The diverse urbanism of the Levant: Models and achievements. The case of Tell es-Sultan/ancient Jericho in the Early Bronze Age II

the westernmost region of the Ancient Near East, Syria-Palestine,the formation of cities is considered a secondary phenomenon both culturally and tem -porally. The city developed in these regions according to alternative models to thoseadopted at the dawn of urban civilization in the great alluvial valleys of Egypt and Me-sopotamia. It is this ‘different’ urbanism, with variable intensity and resistance, whicharises from attempts to adapt the idea of the city to environmental and social contextsprofoundly different from those of the Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations, whichcan provide interesting insights for understanding the complexity and the diversity ofthe urban phenomenon in the Levant in pre-classical times. The excavations of Sapien-za University of Rome and the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities of Palestine in Je -richo (1997-2023), “the oldest city in the world”, after twenty-five years, allow us toanalyze the phenomenon through a multiplicity of information whose implications offerinteresting food for thought.