The Skulls of Jericho! : In Focus

Welcome to In Focus. In this series we take a closer look at particular sites, finds and objects from the world of Archaeology.
Today we journey to the Middle East to the site of Jericho, where the Jericho skulls were discovered...
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#history #jericho #archaeology

[@detectivewiggles]

I remember hearing in an art history class that at Jericho the bones of family members were buried under the floor, but never knew it was just long enough for the flesh to rot off so bones could be recovered. Really interesting stuff. We are so removed from death in our contemporary world.

[@rosemcguinn5301]

Ancestor veneration has been known throughout human history. Fascinating site. Thanks.

[@CDRNY25]

Im from Palestine and we descend from the Natufians. Our subclade is E-Z830 which is their subclade too. So proud to be of this lineage.

[@Archaeos0up]

CDRNY How exciting that part of your family tree connects to Natufian people. As far Jericho goes, I’m afraid I’m not certain.

[@CDRNY25]

@@Archaeos0up What?

[@Archaeos0up]

CDRNY Nothing. I read your comment wrong. Thanks.

[@CDRNY25]

@@Archaeos0up Jericho is in Palestine. To say people whose subclade is E-Z830 isn't related to any Natufians doesnt make any sense at all. That's our ORIGIN. Only a minority in the Middle East share this subclade or any downstream clades and have remained in same area for thousands of years. In Gedmatch, we average 65% to 75% Natufian in my family in PALESTINE, can you imagine other Palestinians? Perhaps learn some genealogy? It's nice. ;)

[@Archaeos0up]

CDRNY That’s not what I said at all. I misunderstood the question about Jericho. I already know quite a lot about genetics and ancestry, it’s great that you’re related to Natufian people. Though, origin? Surely the Natufian came from somewhere else too ;p Nah, joking - I know what you mean. Thanks for commenting.

[@Chris.Davies]

Outstanding video - thank you very much! What a terrific job you did here. You've got real talent.

[@MarkMetternichPhotographyLLC]

Kathleen Kenyon was horrendously biased. And there’s NOTHING more exciting than the conquest time of Jericho. But you are correct, the history before that time is immensely interesting as well. Thank you for the video.

[@ToddRickey]

One wonders about the pre-pottery cultures and their use of clay, etc. to form the replicas of ancestors. Now, the wonder is not THAT they did such clay moldings but how it was done that perhaps LEAD TO clay being formed into vessels. Interesting too is the round shapes of constructed pots, reminiscent of skulls or even skull-cap drinking vessels. So, did working of clay around skulls eventually lead to the building of actual clay pots?

[@williamkeith8944]

The settlement reminds me of current 500+ year old Taos Pueblo.

[@goingroguenow]

Kenton's dating has been pretty roundly debunked by identification of the Caananite pottery she ignored. As such, I would not be using her work for dating anything.

[@Betty-oc6rt]

I think it was their way of remembering their loved ones since they didn't have pictures of them.

[@NorthTexasEagle1989]

--Cult still exists that's why we can't get info easily. More docs brother! Lovely.

[@rarisio]

At 5.13, the double head statue is not from Jericho, is from Ain Ghazal excavations in 1983/5 and 1993/6 (restored at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington) The statues were returned to Jordan after their conservation and can be seen in the Jordan Museum. Ain Ghazal is a middle Pre-pottery neolithic B dated 7200-6500 yrs BCE. It's astonishing to see the use of Cyprea shells to represent the eyes of the plastered scull (4.14). Cyprea shells are today present mainly in the Indian Ocean. Probably, 9000 years ago, the mediterranean sea climate was warmer than today.

[@DJCole34]

Riccardo Arisio “Probably, 9000 yrs ago, the Mediterranean Sea climate was warmer than today” Probably, 9000 yrs ago the climate in that entire area was warmer than today. Higher temp suggests the inhabitants were more than likely dark skinned people, so those skulls also are probably of darkskin races. I seen in the model of the face they made kind of looked like me with a different nose. Would you agree?

[@DJCole34]

Riccardo Arisio actually I think the fact they don’t have any idea of why the people did those things with their buried suggest they are completely a different race of people with different historical customs. I noticed he started showing a family tree of European people when he discussed the skulls. I felt like that was very misleading.

[@MariaNI-yf1bz]

Lmao..we wuz natufianz

[@Oscarphone]

Yes, could be misleading but I don't think that was the intension. As with most amateur videos they use what is handy or relatively easy to acquire not giving thought to it being misleading.

[@Oscarphone]

Cyprea shells could have been an early trade item of significant value.

[@Archaeos0up]

You still watch! Hurrah! ;p

[@Dylan41292]

Just to say thank you for the Videos, I know they may not get a lot of views but i'm sure to those that watch they are very interesting :) Im going into second year archaeology in College and loving it :) Thanks again!!

[@DayZOfAmaZe]

Just going to comment what I replied to another user Plastered skulls have popped up in sites all around the Near East, from Kfar HaHoresh to Ain Ghazal. It was common practice for bodies to be buried within the floor of the houses and skulls later retrieved and worked on. This is prevalent at Jericho with three skulls being found all facing in, I believe a westward direction, I will need to reread Kenyon's article. Karina Croucher, a lecturer at my university and author of Death and Dying in the Near East, has hypothesised, along with several others, that the individuals who had their skull plastered were chosen at birth due to cranial shape abnormalities present on the skull. It is definitely some form of remembrance ritual and holds significance.

[@Allworldsk1]

These are fascinating people.

[@DaithiDublin]

Great video. I've always like the idea of religion developing out of ancestor worship. I don't often come across ancestors used as collateral, or deeds of ownership! Very interesting.

[@JayCeeDee229]

I love watching videos like this. Very interesting. Thank you.

[@Archaeos0up]

Thanks for your comment. The conclusion is supposed to be materialistic though how something can be 'badly' anything is beyond me... I decided to highlight the change in attitudes to land at Jericho, not due to a lack of 'western' philosophical alternatives but as a signpost for the time and place that economic prediction/ investment, in doors, out doors, tame, wild and 'ownership' started to take root. A challenge to precisely the values which you're railing against. Thanks for watching.

[@IVscythia]

So what did they use to store things and liquids when they did not have pottery? Waxed/oiled skins? or maybe intestines?

[@philipmorise7970]

Who was the village painting at 2:35 by?

[@dna1238]

Fascinating and sensible theory about ownership and title deeds, just can't fathom burial in the house? They would have had to come up with some solution for the smell of a dead body one assumes, and just living with "the dead" in their homes, we have evolved some since those times or perhaps became more squirmish 🤔

[@AllHailDiskordia]

the bit about the bones reminds me of the Herxheim find...only they didn´t paint the skulls

[@mrblahboogi]

Talk about skeletons in closets

[@mirellajaber7704]

Title: "The Skulls of Jericho"; I don't understand, why mix the sculls and cultures?? AT 3:55 you present the skulls from Tell Aswad (Syria) as Jericho?!

[@taz-on-the-looseyusef5526]

I've got an idea now

[@veritaspcg5340]

Really? The ancestors were buried within the walls of the city, or were all the skeletons and skulls that they found really from the great destruction of the city itself, after the great walls collapsed and the city was destroyed by Joshua and the Israeli conquerors? To me, this seems more logical, except for the skulls that were covered with mud... those could have been only certain skulls for ancestral worship, since the people of Jericho worshiped many gods.

[@DayZOfAmaZe]

Plastered skulls have popped up in sites all around the Near East, from Kfar HaHoresh to Ain Ghazal. It was common practice for bodies to be buried within the floor of the houses and skulls later retrieved and worked on. This is prevalent at Jericho with three skulls being found all facing in, I believe a westward direction, I will need to reread Kenyon's article. Karina Croucher, a lecturer at my university and author of Death and Dying in the Near East, has hypothesised, along with several others, that the individuals who had their skull plastered were chosen at birth due to cranial shape abnormalities present on the skull. It is definitely some form of remembrance ritual and holds significance.

[@doyouknoworjustbelieve6694]

So you think anything found below ground in the land of Palestine is evidence for one story or the other in the Bible???? Also your god and Joshua are ruthless murderers according to the Biblical story regarding the destruction of Jericho and the enslavement of its people.. Nothing to be proud of

[@jmpierce83]

Jericho was built on top of the pre-flood nephilim city.

[@BetrayingLight]

There is zero archeological evidence for a figure called Joshua tearing down the walls of Jericho.

[@BetrayingLight]

@@jmpierce83 Nephilim is fiction and so is a global flood.

[@neinundnein6358]

Besides, the same kind of burial was practiced in Choirochitia in Catalhüyük and in most areas in the East Mediteranean in those times. The video omits this fact, because, if they mentioned it, people might come to the idea that this ancient cultures in Jericho and other cities of modern Israel were non-jewish, non-biblical... We don't even us such a word as "pre-jewish" similar to pre-christian (like B.C. refering to time) or precolumbian...

[@Archaeos0up]

What!? I have no Jewish agenda in presenting Jericho. Jericho in the chalcolithic has nothing to do with the Bible. What's more this is merely an interpretation of the evidence, Archaeologists are not so arrogant to pretend to know everything! Just tone down the conspiracy nonsense, please, or I'll have to block you and your spamming.

[@neinundnein6358]

Archaeosoup Productions I would never say that about you! You didn't make this video, this is most professional. You only posted it, and surely it is interesting, if you're interested in this period's cultures. That's why I watched it myself. My critic is not about the archeologists or about you, but about those morons who make this kind of documentary films (probably BBC?). I find such videos all the time, most of the people probably even don't see the manipulations in it.

[@mysty0]

Who said Jericho was Jewish? Just goes to show what a dullard you are. The Jews destroyed Jericho and a curse was place on its location that anybody who rebuilt it would be destroyed. At no time did Jews ever live at Jericho, get a clue before you spew nonsense

[@CDRNY25]

Natufians has nothing to do with Jewish.

[@arayahbanyasharalah4234]

@@CDRNY25 exactly becuz the word jewish exist not.. Nutafians were the hebrew israelites that was a black bantu race!

[@beefcakepantiehoes]

I bet if ancestor worship stuck around in Judaism it would be a way more interesting religion

[@GenerationX1984]

What if the polytheism of the Israelites had stuck around? Multiple gods are more entertaining than one.

[@graiant]

It is about the truth not entertaining. Multiple Gods goes against the definition of a deity by essence as God is one unique. Nothing can be compared to, everything that exist besides him is his creation. God has no beginning nor end, he is non created constant.

[@CDRNY25]

Really wont makes much of a difference. They were already worshipping the same gods of the Canaanites. Judaism wasnt fully formed until Babylonian captivity.

[@hassanabdikarimmohamed2505]

The natufians were not only the founders of western society but more crucially the direct founders and ancestors of Middle Eastern and North African civilisations and societies..western societies simply learnt from early Natufians who migrated into eastern europe

[@ohlangeni]

Absolutely correct. Saharans are the roots of modern civilisation.

[@hassanabdikarimmohamed2505]

@@ohlangeni Natufians were not sub saharan in origin the E1b1b dna of Natufians came to north east Africa and the Horn of Africa due to a back migration of Natufians from the fertile crescent during pre history Somalis carry over 80 percent of their paternal dna ancestry as E1b1b which I'd the highest frequency of E1b1b found in any modern population worldwide..this dna originated from Natufians in the Levant who back migrated and moved into africa More importantly E1b1b dna has nothing to do with Nilotes or Bantu Niger Congo people ...e1b1b dna is found in the highest frequencies among the Somalis who are Cushites and Moroccans who are Berber

[@ohlangeni]

@@hassanabdikarimmohamed2505 Whatever suits your sensibilities buddy. Every body knows that Afroasiatic speakers are a genetic haplogroup of the clade E1b1b. All families of Afroasiatic are in Africa. All belonging to E1b1b including Chadic, Berber/Amazigh, Cushitic, Ancient Semitic in Ethiopia, modern Semitic in Ethiopia who are also J2 and Oromotic. All the Semites speakers of Arabia/Fertile Crescent are majority J2 and J1. Even there E1b1b has a sizeable presence. It is clear that E1b1b is an African yDNA haplogroup; a brother of E1b1a (E-V38) of Bantu speakers. Some Eurasian peoples are offended by African association, so I get you. Now, the only Sub-Saharan peoples in Africa are the Twa and Khoisan. The term Sub-Saharan is a post WWII socio-economic differentiation, not a racial classification. Lastly, Natufians were not just E1b1b, they are also E1b1a. The E1b1b were traditionally pasturists while the E1b1a were crop farmers responsible for domestication of crops such as sorghum, yams, legum, kola, african rice, cotton, millet, watermelon etc.

[@hassanabdikarimmohamed2505]

@@ohlangeni bantu or nilote have no Natufian dna..only afroasiatic people have direct Natufian DNA and among them Berbers from Morocco and Somalis who are Cushites carry the highest E1b1b fna worldiede (making up over i0 percent of Somali paternal ancestry) Dont make me quote you studies that prove Natufians pmly carried E1b1b sub clades in their paternal ancestry and had nothing to do with bantus or nilotes

[@ohlangeni]

@@hassanabdikarimmohamed2505 you are making naked utterances as if as it they magically change history and biology. The E haplogroups are Bantu, Niger and Afroasiatic speakers; all African people that originate in the Sahara. The Nilotic group has no E yDNA. The Natufians belonged to the E clades having both E1b1a and E1b1b. Like I said, if you want to believe that the Natufians were E1b1b only; it is okay. Early you attempted to claim that all of Africa's peoples come from the Arabs in West Asia migrating back to Africa. I am glad you no longer arguing that line. I am reiterating my original statement that the Natufians were Saharan people, a section of whom migrated to the Nile Valley, West Asia (Fertile Crescent), and Anatolia

[@jamesharrington1456]

Wow

[@Agaettis]

Ancestor worship?

[@fergalfarrelly8545]

A photograph or even a likeness of an ancestor can in a way give habitation for thier soul. It's hard to explain but as a medium i can look at a dead persons photo and it assists in helping me contact this person in spirit. You don't need a representation of the dead individual or a likeness of them to inhabit such things but it helps. Often people in the past may have wanted to consult thier ancestors on decicions. We really must remember we are two parts. Body and soul. The soul does still exist after death.

[@johnvonshepard9373]

Creepy af.

[@IVscythia]

As opposed to?

[@Venkatesh_Sowmya]

👌

[@xixioxaxe]

Interesting, but conclusion is so badly materialistic, that I felt nauseous. The western materialistic civilization is unfortunately unable to describe the surrounding world, in space and time, using terms other than those economy theories. It's so trivial...

[@zemenerrichey1980]

Watching this, I felt as if the ancients were simply trying to capture the image of the deceased. They didn't have cameras back then of course. Re-creating the face of the deceased as best you could over their skull seems like a cool way to remember them. Kind of the same as keeping someone's ashes really.

[@fergalfarrelly8545]

Psichuj you are right. The ancient people were far more in touch with thier souls than modern humans. We cannot understand them until we have something in our world to compare to. The closest we can get is spiritualism. Religion goes to far because the meaning is often lost.

[@fergalfarrelly8545]

Zemener Richey great way of thinking. You have gotten into thier heads. Sorry for the pun, but yes understanding thier psychology at the time is key. To many it was like a photograph but to a few more shahmen individuals it could also be a way of contacting the dead. It's almost something for the soul to inhabit.

[@paulosaraiva4848]

ancient zombies

[@MasterofPlay7]

chris jericho? Wall of jericho? lol

[@olivelyntamangen1132]

.

[@listenup2882]

Natufians were Black people.

[@Palestine123-t]

palestine

[@aaroniquedemeritte5218]

This culture is no different from our bantu culture in Africa.. that's how I know that bantus originated in Israel. The biblical hebrews

[@Archaeos0up]

These remains are from a time before Judiasm and the Biblical town of Jericho.

[@BetrayingLight]

It is VERY different from Bantu culture. Bantus originated in Africa (sub-Sahara) and has nothing to do with biblical Hebrews. Once again Afro centrists trying to hijack other people's culture because they are ashamed of their own.

[@arayahbanyasharalah4234]

The israelite did ancestor veneration in the bible and they still do it while in slavery in africa today!! Study the bantu people of africa u will realize that they are the real jews aka nutafians

[@ohlangeni]

While I agree that the Bantu are the remnants of Natufians; leave Israelites/Hebrew/Jews to the Semites (Afroasiatics). It is just lunitic the keep obsessing over Israel/Judah

[@hassanabdikarimmohamed2505]

@@ohlangeni all afroasiatic are not semite ..Somalis are Cushite afroasiayic and carry the highest dna of E1b1b in the world Bantu are not from Natufians all modern academic studies prove and say that only afroasiatic speaking north African Berbers and horn african Cushites like Somalis are direct descendants of Natufians as can be seen in the paternal ancestral dna of Somalis and Berbers where over 80 percent of their dna is E1b1b Bantus carry e1b1a dna lineagea which isnt Natufian..and any small amounts of E1b1b dna bantu or nilotes have is due to mixing with ancient southern Cushites who were people that were closely related to Somalis and lived in kenya and tanzania and were displaced by incoming bantu and nilotes No bantu or nilote has E1b1b dna that is even close to 40 percent of their ancestry whereas Somalis and Berbers carry over 80 percent of this dna

[@ohlangeni]

@@hassanabdikarimmohamed2505 I agree that Afroasiatic are indeed E1b1b. All sub-groups of Afroasiatic carry E1b1b not just Semites (who carry less E1b1b but majority carry the Eurasian clades J2 and J1). I am not going to argue as which African groups Natufians belong. The truth is they were Saharans who migrated between 1000BP to 6000BP as a result of desertification of the Sahara in the process called the Saharan Pump to the Fertile Crescent, Anatolia, West Africa, Iberia (Spain/Portugal), East Africa.

[@hassanabdikarimmohamed2505]

@@ohlangeni you got the dates completely wrong stop being dumb and go do some actual basic reading into Natufians.. Natufians lived in the fertile crescent at the very minimum 15000 years ago, how could they migrate from north africa into levamt less than 6000 yrs ago 😂😂😂natufians back migrated into north east africa around 12,000 years ago..these are the dates given by all the world leading experts from universities in israel and europe

[@hassanabdikarimmohamed2505]

@@ohlangeni theres no argument on which african groups descend from Natufians..every single leading western and Israel scholar academic and geneticist has said that the Berbers of north Africa, and Cushitic people especially Somali..carry the highest amount of E1b1b (over 80 percent Somali paternal dna ancestry is E1b1b)..the studies also say any non afroasiatic africans (meaning niger congo bantu or nilote) who carry E1b1b dna lineages at low levels get it from a Cushitic or Berber vector where ancient Cushites in central and east Africa mixed with incoming waves of bantu and nilotes..transmitting small amounts of E1b1b dna to those people