Megiddo

What is known

• Megiddo commanded the strategic pass through the Carmel ridge on the Via Maris trade route, making it one of the most fought-over cities in the ancient Near East across many centuries
• Excavations have revealed monumental gate complexes, palace structures, and a sophisticated water system — a shaft and tunnel cut through bedrock to a spring outside the city walls — often associated with the Omride period
• 1 Kings 9:15 credits Solomon with fortifying Megiddo alongside Hazor and Gezer. Y. Yadin argued in 1958 that the six-chambered gates at all three sites were that building programme; Y. Aharoni in 1972 and D. Ussishkin in 1980 showed the Megiddo gate belongs stratigraphically to a later city, and hardly anyone now dates it to Solomon. What is still argued is whether it is ninth-century or eighth
• Megiddo sits at the centre of the largest dating dispute in the archaeology of Israel. I. Finkelstein proposed in 1996 that there is no secure chronological anchor in the region between the early twelfth century BC and the late eighth, and that the strata conventionally called tenth-century belong some 75 to 100 years later — on that Low Chronology the monumental Israelite Megiddo is Omride rather than Solomonic. A. Mazar's Modified Conventional Chronology holds a middle position. Two decades of radiocarbon from both sides have narrowed the gap without closing it, and nobody involved claims it is settled
• A fragment of a monument of the pharaoh Shoshenq I — the Shishak of 1 Kings 14:25 — was picked out of Schumacher's old spoil heap by Chicago workmen in 1925 and recognised by J. H. Breasted. It is often reported as belonging to a particular stratum; the Chicago excavators said the opposite in print, twice, because it came from a dump and has no stratigraphic value. It corroborates that Shoshenq reached Megiddo, and nothing more precise than that
• The Book of Revelation (16:16) draws on Megiddo's long history as a battlefield to name 'Armageddon' (Har Megiddo, 'Mount of Megiddo') as the site of the prophesied final battle
• Megiddo was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005 as part of the 'Biblical Tels' listing, alongside Hazor and Beersheba

History

Founded

Occupied nearly continuously from the Chalcolithic period (c. 5000 BC) through the Persian period

Population

A major Bronze and Iron Age city-state and administrative center; precise population estimates vary but it ranked among the region's most strategically important cities

Industry

Controlled the Via Maris trade route through the Jezreel Valley pass; major chariot city and military/administrative hub

Coordinates

32.5844° N, 35.1811° E

Rulers and powers

• Canaanite city-state kings — c. 3000-1200 BC
• Egyptian vassal city (conquered by Thutmose III) — c. 1457 BC
• Kingdom of Israel (Solomon, later Ahab) — 10th-9th century BC
• Assyrian provincial capital — from 732 BC

Scripture references

• Joshua 12:21
• Judges 5:19
• 1 Kings 4:12
• 1 Kings 9:15
• 2 Kings 9:27
• 2 Kings 23:29-30
• 2 Chronicles 35:22
• Zechariah 12:11
• Revelation 16:16

On a modern map

Megiddo today

Further reading

• Megiddo, Israel - Wikipedia
• Tel Megiddo - Wikipedia

Reflect

Armies contested Megiddo's crossroads for three thousand years — which of your current battles are actually worth fighting?