This view to the south shows Tell Mutesellim, identified as ancient Megiddo, which lies at the western end of the Plain of Jezreel and east of Haifa. This view shows mainly the exposure from the excavations of the University of Chicago under Fisher, Guy and Loud from 1925 to 1939. Excavations showed that the occupation at Megiddo goes back to the Pre-pottery Neolithic period of the second half of the fifth millennium B.C.E. On the other hand, the earliest mention of Megiddo is in the annals of Pharaoh Thutmosis III, who defeated a Canaanite army at Megiddo in 1468 B.C.E. The city appears in the el-Amarna correspondence of the 14th century B.C.E., and it looms large in the Bible. Megiddo was among the cities of Canaan not conquered by the Israelites (Judges 1:27), and it is mentioned in the Song of Deborah (Judges 5:19). Solomon fortified Megiddo (1 Kings 9:15) and named his fifth administrative district after it (1 Kings 4:12). King Ahaziah of Judah died there in a battle with King Jehu of Israel (2 Kings 9:27). Megiddo fell to Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria in 732 B.C.E. and became the capital of an Assyrian province. In the New Testament Megiddo survives in the Book of Revelation as Armageddon, the site of the last great battle at the Last Judgment (Revelation 16:16).
The water system described in Slide 31 is seen here as the deep round hole and long shaft in upper right. The grain silo (see Slide 32) is the circular pit at the T formed by two intersecting foot paths.