The Tower of Jericho
A museum model of the stone tower built at Jericho around 8000 BC, one of the oldest monumental structures known anywhere.
Eight metres high and built of undressed stone with an internal staircase, the tower at Jericho was raised by people who had no metal tools and no writing. Its purpose is still argued over — defence, flood control, a marker of communal authority — but the labour it represents is not in doubt. Something organised several hundred people to quarry, haul and stack stone for a structure that served the settlement rather than any single household. Read the full story in our article on Proto-Cities before Writing: Jericho, Çatalhöyük, and the Trypillia Mega-Sites.
CC BY-SA 3.0 — source (Wikimedia Commons). Free to reuse under the stated licence.
