israelitish remains discovered in a small excavation on the socalled Well-Hill in the middle of the plateau ; and thirdly, objects taken from the large settlement on the northern slope between the outer wall und citadel. Ihe small quantity of pottery in the Canaanitish houses was mostly in fragments, only the smaller vessels remaining undamaged But even in these, four different periods have been traced. The older Canaanitish vessels have rims clamped on to facilitate holding on ihe head. For storing goods at home the people of Canaan used neckless, kettle-shaped vessels, and am phone with necks and side-handles. All these vessels are very thick-walled, often covered with a thick white glaze, and sometimes painted with vertical stripes of vellow ocre. The Canaanitish porters, says Dr Watzinger, need fear no comparison with the potters of prehistoric Egypt, but they had developed no distinct system of ornament. That these vessels are really Canaanitish is proved by the fact that they are found only in strata dating iiom •before the destruction, and have no relation to vessels found in houses belonging to any of the later civilisations. From the sudden way in which the type ceases it may be concluded that Jericho was indeed utterly destroyed, as elsewhere in Palestine Canaanitish work merges gradually with Israelitish. The people of Canaan in their art were distinctly a Western people. Everything found belonged to the Mediterranean or Egyptian class of antiquity, nor was there anywhere a single trace of influence from Babylon or from the East. No bronze was discovered. The knives found, were of obsidian or flint. Apparently Canaanitish civilisation was in much the same stage as Mexican at the Spanish conquest ; and in neither case did primitive implements prevent the construction of monumental works in stone. The Israelitish settlements on the WellHill, being of later date, yielded much richer booty than the houses of the Canaanites. The excavators found a largo number of articles of domestic use, the age of which is determined by the discovery of two Cyprian jugs of red earth dating from the eighth century B.C. This house was very well preserved, and had evidently been abandoned owing to a tire. It had an uncovered courtyard; in the kitchen water-vessels stood in their old position. Here were also found dishes and plates, jugs and amphorje, a red sandstone mill for grinding corn, lamps, torch-sockets, iron vessels, and handles of deer-horn. Of the earthenware vessels some were decorated with violet concentric circles ; others are painted white and red upon dark backgrounds, or red upon a light background. Many of them recall the Mediterranean ceramics of Crete. The whole of the Well-hill deposits are much younger than those unearthed on the north slope. Still younger deposits, however, were found near the Well-Hill in illpreserved houses immediately under the top soil. These houses differ from all others found within the walls, and they yielded fragments of Attic vases of the fourth and fifth centuries 8.C., amphorae handles with Bhodic inscriptions, and others with Aramaic stamps which have been interpreted as indicating the Jewish name for Divinity. These finds show that this part of Jericho Plateau was settled in early Byzantine times, and the coins picked up prove this conclusively. The amphorae here found were egg dr pear shaped, with a fluting decoration on the under part, or undulous lines on the shoulder. The most treasured finds are certain glass vessels which Dr Watzinger declares are of enormous value in tracing the history of Oriental glasswork ; but in addition the searchers recovered endless quantities of earthnware lamps, vessels of stone, bronze, balances, sickles, knives, and iron tools, bone and bronze handles, rectangular marble table-tops, and even pieces of well-turned wood, evidently fragments of furniture. As only a comparative fraction of this paid of Jericho has been laid clear, it -is hoped when funds are collected, to resume the excavations. So far hardly a single trial digging has proved fruitless, and it is clear that the whole plateau is really a mass of superimposed strata of ruins, beginning shortly before the Christian era and ending in early Canaanitish times when Jericho was a frowning fortress and the hosts of Joshua had not dreamed of the miracles which was to enable them to accomplish its capture and destruction. Enough, however, has already been done to reconstruct the story of Jericho on strictly historical lines. On the whole the reconstruction will follow closely the Old Testament picture. Jericho was impregnably strong, yet it was utterly destroyed. The people of Canaan were evidently utterly wiped out. Indeed, one of the facts ascertained beyond dispute by Dr Beilin and his colleagues is that after the destruction much of the plateau, once built on all over, was used for the growing of corn and the pasturing of cattle. Red tape of an extraordinary kind is losing Britain hundreds of cavalry and artillery horses, which are going to Germany. British Army agents are not allowed to buy horses for the Government under four years old. In the face of this fact, German agents are scouring Wales and the West of England for three-year-old horses suitable for army purposes, with the double object of lowering Britain’s already insufficient horse supply and increasing their own. Large numbers have been purchased by German agents in Hereford during the last few weeks, and recently at Bristol they bought a shipload of Irish horses. Throughout Wales, chiefly in consequence of the German raids on the horse supply, Territorials are finding the greatest difficulty in securing even a proportion of the necessary number of horses, and great anxiety is being felt among the officers.