Ricerc@Sapienza

The Tell es-Sultan, ancient Jericho, is amongst the earliest “cities” that rose in the Southern Levant between the end of 4th and the beginning of the 3rd millennium BCE. The site is being excavated, studied and rehabilitated for tourism by Sapienza University of Rome and the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities since 1997. In 2017, during the 13th season of excavation, an unexpected discovery occurred: five Chambardia rubens shells have been found piled up in a dwelling unit dating back to the Early Bronze Age IB-II.

Tin-bronze makes its appearance in Southern Levant during the Early Bronze IV, the post-urban phase of the last centuries of the 3rdmillennium BC, when arsenical copper was still the most widespread copper alloy. Only from the following Middle Bronze Age tin-bronze will be the utmost spread alloy. The adoption of tin as alloying metal purports new technological skills, and a changed trade supply system, through new routes, thanks to itinerant coppersmiths.

The attempt of this paper is to re-examine Early Bronze IV attestations recorded by the four
expeditions that operated at Tell es-Sultan over more than one century, and to outline some general
features in the light of recent discoveries made by Sapienza-MOTA-DACH Joint Expedition.

The diffusion of copper weapons during the late 4th and 3rd millennia BC in the Southern Levant marks a distinct transformation of the economy and society of this region, as it coincides with the earliest urban experience. This paper provides an overview of copper and copper-alloyed weapons through a study of the technology and functional features of this material at the key site of Tell es-Sultan/Jericho in Palestine.

Gabriella Scandone Matthiae recognized and first published one of the most outstanding finds from Middle Bronze Ebla, the club of Pharaoh Hotepibra Harnedjheryotef, retrieved in the “Tomb of the Lord of the Goats”, an Eblaite king called Immeya. Though Hotepibra belongs to a group of rather obscure rulers of the 13th Dynasty, according to Manfred Bietak he reigned in Tell el-Dab‘a/ancient Avaris, bearing the title of “son of the Asiatic”, an epithet which may reflect special relationships established between Egypt and Syria-Palestine during the Second Intermediate Period.

Più di cento anni di scavi a Tell es-Sultan, l’antica Gerico in Palestina, oltre a portare alla luce le vestigia di
una delle più antiche città del Levante nell’Età del Bronzo e del Ferro, hanno contribuito in modo straordinariamente
importante alla conoscenza del periodo Neolitico, quando le comunità umane nella Mezzaluna
Fertile svilupparono un nuovo modello sociale ed economico con l’introduzione dell’agricoltura e dell’allevamento.
Gerico fu, in particolare nel Neolitico Aceramico (10.500-6000 a.C.), un sito guida non solo

Tell es-Sultan, ancient Jericho, represents an almost unique case study of Early Bronze Age
urbanization in Southern Levant. The site has been extensively excavated with a favourable set of
data from Early Bronze Age II-III well stratified contexts. The results of four different excavations
projects, started since the beginning of the 20th century and still on-going with Rome «La Sapienza»
and MOTA-DACH (National Authority of Palestine) Joint Expedition (1997-2019), offer a

The comparison of two sites of Tell es-Sultan and Tall al-Ḥammām, facing each other on the
opposite sides of the Jordan, needs a reliable cultural and chronological correlation. Something which
has been pursued by archaeologists with different methods and approaches: synchronization in time
and culture is never easy. This leads to the issue of relative and absolute chronology. A recent reassessment
of Early Bronze Age absolute chronology of Syria-Palestine, stemmed from a reexamination

A vessels found in Tell es-Sultan by John Garstang shows a detail of turtle doves and suggest its use in rituals. It also allows to illustrate the extension of the "Hyksos' Palace" and the temple discovered in the vicinity

The absolute chronology of Early Bronze Age in the Levant has been the object of a major revision (Regev et al. 2012a), which implied an increase of at least two centuries in respect of traditional chronology. Such a shift back was based upon two sites (Tel Yarmouth, Megiddo) which were the backbone of the reform, but actually do not offer complete sequences for the whole EBA. This was the weakest stone of the revision, together with a partial understanding of stratigraphy/contexts from where samples were taken.