Vatican Museums

Jericho (Tell es-Sultan) is one of the most ancient and long-surviving sites of the Near East. Near the settlement, inhabited more or less uninterruptedly from 10,000 B.C. to the sixteenth century A.D., there is one of the largest necropolises of the region, used throughout the whole of the Bronze Age. There is a sector occupied by the cemetery of the Early Bronze Age IV, the period in Palestinian history in which the population of the region abandoned the system of urban life to return to the agricultural village economy. The group of vessels on display dates from this phase, from 2300 to 2000 B.C., and exemplifies a very characteristic category of grave goods. The materials originate from six clearly identifiable tombs and constitute an important point of departure for research and the reconstruction of the culture of the Early Bronze Age IV in Jericho. The selection consists of jugs, dishes, goblets, cups, oil lamps and pots; of these latter, various different types may be identified. Aside from eighteen ceramic vessels, there is also a bronze dagger (D1022), and a knife and bolt made from a copper-arsenic alloy (D1305, D1302).