Why Do People Build Walls? The Real Story of Jericho Offers a Surprising Answer

Be it in songs and sermons, or in bricks and mortar, walls are sui generis among the artifacts of human culture. If not quite a precondition of culture as such, they must count among its first fruits, as elemental (or nearly so) as the sharpened stone and the roaring fire. The minute a house’s wooden frame (or the fabric of a tent) is rendered sufficiently sturdy, that membrane might be considered a shield.

Be it in songs and sermons, or in bricks and mortar, walls are sui generis among the artifacts of human culture. If not quite a precondition of culture as such, they must count among its first fruits, as elemental (or nearly so) as the sharpened stone and the roaring fire. The minute a house’s wooden frame (or the fabric of a tent) is rendered sufficiently sturdy, that membrane might be considered a shield.