Editing Jericho (section)

====19th century====
[[File:Roman aquaduct near Jericho.jpg|thumb|Roman aqueducts]]

In the 19th century, European scholars, archaeologists and missionaries visited often.<ref name=Ringp367/> At the time it was an oasis in a poor state, similar to other regions in the plains and deserts.<ref name=benarieh>Ben-Arieh, Yehoshua. [http://www.ybz.org.il/_Uploads/dbsAttachedFiles/Article_36.8.pdf "The Sanjak of Jerusalem in the 1870s"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200722211520/http://www.ybz.org.il/_Uploads/dbsAttachedFiles/Article_36.8.pdf |date=22 July 2020 }}. In ''Cathedra'', 36. Jerusalem: Yad Yitzhak Ben Zvi. 1985. pp. 80–82</ref> [[Edward Robinson (scholar)|Edward Robinson]] (1838) reported 50 families, which were about 200 people,<ref>Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol. 2, p. [https://archive.org/stream/biblicalresearc00smitgoog#page/n302/mode/1up 280]</ref> [[Titus Tobler]] (1854) reported some 30 poor huts, whose residents paid a total of 3611 [[kuruş]] in tax.<ref>[[Titus Tobler]], ''Topographie von Jerusalem und seinen Umgebungen'', Berlin, 1853–1854, p. 642</ref> Abraham Samuel Herschberg (1858–1943) also reported after his 1899–1900 travels in the region<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title= Herschberg, Abraham Samuel (1858–1943) |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Judaica |editor-first=Fred |editor-last=Skolnik |pages=42–43 |volume=9 |edition=2nd |publisher=Keter, Thomson Gale |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-02-865930-5 |url=http://www.jevzajcg.me/enciklopedia/Encyclopaedia%20Judaica,%20v.%2009%20(Her-Int).pdf |access-date=23 May 2019}}</ref> of some 30 poor huts and 300 residents.<ref>{{cite book |first=A. S. |last=Hershberg |title=In the Land of the East |publisher=Vilna |year=1899 |page=469 }}</ref> At that time, Jericho was the residence of the region's Turkish governor. The main water sources for the village were a spring called ''Ein al-Sultan'', lit. "Sultan's Spring", in Arabic and ''Ein Elisha'', lit. "Elisha Spring", in Hebrew, and springs in [[Wadi Qelt]].<ref name=benarieh/>

[[James Silk Buckingham|J. S. Buckingham]] (1786–1855) describes in his 1822 book how the male villagers of er-Riha, although nominally sedentary, engaged in [[Bedouin]]-style [[Raid (military)#Bedouin ''ghazzu''|raiding, or ''ghazzu'']]: the little land cultivation he observed was done by women and children, while men spent most of their time riding through the plains and engaging in "robbery and plunder", their main and most profitable activity.<ref name=Tribal>{{cite book |title=Near Eastern Tribal Societies During the Nineteenth Century: Economy, Society and Politics Between Tent and Town |chapter=Raiding and robbing |first=Eveline |last=van der Steen |publisher=Routledge |year= 2014 |isbn=9781317543473 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d-_OBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT115}}</ref>

An [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] village list from around 1870 showed that ''Riha'', Jericho, had 36 houses and a population of 105, though the population count included men only.<ref>Socin, 1879, p. [https://archive.org/stream/zeitschriftdesde01deut#page/159/mode/1up 159]</ref><ref>Hartmann, 1883, p. [https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_BZobAQAAIAAJ#page/n932/mode/1up 124], noted 34 houses</ref>

The first [[excavation (archaeology)|excavation]] at Tell es-Sultan was carried out in 1867.<ref name=Ringp367/>