place · L0320
Tel Megiddo תל מגידו
Great tell guarding the Jezreel Valley pass on the international coastal highway, with more than twenty occupation strata from the Neolithic through the Persian period. Its monumental six-chambered gate, chambered "stable" complexes, and deep rock-cut water system made it the flagship site of biblical archaeology — and the main battleground of the Solomon-versus-Omride dating debate. Preserved in situ as a national park and UNESCO World Heritage biblical tel.
_(2).jpg)
I. Who
- Hebrew
- תל מגידו
- Also known as
- Megiddo, Tel el-Mutesellim, Armageddon
III. Where
- Modern location
- Megiddo National Park, Jezreel Valley, Israel
IV. What
- Events
- Megiddo Ivories
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tel Megiddo was excavated by Gottlieb Schumacher (1903–1905), by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago under Fisher, Guy, and Loud (1925–1939), and by the Tel Aviv University expedition since 1992, exposing over twenty superimposed cities; it was inscribed with Hazor and Beersheba as a UNESCO World Heritage biblical tel in 2005. | archaeology | ★★★★★ | |
| The Tanakh names Megiddo among the cities Shlomo fortified with forced levy — "to build... Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer" — and it is where King Yoshiyahu was killed confronting Pharaoh Necho in 609 BCE. | biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| The dating of Megiddo's six-chambered gate and pillared "stable" complexes is the classic test case between the high chronology, which assigns them to Shlomo's tenth-century building program on the strength of I Kings 9:15 (Yadin's reading), and the low chronology, which lowers the same strata to the ninth-century Omride kings; the stratigraphy is agreed, the century is not.
Precision disputed: the same monumental buildings are read as Solomonic (10th c. BCE) or Omride (9th c. BCE) depending on the chronology adopted; the dispute drives the wider debate over the united monarchy's archaeology.
|
archaeology external | ★★★☆☆ | |
| Megiddo's water system — a deep vertical shaft cut through the tell joined to a long rock-hewn tunnel reaching the spring outside the walls — let the city draw water securely under siege; it is conventionally dated to the ninth century BCE. | archaeology | ★★★★☆ | |
| The Oriental Institute excavations recovered a hoard of carved ivories in the Stratum VIIA palace treasury — the Megiddo ivories, the richest Late Bronze ivory find in the Levant, treated in this atlas as its own entity (Megiddo Ivories). | archaeology | ★★★★★ |
Referenced by: Megiddo Ivories