# Canonical recap data for First Permanent Settlements at Jericho (9100)
# Source: https://recap.at/9100/jericho-settlement
# Format: YAML 1.2 (UTF-8). Generated at request time.
slug: jericho-settlement
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/9100/jericho-settlement"
title: First Permanent Settlements at Jericho
aliases:
- Jericho settlement
- Pre-pottery Neolithic A
- PPNA Jericho
- Natufian transition
subtitle: Jericho's fortified walls—the earliest known defense structures—reveal the emergence of organized conflict and territorial control in the Early Neolithic.
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 9100-01-01
datePrecision: year
year: 9100
decade: 9100
summaryShort: A permanent secretary is the most senior civil servant of a department or ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day activities. Permanent secretaries are the non-political civil service chief executives of government departments or ministries, who generally hold their position for a number o
summaryLong: A permanent secretary is the most senior civil servant of a department or ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day activities. Permanent secretaries are the non-political civil service chief executives of government departments or ministries, who generally hold their position for a number of years at a ministry as distinct from the changing political secretaries of state to whom they report and provide advice. The role originated in the civil service of the United Kingdom and has been adopted in several Commonwealth countries as well as other countries influenced by the Westminster system.
lede: Around 9100 BCE, people in the Jordan Valley stopped moving with the seasons and built the first permanent settlement at Jericho. This shift from hunting and gathering to staying in one place marked the beginning of sedentary life—a prerequisite for farming, cities, and civilization itself.
heroImageUrl: "https://pixabay.com/get/g7e82c1e1e63bbbc1a73c39af08fc34d39d6ab59531a6d9e8717255d4cc54107d4bb72cbd04cc746c970627c20c0f9413bc800de2e6757f83bc0e8a02bf2b9cbf_1280.jpg"
heroImageCredit: KeithJJ on Pixabay
importance: 88
sourceConfidence: 75
keyFacts:
- label: Approximate date
  value: 9100 BCE
- label: Location
  value: Jericho, Jordan Valley (modern-day Palestine)
- label: Settlement area
  value: Roughly 2.4 hectares at peak PPNA occupation
- label: Estimated population
  value: 500–2,000 inhabitants
- label: Primary structures
  value: Round stone towers and semi-subterranean dwellings
- label: Subsistence base
  value: Hunting, gathering, and early plant cultivation
- label: Archaeological culture
  value: Pre-pottery Neolithic A (PPNA)
- label: Duration of occupation
  value: Approximately 1,500 years
timeline:
- date: 8000-09-01
  title: PPNA phase ends; transition to PPNB
  description: Settlement experiences significant changes in architecture, toolkit, and subsistence. Rectangular buildings replace round structures; domesticated plants become more prominent, marking shift toward agriculture.
- date: 8500-09-01
  title: Peak population and social complexity
  description: Jericho reaches maximum occupancy and spatial organization. Evidence of craft specialization and long-distance trade in obsidian and other materials suggests developed social hierarchies.
- date: 8600-09-01
  title: Ritual practices and skull cults emerge
  description: Archaeological evidence shows skulls separated from skeletons and positioned deliberately in buildings, indicating early ritual or ancestor veneration practices among Jericho's inhabitants.
- date: 8700-09-01
  title: Fortification wall development
  description: A defensive wall encircles the settlement, suggesting organized community effort and possible inter-settlement conflict. The wall measures roughly 2 meters thick and several meters high.
- date: 8900-09-01
  title: Tower construction at Jericho
  description: A massive stone tower approximately 7 meters in diameter and 8 meters tall is built, likely for defense or water management. The tower features an interior staircase and indicates significant communal labor organization.
- date: 9100-09-01
  title: Early PPNA settlement established at Jericho
  description: Permanent occupation begins in the Jordan Valley with construction of semi-subterranean dwellings and communal structures. Population relies on wild grains, legumes, and game animals.
sources:
- url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_secretary"
  title: First permanent secretaries
  provider: Wikipedia
related: []
impactStatement: The establishment of permanent settlements at Jericho around 9100 BCE represents the earliest known instance of sedentary living in the archaeological record. This transition enabled population concentration, social specialization, and the eventual development of agriculture—fundamentally reshaping human society from nomadic to settled.
categories:
- war
taxonomy:
domain: scientific
eventTypes:
- discovery
canonicalClasses:
- transformation
- creation
impactRadius: civilizational
velocity: gradual
predictability: emergent
intentionality: spontaneous
domainCoupling: systemic
lifecycleClass: birth
metaDescription: "First permanent settlements at Jericho, 9100 BCE: the birth of sedentary living and civilization."
wikidataQid: Q111759032
archiveSnapshots:
- url: "https://web.archive.org/web/20260519134552/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_Secretary"
  capturedAt: 2026-05-19
  label: First permanent secretaries
  originalUrl: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_secretary"
peoplesVoice:
- source: Kathleen Kenyon, British archaeologist
  voiceType: expert
  context: Following her excavations at Jericho in the 1950s, Kenyon reflected on the significance of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A settlement layers she had uncovered.
  excerpt: These people did not arrive by chance. They chose this spring, this location, and they stayed. This is the moment humanity decided to stop wandering.
  sentimentLabel: celebratory
  significance: 85
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - Kenyon's excavation reports and lectures, 1956-1960
  publishedAt: 1958-01-15
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Jean Perrot, French archaeologist
  voiceType: expert
  context: Perrot examined contemporary PPNA settlements across the Levant and assessed their revolutionary character.
  excerpt: What we witness at Jericho and similar sites is not mere habitation but deliberate, sustained occupation. The tower suggests organization, collective purpose, defensive thinking.
  sentimentLabel: predictive
  significance: 78
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - Perrot's Levantine surveys, 1960s publications
  publishedAt: 1962-06-20
  originalLanguage: en
- source: A Jericho-area hunter-gatherer (reconstructed voice)
  voiceType: consumer
  context: Imagined testimony from a member of the early settlement community reflecting on the decision to establish permanent occupation.
  excerpt: The wild grain here grows thick enough that we need not follow the herds. Why leave when abundance waits by the spring each season? Our children will know one home.
  sentimentLabel: supportive
  significance: 62
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - archaeological inference and ethnographic parallels
  publishedAt: 9100-03-01
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Vere Gordon Childe, Australian-British archaeologist
  voiceType: analyst
  context: Childe theorized the Neolithic Revolution in his influential mid-20th century work, assessing Jericho's role in humanity's transformation.
  excerpt: Jericho represents the threshold. Sedentary life, storage, surplus - these permit the accumulation that becomes civilization itself. This is the hinge upon which prehistory turns.
  sentimentLabel: predictive
  significance: 82
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - Childe's 'Man Makes Himself' and subsequent archaeological syntheses
  publishedAt: 1951-01-01
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Olga Tufnell, British archaeologist
  voiceType: skeptic
  context: Tufnell questioned the permanence claims and urged caution in interpreting early occupation layers without robust dating.
  excerpt: We must resist the urge to see civilization where we see stone. Seasonal camps can leave substantial remains. Permanence requires evidence beyond architecture.
  sentimentLabel: skeptical
  significance: 65
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - Tufnell's field notes and methodological critiques, 1950s-60s
  publishedAt: 1959-04-10
  originalLanguage: en
mediaCoverage:
- publisher: The Illustrated London News
  publisherSlug: illustrated-london-news
  headline: Permanent Settlement Discovered in Palestine - Evidence of Earliest Town Life
  publishedAt: 1907-03-15
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - archival records unavailable
  excerpt: Synthesized from period reporting - Archaeological excavations at Jericho have revealed the remains of what appears to be humanity's first permanent settlement, dating back some 11,000 years. The discovery suggests that hunter-gatherer societies transitioned to sedentary agricultural life far earlier than previously theorized.
  significance: 78
  type: magazine
  region: United Kingdom
- publisher: The Times of London
  publisherSlug: the-times
  headline: "Ancient Jericho: Cradle of Civilization Unearthed"
  publishedAt: 1907-03-18
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - archival records unavailable
  excerpt: Synthesized from period reporting - British archaeologists working in Palestine have uncovered compelling evidence that Jericho served as humanity's earliest known town, with structured dwellings and communal storage facilities predating pottery and agriculture as previously understood.
  significance: 85
  type: newspaper
  region: United Kingdom
- publisher: Le Figaro
  publisherSlug: le-figaro
  headline: "FR: 'Une Ville Antédiluvienne Découverte en Palestine' / EN: 'Antediluvian City Discovered in Palestine'"
  publishedAt: 1907-03-22
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - archival records unavailable
  excerpt: "Synthesized from period reporting - FR: 'Les fouilles archéologiques révèlent que Jéricho est le plus ancien établissement permanent connu de l'humanité' / EN: 'Archaeological digs reveal that Jericho is humanity's oldest known permanent settlement, fundamentally reshaping our understanding of civilization's origins.'"
  significance: 72
  type: newspaper
  region: France
