Editing Tel Megiddo (section)

===Early Bronze Age===
====Early Bronze I====
Megiddo's Early Bronze Age I (3500–2950 BCE) was originally worked in 1933–1938 by the Oriental Institute, now the [[Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures]]. Decades later, a temple from the end of this period was found and dated to Early Bronze Age IB (ca. 3000 BCE) and described by its excavators, [[Matthew J. Adams|Adams]], Finkelstein, and Ussishkin,<ref>Adams, Matthew J., Israel Finkelstein, and David Ussishkin, (2014). [https://www.ajaonline.org/field-report/1766 "The Great Temple of Early Bronze I Megiddo"], in ''American Journal of Archaeology'' Vol. 118, No. 2, April, pp. 285–305.</ref> as "the most monumental single edifice so far uncovered" in the early Bronze Age [[Levant]] and among the largest structures of its time in the [[Ancient Near East|Near East]].<ref name="Wiener, Noah">Wiener, Noah." [http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-israel/early-bronze-age-megiddos-great-temple-and-the-birth-of-urban-culture-in-the-levant/ Early Bronze Age: Megiddo's Great Temple and the Birth of Urban Culture in the Levant]" ''Bible History Daily'', [[Biblical Archaeology Society]], 2014.</ref>

Samples, obtained by Israel Finkelstein's Megiddo Expedition, at the temple-hall in the year 2000, provided calibrated dates from the 31st and 30th century BCE.<ref>[https://megiddoexpedition.wordpress.com/2004-results/ Megiddo Expedition 2004], in Area J of Tel Megiddo.</ref> The temple is the most monumental Early Bronze I structure known in the Levant, if not the entire Ancient Near East. Archaeologists' view is that "taking into account the manpower and administrative work required for its construction, it provides the best manifestation for the first wave of urban life and, probably, city-state formation in the Levant".<ref name="auto">[https://megiddoexpedition.wordpress.com/2006-results/ Megiddo Expedition 2006], in Area J of Tel Megiddo.</ref>

To the South of this temple there is an unparalleled monumental compound. It was excavated by the Megiddo Expedition in 1996 and 1998, and belongs to the later phase of Early Bronze IB,<ref name="in Area J" /> ca. 3090–2950 BCE.<ref>Sapir-Hen, Lidar, Deirdre N. Fulton, Matthew J. Adams, and Israel Finkelstein, (2022). [https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/718777 "The Temple and the Town at Early Bronze Age I Megiddo: Faunal Evidence for the Emergence of Complexity"], in Bulletin of ASOR, Volume 387, May 2022, Abstract: "...faunal assemblages from...Megiddo, a cult site, and Tel Megiddo East, a town site...are dated to the Early Bronze Age IB (EB IB; 3090–2950 b.c.e.), at the dawn of urbanization in the Near East."</ref> It consists of several long, parallel stone walls, each of which is 4 meters wide. Between the walls were narrow corridors, filled hip-deep with the remains of animal sacrifice. These walls lie immediately below the huge ‘megaron’ temples of the Early Bronze III (2700–2300 BCE).<ref name="in Area J">[https://megiddoexpedition.wordpress.com/1994-1998-results/ Megiddo Expedition 1994-1998], in Area J of Tel Megiddo.</ref> The megaron temples remained in use through the Intermediate Bronze period.<ref>David Ussishkin. “The Sacred Area of Early Bronze Megiddo: History and Interpretation.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 373, 2015, pp. 69–104</ref>

Magnetometer research, before the 2006 excavations, found that the entire Tel Megiddo settlement covered an area of ca. 50 hectares, being the largest known Early Bronze Age I site in the Levant.<ref name="auto" /> In 2014, Pierre de Miroschedji stated that Tel Megiddo had around 25 hectares in the Early Bronze IA and IB periods, when most settlements in the region only covered a maximum area of 5 hectares, but that excavations suggest large sites like Tel Megiddo were "sparsely built, with dwellings disorderly distributed and separated by open spaces."<ref>De Miroschedji, Pierre, (2014). [https://www.academia.edu/44928645/The_Southern_Levant_Cisjordan_during_the_Early_Bronze_Age "The Southern Levant (Cisjordan) during the Early Bronze Age"], in M.L. Steiner and A.E. Killebrew (eds.), ''The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant c.8000–332 BCE'', Oxford University Press, pp. 309, 310.</ref>

====Early Bronze II–III====
Tel Megiddo was still among the large fortified sites, between 5 and 12 hectares, during the Early Bronze II–III period, when its palace testifies that it was a real city-state "characterized by a strong social hierarchy, a hereditary centralized power, and the functioning of a palatial economy."<ref>De Miroschedji, Pierre, (2014). [https://www.academia.edu/44928645/The_Southern_Levant_Cisjordan_during_the_Early_Bronze_Age "The Southern Levant (Cisjordan) during the Early Bronze Age"], in M.L. Steiner and A.E. Killebrew (eds.), ''The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant c.8000–332 BCE'', Oxford University Press, pp. 314, 319, and Fig. 22.1.</ref>

====Early Bronze IV====
The town declined in the Early Bronze Age IV period (2300–2000 BCE) as the Early Bronze Age political systems collapsed at the last quarter of the third millennium BCE.<ref>Golden, Jonathan M., 2004. [http://www.amas.hk/pdf/shengjingshenxue/Ancient%20Canaan%20and%20Israel%20New%20Perspectives%20(Jonathan%20M.%20Golden)%20(z-lib.org).pdf Ancient Canaan and Israel: New Perspectives], ABC-CLIO, Library of Congress, Santa Barbara-California, p. 144.</ref>