. Arthur and Fritz Kahn Collection 1889-1932. Kahn, Fritz 1888-1968; Kahn, Arthur David 1850-1928; Natural history illustrators; Natural history. IW I I I f settled life, for pots and pans, a primary necessity, are one of the first technical inventions of settled man. No doubt the reason men settled here lies in the nat- ural advantages of the site. The copious stream that emerges from the rock be- side the settlement made the soil of the Jordan Valley, with its tropical climate, exceedingly fertile; the modern Jericho is still a brilliant green oasis in this arid land. The inhabitants of Jeri
. Arthur and Fritz Kahn Collection 1889-1932. Kahn, Fritz 1888-1968; Kahn, Arthur David 1850-1928; Natural history illustrators; Natural history. IW I I I f settled life, for pots and pans, a primary necessity, are one of the first technical inventions of settled man. No doubt the reason men settled here lies in the nat- ural advantages of the site. The copious stream that emerges from the rock be- side the settlement made the soil of the Jordan Valley, with its tropical climate, exceedingly fertile; the modern Jericho is still a brilliant green oasis in this arid land. The inhabitants of Jericho could be assured of success in their first experi- ments in agriciilture, and the settlement could become truly permanent. T^he progress of those early settlers was -*- not in material things alone. In the Neolithic levels we unearthed a room which in all probability was a small shrine. At one end of the room wc found a niche with a rough stone pedestal, and nearby lay a carefully worked bit of volcanic stone which must have been a cult object and probably stood on the pedestal. Figurines of animals modeled in clay suggest that the religion of these early agriculturists was a fertility cult. Our expedition's most remarkable find so far is a group of seven portrait heads. On actual human skulls the artist had modeled features in plaster. The heads have an astonishingly lifelike appear- ance. There can be little doubt that they are portraits, probably of venerated an- cestors. Thus we are looking at the faces of individuals who died 7,000 years or more ago. These portraits are among the earliest examples of human art. We do not yet know the exact date of this early settlement, but we guess it to be about 5000 , and hope soon to have our guess tested by radiocarbon analysis of the charcoal from its laycrs. Its life was certainly a long one, for its successive lavers of houses make a mound many feet high. Above this pre- pottery Neolithic stage we find the ruins of a second
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