History of Ramallah

of copper and stone tools, giving the region a more urban fabric. By the early Bronze Age, Canaanite cities were developing, enclosed in mud-brick walls for security. These city states had diplomatic relations with Egypt and Syria. Part of this urban civilization was destroyed around 2,300 BC – but no one knows why. By the middle Bronze Age, the area was influenced by nomadic groups settling in the hills, as well as the surrounding civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, and Syria.

The Iron Age [1,200 – 330 BC]

During this beginning of this Era, the New Kingdom of Egypt ruled, but following its fall we see the first arrivals of the Philistines as well as the Hebrews.

From 1020 BC – 720s BC The area including modern Ramallah was ruled by the Kingdom of Judah and Kingdom of Israel.

Following rule by the Assyrians and later Babylonians lasted from the 720s – 500 BC.

Ending the Era was the Achaemenid Empire, ruled by the Persians which lasted from the 500s–330s BC.

Classical Antiquity era [333 BC – 640 AD]

The Greeks conquered the area and ruled for two centuries under the Ptolemaic and later Seleucid Empires. The Hasmonean kingdom followed.

Briefly before, and beginning Anno Domini, for nearly 400 years, the Roman Empire and briefly Palmyrene Empire ruled the region. The inhabitants of what is now Ramallah at this time would have spoken Latin and

After the Fall of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine empire ruled for 300 years.

During this Era it was likely that the populations living in what we now know as Ramallah spoke Latin, Christian Palestinian Aramaic, and Greek respectively.

According to Christian tradition, Joseph and Mary rested in Ramallah on their way from Jerusalem to Galilee when they discovered that Jesus, who had stayed behind in the Temple of