[blam]

"For instance the walled community at Jericho is older than the find described in this article."

Thanks, I didn't know that. How old is Jerico? Who built Jerico, the Ubaidians?

[TommyDale]

I don't know who built it, but I can tell you who tore it down!

[Fedora]

Thanks, I didn't know that. How old is Jerico? Who built Jerico, the Ubaidians?

Here's an article with some background and references. The oldest layer of Jericho (Tell es-Sultan) is from a strata archaeologists estimate to date to about 9000 BC (which is a very rough estimate and arguable because of the problems with dating things that far back). If this estimate is accurate this would've been almost 4000 years before the Ubaidians. I don't think anyone knows who built Jericho because we don't have any written records, but whoever they were, they were part of a commerce network stretching throughout Syria-Palestine into what is now Turkey, which may be inferred from obsidian found at various sites that has been traced to Turkey.