Megiddo

A large tell on a natural hill in northern Palestine, a Biblical city. A town in the Early Bronze Age was built in the early 4th millennium BC and the site was sporadically occupied since the Neolithic and Chalcolithic. It became a great fortified center through its strategic position on the land route from Egypt to Mesopotamia and on the route that connected Phoenician cities with Jerusalem. Megiddo was captured by the Egyptian king Thutmose III about 1468 but survived frequent sackings down to c 350 BC. Notable finds include a hoard of 400 Phoenician ivories, a rock-cut shaft and a 65-meter passage to give the Canaanites access to a spring from inside the walls - all from the 13th century BC. To the 9th century BC belong a series of palace, shrine, and stable buildings created by the Israelites. The town was destroyed at the end of the 8th century BC and, although rebuilt, it declined into insignificance by the Hellenistic period.

Large tell above the Plain of Esdraelon in Israel, excavated by the Oriental Institute of Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s. The ambitious aim of the project was to excavate the entire mound, layer by layer. This proved beyond the resources of the Institute, even at that period of cheap labour, but strata I to V (c350-1000 BC) were completely excavated; below stratum V only restricted excavations were carried out and in only one place was bedrock reached. It was nonetheless a project on a scale rarely repeated. Limited evidence suggests some settlement in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods before the township of the Early Bronze Age in the 3rd millennium bc. In the EB III period a wall was added to a well planned town with monumental buildings. It was a heavily fortified city throughout the 2nd millennium bc; it fell to the Egyptians cl470 bc but recovered and flourished again as a Canaanite and subsequently, after cl000 bc, an Israelite city. To the 9th century belong a series of palace, shrine and stable buildings. This town was destroyed at the end of the 8th century bc and although the town was rebuilt, its greatest days were over and it had declined into insignificance by the Hellenistic period.