Editing Jericho (section)

===Middle Bronze Age===
{{For|the Biblical battle|Battle of Jericho}}

Jericho was continually occupied into the Middle [[Bronze Age#Near East|Bronze Age]]; it was destroyed in the Late Bronze Age, after which it no longer served as an urban centre. The city was surrounded by extensive defensive walls strengthened with rectangular towers, and possessed an extensive cemetery with vertical shaft-tombs and underground burial chambers; the elaborate funeral offerings in some of these may reflect the emergence of local kings.{{sfn|Kuijt|2012|p=167}}

During the Middle Bronze Age, Jericho was a small prominent city of the [[Canaan]] region, reaching its greatest Bronze Age extent in the period from 1700 to 1550&nbsp;BCE. It seems to have reflected the greater urbanization in the area at that time, and has been linked to the rise of the [[Maryannu]], a class of chariot-using aristocrats linked to the rise of the [[Mitanni]]te state to the north. Kathleen Kenyon reported "the Middle Bronze Age is perhaps the most prosperous in the whole history of Kna'an. ... The defenses ... belong to a fairly advanced date in that period" and there was "a massive stone [[revetment]] ... part of a complex system" of defenses.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kenyon|first1=Kathleen Mary|author-link1=Kathleen Kenyon|title=Digging Up Jericho|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_z33N1QsSHEC|publisher=[[Ernest Benn Limited]]|date=1957|location=[[London, England]]|isbn=978-0510033118|pages=213–218|access-date=26 February 2018|language=en}}</ref> Bronze Age Jericho fell in the 16th century at the end of the Middle Bronze Age, the calibrated carbon remains from its City-IV [[destruction layer]] dating to 1617–1530&nbsp;BCE. Carbon dating {{circa}} 1573&nbsp;BCE confirmed the accuracy of the stratigraphical dating {{circa}} 1550.{{citation needed|date= March 2022}}

Chronology (Nigro 2016)
* Middle Bronze IA, Tell es-Sultan IVa1 (c. 2000/1950-1900 BC)
* Middle Bronze IB, Tell es-Sultan IVa2 (c. 1900-1800 BC)
* Middle Bronze IIA, Tell es-Sultan IVb1 (c. 1800-1700 BC)
* Middle Bronze IIB, Tell es-Sultan IVb2 (c. 1700-1650 BC)
* Middle Bronze IIC/III, Tell es-Sultan IVc (c. 1650-1550 BC)