1.
Jericho
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Jericho is a city in the Palestinian Territories and is located near the Jordan River in the West Bank. It is the seat of the Jericho Governorate, and is governed by the Fatah faction of the Palestinian National Authority. In 2007, it had a population of 18,346, the city was occupied by Jordan from 1949 to 1967, and has been held under Israeli occupation since 1967, administrative control was handed over to the Palestinian Authority in 1994. It is believed to be one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world and it was thought to have the oldest stone tower in the world as well, but excavations at Tell Qaramel in Syria have discovered stone towers that are even older. Copious springs in and around the city have attracted human habitation for thousands of years, Jericho is described in the Hebrew Bible as the City of Palm Trees. Jerichos Arabic name, ʼArīḥā, means fragrant and also has its roots in Canaanite Reaẖ, the first excavations of the site were made by Charles Warren in 1868. Ernst Sellin and Carl Watzinger excavated Tell es-Sultan and Tulul Abu el-Alayiq between 1907–1909 and in 1911, and John Garstang excavated between 1930 and 1936, extensive investigations using more modern techniques were made by Kathleen Kenyon between 1952 and 1958. Lorenzo Nigro and Nicolo Marchetti conducted excavations in 1997-2000, the earliest settlement was located at the present-day Tell es-Sultan, a couple of kilometers from the current city. In both Arabic and Hebrew, tell means mound - consecutive layers of habitation built up a mound over time, as is common for ancient settlements in the Middle East, Jericho is the type site for the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and Pre-Pottery Neolithic B periods. Jericho has evidence of settlement dating back to 10,000 BCE, during the Younger Dryas period of cold and drought, permanent habitation of any one location was impossible. However, the Ein es-Sultan spring at what would become Jericho was a camping ground for Natufian hunter-gatherer groups. Pre-Pottery Neolithic A The first permanent settlement on the site of Jericho developed near the Ein es-Sultan spring between 9,500 and 9000 BCE, as the world warmed up, a new culture based on agriculture and sedentary dwelling emerged, which archaeologists have termed Pre-Pottery Neolithic A. At Jericho, circular dwellings were built of clay and straw bricks left to dry in the sun, each house measured about 5 metres across, and was roofed with mud-smeared brush. Hearths were located within and outside the homes, by about 9400 BCE, the town had grown to more than 70 modest dwellings. The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A phase at Tell es-Sultan is sometimes called Sultanian and this tower and the even older ones excavated at Tell Qaramel in Syria are the oldest ever to be discovered. The wall may have served as a defence against flood-water, with the used for ceremonial purposes. The wall and tower were built during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A period around 8000 BCE, for the tower, carbon dates published in 1981 and 1983 indicate that it was built around 8300 BCE and stayed in use until ca.7800 BCE. The wall and tower would have taken a hundred men more than a hundred days to construct, the town contained round mud-brick houses, yet no street planning
2.
Byblos
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Byblos, in Arabic Jubayl, is a Mediterranean city in the Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon. It is one of the cities suggested as the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Gubal was a Canaanite city during the Bronze Age, at time it also appears as Gubla in the Amarna letters. During the Iron Age the city is called Gebal in Phoenician and it was much later referred to as Gibelet, during the Crusades. The citys Canaanite/Phoenician name can be derived from gb, meaning well or origin, and El, the present-day city is known by the Arabic name Jubayl or Jbeil, a direct descendant of the Canaanite name. However, the Arabic name is most likely derived from the Phoenician word GBL meaning boundary, district or mountain peak, in the Ugaritic GBL can mean mountain, the Greek Βύβλος, whence we get our Byblos, was the interpretation of Phoenician
3.
Negev
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The Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The regions largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba, in the north, at its southern end is the Gulf of Aqaba and the resort city of Eilat. It contains several development towns, including Dimona, Arad and Mitzpe Ramon, as well as a number of small Bedouin cities, including Rahat and Tel as-Sabi and Lakyah. There are also several kibbutzim, including Revivim and Sde Boker, the origin of the word negev is from the Hebrew root denoting dry. In the Bible, the word Negev is also used for the direction south, during the British Mandate it was called Beersheba sub-district. The Negev covers more than half of Israel, over some 13,000 km² or at least 55% of the land area. It forms a triangle shape whose western side is contiguous with the desert of the Sinai Peninsula. The Negev has a number of interesting cultural and geological features, among the latter are three enormous, craterlike makhteshim, which are unique to the region, Makhtesh Ramon, Makhtesh Gadol, and Makhtesh Katan. The Negev is a rocky desert and it is a melange of brown, rocky, dusty mountains interrupted by wadis and deep craters. It can be split into five different ecological regions, northern, western and central Negev, the high plateau, the northern Negev, or Mediterranean zone, receives 300 mm of rain annually and has fairly fertile soils. The western Negev receives 250 mm of rain per year, with light, sand dunes can reach heights of up to 30 metres here. The high plateau area of Ramat HaNegev stands between 370 metres and 520 metres above sea level with temperatures in summer and winter. The area gets 100 mm of rain per year, with inferior, the Arabah Valley along the Jordanian border stretches 180 km from Eilat in the south to the tip of the Dead Sea in the north. The Arabah Valley is very arid with barely 50 mm of rain annually and it has inferior soils in which little can grow without irrigation and special soil additives. Vegetation in the Negev is sparse, but certain trees and plants there, among them Acacia, Pistacia, Retama, Urginea maritima. A small population of Arabian leopards, an animal in the Arabian peninsula. The Negev Tortoise is a endangered species that currently lives only in the sands of the western. The Negev shrew is a species of mammal of the family Soricidae found only in Israel, hyphaene thebaica or doum palm can be found in the Southern Negev
4.
New Kingdom of Egypt
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Radiocarbon dating places the exact beginning of the New Kingdom between 1570–1544 BC. The New Kingdom followed the Second Intermediate Period and was succeeded by the Third Intermediate Period and it was Egypt’s most prosperous time and marked the peak of its power. The later part of period, under the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties is also known as the Ramesside period. It is named after the pharaohs that took the name of Ramesses I. Egyptian armies fought Hittite armies for control of modern-day Syria, the Eighteenth Dynasty contained some of Egypts most famous Pharaohs, including Ahmose I, Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Amenhotep III, Akhenaten and Tutankhamun. Queen Hatshepsut concentrated on expanding Egypts external trade by sending an expedition to the land of Punt. Thutmose III expanded Egypts army and wielded it with success to consolidate the empire created by his predecessors. This resulted in a peak in Egypts power and wealth during the reign of Amenhotep III, during the reign of Thutmose III, Pharaoh, originally referring to the kings palace, became a form of address for the person who was king. Akhenatens religious fervor is cited as the reason why he was written out of Egyptian history. Under his reign, in the 14th century BC, Egyptian art flourished and attained a level of realism. Towards the end of the 18th Dynasty, the situation had changed radically, Ramesses II sought to recover territories in the Levant that had been held by the 18th Dynasty. His campaigns of reconquest culminated in the Battle of Kadesh, where he led Egyptian armies against those of the Hittite king Muwatalli II. Ramesses was caught in historys first recorded military ambush, although he was able to rally his troops, the outcome of the battle was undecided with both sides claiming victory at their home front, ultimately resulting in a peace treaty between the two nations. The last great pharaoh from the New Kingdom is widely considered to be Ramesses III, in the eighth year of his reign the Sea Peoples invaded Egypt by land and sea. Ramesses III defeated them in two great land and sea battles and he incorporated them as subject peoples and settled them in Southern Canaan although there is evidence that they forced their way into Canaan. Their presence in Canaan may have contributed to the formation of new states, such as Philistia and he was also compelled to fight invading Libyan tribesmen in two major campaigns in Egypts Western Delta in his sixth year and eleventh year respectively. The heavy cost of this warfare slowly drained Egypts treasury and contributed to the decline of the Egyptian Empire in Asia. Something in the air prevented much sunlight from reaching the ground, one proposed cause is the Hekla 3 eruption of the Hekla volcano in Iceland but the dating of this remains disputed
5.
Flinders Petrie
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Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, FRS, FBA, commonly known as Flinders Petrie, was an English Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and preservation of artefacts. He held the first chair of Egyptology in the United Kingdom, some consider his most famous discovery to be that of the Merneptah Stele, an opinion with which Petrie himself concurred. Petrie developed the system of dating based on pottery and ceramic findings. William Matthew Flinders Petrie was born in Maryon Road, Charlton, Kent, England, Anne was the daughter of Captain Matthew Flinders, surveyor of the Australian coastline, spoke six languages and was an Egyptologist. His father taught his son how to survey accurately, laying the foundation for his archaeological career, at the age of eight, he was tutored in French, Latin, and Greek, until he had a collapse and was taught at home. He also ventured his first archaeological opinion aged eight, when visiting the Petrie family were describing the unearthing of the Brading Roman Villa in the Isle of Wight. The boy was horrified to hear the rough shovelling out of the contents, and protested that the earth should be pared away, inch by inch, to see all that was in it and how it lay. All that I have done since, he wrote when he was in his seventies, was there to begin with. I was already in archaeology by nature, on 26 November 1896, Petrie married Hilda Urlin in London. They had two children, John and Ann and they originally lived in Hampstead, where an English Heritage blue plaque now stands on the building they lived in,5 Cannon Place. Their son was John Flinders Petrie, the mathematician, who gave his name to the Petrie polygon, when he died in 1942, Petrie donated his head to the Royal College of Surgeons of London while his body was interred in the Protestant Cemetery on Mt. Zion. World War II was then at its height, and the head was delayed in transit, after being stored in a jar in the college basement, its label fell off and no one knew who the head belonged to. It was identified however, and is now stored, but not displayed, the chair of Edwards Professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Philology at University College London was set up and funded in 1892 by a bequest of Amelia Edwards following her sudden death in that year. Petries supporter since 1880, Edwards had instructed that he should be its first incumbent and he continued to excavate in Egypt after taking up the professorship, training many of the best archaeologists of the day. In 1913 Petrie sold his collection of Egyptian antiquities to University College, London. One of his students was Howard Carter who went on to discover the tomb of Tutankhamun, in his teenage years, Petrie surveyed British prehistoric monuments in attempts to understand their geometry. On that visit, he was appalled by the rate of destruction of monuments, impressed by his scientific approach, they offered him work as the successor to Édouard Naville. Petrie accepted the position and was given the sum of £250 per month to cover the excavations expenses, in November 1884, Petrie arrived in Egypt to begin his excavations
6.
Ka (pharaoh)
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Ka, also Sekhen, was a Predynastic pharaoh of Upper Egypt belonging to Dynasty 0. He probably reigned during the first half of the 32nd century BC, the length of his reign is unknown. The correct reading of Kas name remains uncertain, the second form of that writing indicates a reading as Sekhen rather than Ka. It was also thought to be the name of Narmer. Because the reading of the name is so uncertain, Egyptologists, Ka ruled over Thinis in the first half of 32nd century BC and was buried at Umm el-Qaab. He most likely was the successor to Iry-Hor and was succeeded either by Narmer or by Scorpion II. He is the earliest known Egyptian king with a serekh inscribed on a number of artifacts and this may thus be an innovation of his reign. Ka is one of the best attested predynastic kings with Narmer, the number of artifacts bearing Kas serekh found outside Abydos is much greater than that of his predecessor. This may be the sign of an influence and perhaps conquest of larger portions of Egypt by the Thinite kings. Two underground chambers, B7 and B9, in the Umm el-Qaab necropolis of Abydos are believed to be part of the tomb of King Ka. Each chamber is 1.90 m deep, B.7 is 6.0 ×3.2 m while B.9 is slightly smaller at 5.9 x 3.1 m, Kas tomb was first excavated by Petrie in 1902. The excavations yielded fragments of flint knife and pottery, in the southernmost chamber B7, more than forty inscriptions have been found on tall jars and cylinder vessels as well as a seal impression. The tomb of Ka is close to that of Iry-Hor and Narmer, furthermore, it is located within a sequential order linking the older U cemetery with the First Dynasty tombs, thus suggesting that Ka succeeded Iry-Hor and preceded Narmer on the throne. Wilkinson, Toby AH, Early Dynastic Egypt, London/New York, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-18633-1
![Cylinder seal with a cartouche possibly reading "Khamudi".[1]](/wiki/File:Cylinder_Khondy_Petrie.jpg)
