Tel Megiddo

Tell el-Mutesellim

Israel · Northern District

Ancient cityIntermittent excavationUNESCO · 2005
Approximate period5,500 BCE — 400 BCEEspecially the Bronze Age and Iron Age See on the map ↓

In brief

Megiddo is a city mound that controlled important transport routes. Excavations uncovered multiple layers of urban architecture and the human remains of two siblings buried beneath a house.

What was found?

  • 1Underground water system

    The Iron Age system served the water needs of the city's large population. It demonstrates the engineering knowledge applied to urban infrastructure.

  • 2Early Bronze Age temple complex

    Successive temples and traces of rituals document continuing worship activities at the same location. They allow continuity in religious life to be studied.

  • 3Palace remains

    The monumental palace buildings reveal Megiddo's role as an administrative center. They are material traces of the city's wealth associated with trade routes.

  • 4Skull with traces of trepanation

    A surgical intervention that created an angular opening was identified in the skull of a person who lived around the 15th century BC. According to researchers, this is the earliest known example of this technique in the Ancient Near East.

  • 5Cypriot pottery

    The fine-quality Cypriot pottery found in the tomb of two brothers documents connections with distant regions. Researchers consider it among the findings supporting the individuals' high social status.

What does it point to?

Megiddo shows that administration, worship, and infrastructure developed together in a wealthy city controlling trade routes. According to researchers, the findings in the tomb suggest that high social status may have facilitated access to care and treatment.

What did it teach us?

  1. It showed that Iron Age cities had advanced underground water infrastructure.
  2. It documented long-term worship activities through successive temple phases.
  3. It provided evidence that a particular technique of skull surgery was practiced during the Late Bronze Age.

Images

Megiddo 0668 (520285630)
James Emery from Douglasville, United States · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Cross-section of the Strata of tel Megiddo (20719420445)
Ian Scott · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Ruins atop Tel Megiddo with circular altar-like shrine and a series of temples on top of t
Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Latest news / selected archive

A study published in 2023 documented trepanation made with angular cuts in the skull of a person who lived around the 15th century BCE.

Record

Culture
Canaanite and ancient Israelite
Coordinates
32.5850°, 35.1842°

Sources

  1. whc.unesco.org
  2. whc.unesco.org
  3. brown.edu

Nearby excavations


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12.000

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