---
title: "Jericho Wall Construction Begins"
year: 9000
country: "Palestine"
canonical: "https://recap.at/9000/jericho-wall"
slug: "jericho-wall"
recapType: "global_event"
startDate: "9000-01-01"
---

# Jericho Wall Construction Begins

> The earliest known defensive fortifications signal organized conflict, resource competition, and the emergence of territorial warfare in early settlements.

Around 9000 BCE, construction began on fortification walls surrounding Jericho in present-day Palestine, making it among the earliest known defensive structures built by a settled community. The walls—some reaching 6.5 meters high—protected a population of several hundred people living in one of humanity's first permanent settlements. The project required coordinated labor, planning, and resource management on a scale that signaled a fundamental shift in how humans organized themselves.

## Summary

The Dark Tower is a series of eight novels, one novella, and a children's book written by American author Stephen King. Incorporating themes from multiple genres, including dark fantasy, science fantasy, horror, and Western, it describes a "gunslinger" and his quest toward a tower, the nature of which is both physical and metaphorical. The series, and its use of the Dark Tower, expands upon Stephen King's multiverse and in doing so, links together many of his other novels.

## Key facts

- **Wall height**: Up to 6.5 meters
- **Wall thickness**: Approximately 3.6 meters
- **Estimated population protected**: 300-500 people
- **Chronological period**: Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB)
- **Associated tower diameter**: 9 meters
- **Construction material**: Stone with stone foundation

## Timeline

- **8500-01-01** - Gradual abandonment
  Settlement shows declining investment in wall maintenance; occupation continues at reduced intensity
- **8900-01-01** - Wall system expansion
  Fortifications expanded and reinforced, suggesting sustained threat perception or resource competition
- **8950-01-01** - Tower completion
  Stone tower approximately 9 meters in diameter constructed, likely serving defensive and administrative functions
- **9000-01-01** - Wall construction begins
  First fortification walls built around settlement perimeter, indicating organized labor and collective defense planning
- **9050-01-01** - Initial settlement phase
  Jericho occupied as permanent hunter-gatherer settlement with no defensive structures

## Impact

Jericho's walls marked a transition point in human settlement: they represented the first large-scale coordinated construction project, required sustained social organization, and signaled the emergence of property and territorial concepts. Their existence reshapes understanding of Neolithic societies, proving that complex collective action preceded agriculture and pottery.

## Sources

- [Jericho Hill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Tower_(series)) - Wikipedia

---
Canonical: https://recap.at/9000/jericho-wall