Introduction to Megiddo:

Megiddo Past

David Ussishkin

Megiddo – 2010

● Spring

Spring ●

← Lower Mound

←Upper Mound

Megiddo from the east, 1925

Schumacher’s Excavation

1903-1905

The Megiddo Centennial – 1 April 2003

Schumacher’s

excavation plan

and section

Photographed from east, 1917

← city-gate?

← Lower

Mound

Space Museum, Washington, DC

The Chicago Oriental Institute Expedition,

1925-1938

The Chicago expedition house on the Lower Mound

The Chicago excavation plan – 1925-1938

← The Water

System

← City-gates

← Area BBSchumacher’s →

trench

← The Chicago photographic balloon

← Area BB

← Water system

The Yigael Yadin expedition: 1 January 1960

Pope Paul VI visits Megiddo,

1966

Main FindsDates BCEPeriodStratum

XX Neolithic- 8000-3300 Settlement

Chalcolithic

XIX-XV Early Bronze 3300-2200 Large city; temples

XIV-XIII Intermediate 2200-2000 Small settlement

Bronze

XII-X Middle Bronze 2000-1550 City on upper and

Lower Mounds

IX-VII Late Bronze 1550-1130 Canaanite city-state;

I-III palace; gate, temple

1130 – Destruction of Megiddo by the “Sea Peoples”(?) and

end of Egyptian hegemony

←Water system

← City-gates area← Temples

↓ Dump

Area BB →

Stratum XVIII: The ‘city-wall’ in Area BB

Stratum XV: The altar and the three ‘Megaron’ temples

The Middle Bronze Age:

Massive fortifications

Stratum VIIA:

The ruler’s palace

And the city-gate

‘Treasury’ ↓

City-gate ↑

Strata VIII-VII: The city-gate

Stratum VII:

The ruler’s palace

R

The ‘Treasury’ of the →

Stratum VIIA palace

Canaanite ivory

North-Syrian and

Mycenaean ivories

El-Amarna archive:

Letters of Biridiya ruler of Megiddo

The ‘Gilgamesh Epic’ tablet

Canaanite gold deity

found in the temple

The Canaanite ‘Tower Temple’

Statue base of Ramesses VI

(1141-1133 BCE)

Main FindsDate BCEPeriodStratum

VI Iron I 1100-950 Large city

925 BCE – Pharaoh Shishak’s campaign

VB Iron IIA 950-900 Israelite settlement

VA-IVB Iron IIA 900-800 Administrative city;

palaces

IVA Iron IIB 800-730 Fortified city; stables

730 BCE – Assyrian conquest

III Iron IIC 730-600 Assyrian city

609 BCE – Death in Megiddo of Josiah King of Judah

Stele of Shoshenq I (Shishak) (ca. 925 BCE)

← Existing

fragment

Stratum VA-IVB

Stratum VA-IVB:

The southern palace

(No. 1723) and its

enclosure

↑ The gate

The gate →

The southern palace

(No. 1723)

Suggested

↓ reconstruction

The eastern palace

(No. 338)↑ 1903: Schumacher’s dig

2003: Hundred years later→

The northern palace

(No. 6000)

Yigael Yadin’s excavation

Stratum VA-IVB:

Shrine 2081

Shrine →

Stratum IVA: Fortified city with stables

Stratum IVA:

The city-gate

(The ‘Solomonic’ gate)

Inner gate →

courtyardOuter

gate →

↑ The city-wall

Views of the ‘Solomonic’

City-gate

Stratum IVA: The northern stable compound

A stable

Huge silo for keeping chaff,

The food for the horses

Stratum IVA: The water system

↑ Horizontal tunnel

← Vertical

shaftSpring →

Spring →

The seal of ‘Shema

Servant of Jeroboam’

The seal of ‘Asaph’

Stratum III: The Assyrian city

Stratum III:

The Assyrian

palaces