17. THE DAWN OF AN AGE: MEGIDDO IN THE IRON AGE I

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1 H 17. THE DAWN OF AN AGE: MEGIDDO IN THE IRON AGE I OW were Canaanite centers incorporated into ancient Israel in the eleventh tenth centuries B.C.E.? The subject is now a dull one, reviewed, summarized, and revised almost without surcease since the late nineteenth century. In the last fifteen years, its attraction for scholars has flagged. The events in question are datable by various scientific methods, but understanding them requires two other elements: a familiarity with texts, as in all historical archaeology, combined with what C. Wright Mills (1959) once called the sociological imagination. Dates and even sizes of sites lack explanatory power in themselves; they only furnish a framework within which explanation is possible. Social processes are more diagnostic of the incorporation of new cultural traits. Most students of the history of ancient Israel are depressingly familiar with the theories about the transition into the Iron Age I. The first theory, of course, was that of a massive conquest. Nineteenth-century textual scholarship devoted much time to parleying alleged contradictions or even hints in the text into prehistory for example, the Leah tribes entered at one point, the Rachel tribes at another, and so on. The method resembled that applied earlier by scholars such as Niebuhr ( ) to Roman and, later, Greek history (Müller 1970 [1825]). But based on the indications of less speculative textual study, particularly of the account of individual successes and failures of Israelite tribes in occupying their territories (Judges 1), and adding a Weberian twist, Albrecht Alt introduced the theory of pastoralist infiltration into the hills. The infiltation precipitated conflict with agrarians, in what was at the time considered the inevitable confrontation between herders and farmers. The final stage in the process was the taking of towns by the pastoralists, particularly in the lowlands. This led to the inauguration of a United Monarchy of Israel and Judah under the kingship of Saul (Alt 1953a; 1953b). Another model was introduced by George Mendenhall (1962) and consolidated by Norman Gottwald (1979). In their view, lowland peasants took to the hills to flee urban oppression. Although Mendenhall and Gottwald dated Israel s emergence to the twelfth century, they relied principally on evidence from the Amarna archive of the fourteenth century, about rebels known as Habiru, which they equated with king-hating Hebrews (Mendenhall 1962; by Baruch Halpern Gottwald 1978; cf. Loretz 1984). Unfortunately, the Amarna evidence is cloaked in the rhetoric of relations with an imperial center, such that one s enemies, even governors of city-states, could be called Habiru, which is to say subversives (Halpern 1983; Moran 1987). Supporting Alt, on the basis of survey data, Israel Finkelstein proposed in his dissertation that Israelites arrived as settlers, starting first in the easternmost reaches of the central hill country (Finkelstein 1983). That the process was a combination of all these processes is a view associated particularly with the name of Volkmar Fritz, who emphasized the symbiotic relations of the settlers with post-late Bronze Age populations (1987; 1990; 1994). All views not based on a naive reading of the Book of Joshua agree that highland populations descended on lowland towns. This seems to have been the case, although at varying dates. 1 North of Philistia, the Book of Kings assumes Solomon s later incorporation of these sites. Yet no known Israelite takes them (and thus we can be certain that David didn t Halpern 2001). Indeed, taken quite literally, the biblical conquest accounts themselves claim, however improbably, that Joshua controlled the countryside, but that it was only after his death that Israelites supplanted local inhabitants, especially in the lowlands (Halpern 1992). In general, every model we have presupposes Israelite hill pastoralists, partly sedentarizing, overwhelming urban Canaanite centers along the trade routes. The process of upland polity articulation culminated in the mid-to-late eleventh century, when the kinship system of highland populations was waxing and maturing, intermarriage with lowland populations was probably increasing, and a certain degree of circumscription was going on in the hills (for the latter, see Coote 1990). 2 In part, these phenomena reflect the fact that interregional trade was at a nadir, with Egypt s empire decisively on the wane. The issue of drought as a factor has often been mooted, most generally in connection with Ramesses III s aid to the Hittites, but also in connection with lower Nile levels and apparent drought in Mesopotamia in the 1 See the ground-breaking study of David Ilan (1999) and, for a summary of all these positions, Fritz 1990; For arguments from pottery and other archaeological indicators for the identity of the upland and lowland populations, see W. G. Dever 1987; 1990; 1993; 1995.

2 152 Baruch Halpern succeeding half-century (Stiebing 1989; Neumann and Parpola 1987). Yet the transition from the end of Late Bronze into the later stages of the Iron I remains a puzzle. In Philistia, colonizers arrive shortly after 1200 B.C.E. (against Finkelstein 1995, see Halpern 2001: from a textual and monumental perspective, Mazar 1997 from a pottery perspective, and Stager 1995 from a political and archaeological perspective). But why the later dwindling of other urban centers? Megiddo may prove no template for other sites, but based on Egyptian withdrawal and the temporary interdiction of long-range overland trade, it offers one example to be considered, an example with clear parallels at Amarna, in the records of other ancient societies, and, truth be told, in the descriptive rather than theoretical writings of Karl Marx (2003). Figure 1. Plans of Megiddo palaces (Area AA) in Strata X VII and of Temple 2048 (from Loud 1948) Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago

3 The Dawn of an Age: Megiddo in the Iron Age I 153 At Megiddo, the palace of Stratum X (figure 1) by the acropolis gate is extensive (we now know that Middle Bronze settlement existed at the foot of the existing tell, at least on the north: Franklin 2006; Peersman 2006). Brian Hesse relates (in conversation) that there was camel in a sample from a LB I level in Area N, below the tell in the northwest. Although extraordinary, this is not inconsonant with what one might expect in light of the archaeological demography of that era, in which Megiddo was an almost unrivaled hub of trade before the revival of other sites in LB IIA. In any event, the Middle Bronze levels at the foot of the tell, and perhaps earlier materials, are now buried beneath 3 4 m of colluvium from the nearby hills. But the palace sees marked expansion, consolidation, and the thickening of its walls in Stratum IX (figure 1). Stratum IX follows or just precedes Thutmosis III s taking of the site (Halpern 2000:540 42). It is probably in this stratum, too, that Migdol Temple 2048 was constructed, as in monumentality it seems to be of a piece with that of the palace and of the rampart that was constructed around the site either late in Stratum X or early in Stratum IX (contra Epstein 1965:213; Kempinski 1989:83; Kenyon 1969:49 53). 3 Certainly, the plethora of imported fine wares characterizing Stratum IX indicate ready access to the coast, and probably the eastern Jezreel, and fit neatly into the context of Egypt s focus on Megiddo as an administrative node. The palace of Stratum VIII, with its extensive treasure trove, succeeds to its predecessor s space, suggesting continuity, while expanding in area (Loud 1948:22 25). At this time, a massive public structure was erected above and just within the earthen rampart of Stratum IX on the lower tell (Ilan, Franklin, and Hallote 2000:86 92). The latter may have functioned as a reception area, or as a sort of customs house. The next palace, of Stratum VIIB, burnt down after 1200 B.C.E., without the site generally being destroyed (see Ussishkin 1995 for the theory that the VIIB palace was merely the lower floor of that of VIIA). And the destruction of the VIIA palace is normally dated around 1140 B.C.E. Those defending this date assume that the base of the statue of Ramses VI, found under a wall of Stratum VIIB in Room 1832 of Area CC (Breasted 1948:135 and fig. 409), was misstratified, and was really found in Stratum VIA; they assign its origin to VIIA (as Harrison 2004:9, with bibliography), although phases of Stratum VII were not reliably distinguished in Area CC (see Loud 1948:114). Notably, a basalt offering table found in the remains of the VIII palace in Area DD (and still on the surface there) seems to have parallels in our Area M, in the Schumacher Trench, in LB II (Loud 1948:114 and fig. 411; Schumacher 1908:taf. 16, 20), though in each case survival from Stratum IX is possible. Temple 2048 continued in active use in these strata, though its walls were significantly thinner, and its earlier projecting towers atrophied, in Stratum VIIA. 3 Chicago attributed this temple to Stratum VIII; Kempinski (1989) to Stratum X. However, it seems prudent to associate the temple s origins to the first, and not a secondary, stage of Megiddo s elevation, under Egyptian auspices, to be the crown jewel of the Empire in Canaan. As Amihai Mazar has observed, the latest pottery on the floor of the temple stems from Stratum VI (Mazar 1985; 2002; Kempinski 1989:83, 185; Ussishkin 1995; Harrison 2004: 4, 10, 19). Still, Chicago found no substantial architectural evidence of the temple s existence at that time; if there is a similar structure in Stratum V, it is much smaller, and located to the northeast. It is possible, thus, that the sacred precinct continued in use in Strata VI and V, but that the building itself no longer stood; or, that, as Mazar suggests, the building continued in use, whether or not for sacral purposes, and that elements on site in Stratum VI continued traditional forms of worship. As to the glacis, our excavations in Area F found no evidence of anything other than LB I buried into its top, which could stem from later in the period; and, below it was MB IIC (see Franklin 2006a). Finally, while the Canaanite kings clearly chose Megiddo as their base in the battle against Thutmosis III, it is in this period that the construction of the IX palace could have been begun, with its more elaborate fittings coming later in the layer. See further Halpern 2000:542 and n. 9. Figure 2. Corbeled tomb at Megiddo Ongoing Megiddo excavations, under the aegis of Tel Aviv University since 1992, shed light on the transition from Late Bronze to Iron I culture on the tell. Our Area M occupies the center of the tell. Its lower part sits in the trench identified by Schumacher as his Mittelburg (Schumacher 1908:75 77). Since 1998, it has not been clear whether the corbeled or

4 154 Baruch Halpern Mycenean tomb was built in the Late Bronze or Iron I, not least because the tomb was found empty, except for some open vessel fragments found by Schumacher, who dug two meters past the floor (1908:taf. 20), and because it was subterranean witness the provisions, detected in 1998, against the seepage of water into the structure in the form of plastering of the outer sides of the tomb (see, generally, Finkelstein, Ussishkin, and Deutsch 2006:76; note also Schumacher 1908:75 76 on the interior mortar). Moreover, no provisions for drainage were made despite its low position (on drainage, cf. Isa. 28:15, 18). Between the corbeled tomb and Schumacher s Nordburg, a foundation trench for the tomb cut through a Late Bronze II floor on the eastern balk. Were the tomb coeval with the LB Nordburg, in our LB II M-6, one would expect the mudbrick collapse of the LB area to reach it to a reasonable height. If later, the tomb was, however, tailored to remains of the Nordburg by the builders of M-4 or M-5, who constructed a villa above on the remains of M-6. Some maintain that the original tomb was only partly subterranean, but its recent history suggests the opposite it is collapsing from people crossing it on foot, and from rainwater. And this in the course of just six years. 4 Just to the south of the corbeled tomb stood tombs with MB and LB materials. To the northeast stood the Migdol temple of the Late Bronze, the successor to the one surviving EB (or, in Ussishkin s view, IB) megaron, Rachel Hallote (1994:69 92) argues that the original Migdol temple, surrounded by graves, succeeded a mortuary cult, which flourished and exhibited an increase in the insignia of rulership versus the insignia of warfare associated with burials of the EB. The insertion of the corbeled tomb in VI would represent a return to Middle Bronze tradition (and, further below), the more so if the Temple 2048 s last floor is VIA (Kempinski 1989:83, 185; Mazar 2002). Notionally, the Migdol is the only public structure to survive from Stratum VII into VI, when stone is rejected, at least in VIA, in favor of mudbrick, possibly for sumptuary reasons, or possibly because extreme heat baked the bricks into stone and thus preserved them. Still, it is possible that beneath the VIA connections to the corbeled tomb lies a VIIA predecessor. The principal argument for it is the existence of structures similar to this tomb in the LB, and Mycenean archetypes. The principal argument against it is that a structure that would have been ter- 4 Efforts were made in 2002 to reinforce and preserve the failing structure. restrial in the LB had then to be buried in the Iron I under a massive fill with a complex and crowded set of retaining walls. Subterranean chambers are subterranean, even in the case of Mycenean tomb types, and, comparatively, of painted banquet chambers in later, archaizing, Etruscan tombs. So the hypothesis of a partially terrestrial VIIA antecedent to the structure is unlikely on this score as well not just because the population of VI would have had to have buried the area. The tomb-complex is probably VIA, with no LB antecedent except the Migdol royal temple. This latter can of course have continued in use, into Iron I, whether architecturally complete or not. Earlier, the MB burials in the sacral area conform more or less to the church and cemetery model for the use of the space (see Hallote 1994). There is bricky collapse in the Stratum VII Area M-6 (LB II), as Finkelstein points out. M-6 contained remnants of buildings from Schumacher s Nordburg. There remains a foundation trench north of the tomb, down to a large basin. 5 The tomb is on this view VIA on VIIA walls. 6 In a sense, this is the opposite of the eastern exposure of the Solomonic gate, since larger stones are piled on smaller, which is either a stratigraphic or a hydrodynamic indication. The possibility of M-5 tomb construction thus remains. Figure 3. Bronze cymbals from Stratum VIA Photograph courtesy of the Megiddo Expedition of Tel Aviv University 5 I imagine there was also one from the south, now invisible except perhaps at the very bottom, where further excavation might destabilize the structure anew. 6 The architect who supervised the conservation suggested that the lower part is very different from the upper, although he nevertheless sees a unified structure here. If one dates the original structure to the LB II, one would do best to place it later, rather than earlier, in this period, and under a deliberate platform fill, and then to conclude that any architecture to which it was originally connected was cleared in the construction of Stratum VIA.

5 The Dawn of an Age: Megiddo in the Iron Age I 155 In 2000, we connected Stratum VIA to the tomb. In that level, at the entrance from a VIA structure to the tomb, we found a pair of bronze cymbals, with clips for handles set through their center (figure 3). We also found a number of large storage vessels. Norma Franklin, then supervising Area M, reports that excavations in 2004 yielded what was possibly a flute, along with further storage vessels. The combination of storage jars, musical instruments, and an empty tomb, with the exception of a few open vessel fragments, suggests that the corbeled tomb was actually a cultic structure, and specifically a marzēăḥ, or point of assembly for a funerary society, or of an association identified with piety toward the dead. There are other subterranean rooms. An example is Jerusalem Cave 1 in the seventh century, where numerous figurines appear, in association, as at Megiddo, to a terrestrial building (Franken and Steiner 1990:30 50, with comparison to Samaria shrine E 207). Another subterranean room was found below a house in Late Bronze Shechem (Campbell 2002:188, 192, 201, 205 8, interpreted as a storage area). Other sites probably also contain such rooms, and some tombs at Ugarit may not only be tombs note those with breathing tubes (compare with the central hole in the roof of the corbeled tomb) may have been marzēăḥs. These sites may represent holdovers of the family mortuary cult of the MB into the period of public/royal worship in the LB (so the implication of Hallote 1994). Attestations of the marzēăḥ come from Ugarit (see Miller 1971, with bibliography; Friedman ; Halpern 1979; on tombs, Lewis 1989; Schmidt 1996), Israel (Amos 6:3 7; Isa. 28:14 15, [Halpern 1986], indirectly, indicating celebration underground, Jer. 16:5 9, also with an implication of performance), Phoenician texts (Sakkunyaton on child sacrifice, but more directly the Marseille Tariff [KAI 69]), Palmyra (extensively: Hillers and Cussini 1996:386 87), Elephantine, the Mishnah (Porten 1968:179 86), Greece (homotaphoi), and Rome (collegia funeraria). The Greek and Roman versions, probably themselves under eastern influence, were sometimes outlawed along with other cross-cutting groups, such as trade unions (see Ward 1910:1.127, 278; 342, 548; 2.168, 199, 253, 268, , ). Latterly, suggestions for identifying other physical structures with the marzēăḥ have been submitted: citing some of these parallels, Bietak and Stager have plausibly proposed the association of extramural MB structures with its antecedents (Bietak 2003, with additional bibliography; Stager 2006, adverting to the Ugaritic and Israelite evidence in particular for the identification of its banquet and mercantile character, as in Greece and Rome). The Ugaritic and Palmyrene evidence makes it clear that storage was characteristic of these societies. The Israelite evidence makes it clear that music and banqueting were integral as well. This again comports with evidence in the area and in epigraphs, and with the transformation, in the ninth or eighth century, of Etruscan burial customs and with the paintings involving not just banqueting but accompanying music in the tombs. Such funerary societies had multiple functions. They were, of course, the antecedents of the Greek symposium (Burkert 1992:19 with bibliography) and the familial Roman banquet. In addition, they functioned as orders, to which members united by real or fictive kinship belonged, and in which they shared a common interest, particularly in the protection of landholdings. Most of all, they represented holdovers of the mortuary orientation that characterized most of the Middle Bronze Age (Hallote 1994:69 86), with some exceptions in MB IIC (Hallote 1994:98). To the east of and above the corbeled tomb was a large mudbrick mansion (figure 4), destroyed in the fierce conflagration at the end of Stratum VIA Schumacher s burnt layer (1908:75 90; Finkelstein, Ussishkin, and Deutsch 2006). This compound was probably a courtyard structure surrounded by dwelling and storage rooms. It included a dromos entrance into the corbeled tomb. So, in the center of the tell in Iron IA, we have a patrician residence with a cult focused on the underworld and perhaps collective ancestors but collective patrician ancestors of this and perhaps other compounds (the rapi»u of Stager 2006), not necessarily those of earlier kings of the site. Figure 4. Stratum VIA courtyard structure located east of and above the corbeled tomb Photograph by B. Halpern

6 156 Baruch Halpern Another large estate occupies the southeastern corner of the tell. In 2000, we broke through to the floors of the massive VIA destruction in Area K, Level 4. This was a courtyard house characterized by heavy and varied domestic industry, from flint retouching represented by hundreds of retouched flints and pieces of debitage to brick manufacture and stockpiling to oil stockpiling (and therefore marketing) to the import of Nile perch. The oil and perch probably belong together, suggesting the manufacture of fish oil and/or fish sauce in the area; and the perch, which appeared in large chunks represented by articulated spinal sections, is an oily fish (up to 20% oil content) not readily dried. The large chunks, represented by articulated spinal sections reflecting pieces up to 17.5 kg in size (Lernau 2000), must have been shipped in oil or water (Halpern 2000:554). The presence of the Nile perch indicates direct or mediated trade between K and Egypt. There was also a collection of fine vessels (figure 5). We are talking of considerable wealth. Figure 5. Vessels from Stratum VIA, Area K-4 Photograph courtesy of the Megiddo Expedition of Tel Aviv University The K-4 level was destroyed with Stratum VIA, in a fire exacerbated by the oil stocks. Below, K-5 was patchy. But the stone walls of K-6, on which those of K-4 were almost entirely built, met a flagstone floor, on which some centimeters of dirt had accumulated by the time of K-4. The industry differs from that in K-4, but includes, for example, an olive press (another of which must have been present nearby in K- 4). K-6 remains in the Iron I pottery tradition. K-5, thus, is only a group of isolated changes made over time in the architecture. The transition from K-6 to K-4 remains within Stratum VI. Since most walls of K-4 are directly atop or abutting walls of K-6, we are speaking about continuity from VIB, or at least an earlier phase of Stratum VI, to VIA, the final Iron I phase of occupation on the site. But, as at «Ein Zippori (Dessel 1999), the continuity runs deeper (see already Finkelstein 2000; 2003). There is a patchy K-7. Again, the alterations suggest a series of independent improvements to the earlier plan. In 2004, we exposed the LB IIB level K-8. 7 Most of its walls, too, directly underlie those of K-6 and K-4 (for further continuity from VIIA to VI, except in the area of the northern palace, AA, see Harrison 2004:10). The difference in K-8 is the presence, on the edge of the tell, of small square rooms, possibly for grain storage, in which, incidentally, a scarab ring with the image of Amun was found. The bottom of a Mycenean figurine of the zebra signaling a touchdown was found as well, in the middle square in the south. Gottlieb Schumacher associated another Mycenean-style sherd with Stratum VI (1908:taf. 24), along with numerous scarabs and seals, bronze and iron objects, lion figurines, and statuettes of baboons (1908:taf ). What we see here is the development of a patrimonial estate (for which concept see Schloen 2001, although the economic model omits the issue of positive externalities, and Stager 2003). The estates developed through the accumulation of capital earned through intensive and extensive agriculture, through industry mainly the processing of agricultural products and imported goods through the diversification of activities, and especially through mediation of trade among partners north and south. Over time this led to the vast wealth exhibited in VIA in K-4 and M- 4, including massive wooden beams in various areas of the site (our K-4 and see Harrison 2004:19 and n. 8). Indeed, the Ramses VI statue base under a wall of VII in CC may really be from one of several such estates in the southern part of the mound, with the statue removed at a later date, and the base being left, as at Twenty-first Dynasty Dab«a. 8 In this area, too, Chicago s excavation produced considerable evidence of continuity from VIIA directly to VIA (Harrison 2004:19). A large number of Aegean-, Cypriot-, or Philistine-style loomweights (Stager 1991:15) appeared in Area CC, along with its bathtubs (and Area AA, where the four bathtubs may have been associated with textile or with wine production: compare Harrison 2004:17 20), and a number of bronzes. 7 This will not be published until Megiddo 5 is assembled and issued (probably in 2010 or so). 8 One scenario might be that either the proprietor of the VIIA palace or that of some other, patrimonial, estate, forcibly removed the statue itself to his own establishment. A relocation of the Twenty-first Dynasty to Tanis may have been roughly contemporary with this development. On the other hand, the statue may have reached the site only in VIB. See below.

7 The Dawn of an Age: Megiddo in the Iron Age I 157 The wealth of VIA was not focused on a palace near the gate of the mound. Rather, exotic objects such as offering stands, theriomorphic containers for precious liquids, seals, a model shrine, scarabs, amulets, and other imports such as Aegean-style sconces are distributed around the site (Paice 2004; Halpern 2000: ). K-6, assuming that Stratum VI evolved at differential rates in different parts of the tell, represents the earliest phase of Stratum VI in Area K. It divulged two unexpected zoological finds. Two butchered dogs one a puppy in a pot have parallels in the Mycenean IIIC1:b phases of Ashkelon, Tel Miqne (Ekron), and Tel Batash (Timnah), though the butchered adult dog is so far paralleled only at Ashkelon. 9 Pig is present as well, and it is attested in elevated quantity at Mycenean IIIC1:b and perhaps early bichrome levels at Ashkelon, Miqneh and Batashi (e.g., Hesse 1986; 1990). This and the Mycenean figurine, and some late sub-mycenean ware, more amply represented in the Chicago excavations of the stratum, attest relations with Philistia, or one of its congeners, in a private estate rather than in the palace, as do ceramic pieces, such as the sconces, in AA and CC with Cypriote or Aegean connections. (Some scholars have suggested a Philistine presence in AA Building 2072, as Kempinski 1989:83.) In addition, the Amun scarab ring in Area K attests an Egyptian relation, as does the Ramses VI statue base in CC Room Although K-6 postdates the destruction of the VIIA palace, the presence of such ambassadors there, in a villa, mirrors the distribution of wealth in the rest of VIA. Relations with foreign ambassadors were now separated from the palace economy of the LB. By contrast, the Phoenician bichrome in VIA probably reflects ordinary local trade. A possible parallel is to the history of British involvement in India. Originally, the East India Company sent agents to negotiate and manage trade. But their trade embassies rapidly became embroiled in local conflicts and wound up taking sides with local factions; the rival factions were in turn supported by competing external groups, primarily French but also Portuguese. The same model applies to British involvement in southern Africa. This is probably the history of competing East Greek and Anatolian trade sponsors in Philistia as well (and note Barako 2000). Here, we should be seeking clear demarcation of the outsiders political and cultural differences, and re- 9 Brian Hesse, who identified the bones, in conversation; Hesse reports that the phenomenon occurs in late second millennium Spain in quantity, citing a conference paper that was unfortunately never published. gard them as competing with one another. (Imagine speaking of the European conquest of India in the eighteenth century, rather than the British.) Instead, it has been scholars tendency to lump the intruders together as Sea Peoples on the model of Ramesses III, or as Philistines, on the model of biblical texts starting perhaps in the late twelfth or eleventh century (Exodus 15); this model was certainly regnant by the tenth century (2 Samuel). But it may instead reflect eventual Philistine domination of other groups in the Pentapolis. 10 The eleventh-century Onomasticon of Amenope, after all, lists Sherden, Tjekker, and Philistines separately, after three names separating them from an enumeration of the towns our texts associate with Philistia (Gardiner 1948:nos [261 may be Ekron]). In other words, had we an archive comparable to that of Amarna for the twelfth and eleventh centuries, we should likely be hearing a great deal about competition and conflict even among the Philistine cities. Still, at Megiddo, there is no real sign, in the sense that we encounter in Philistia and at Dor, of exogenous colonization after VIIA, the last Late Bronze city there. Indeed, Finkelstein (2003:77) speaks of a New Canaan on the Iron I horizon, in which he includes not just Megiddo VIA but corresponding phases at Kinneret, Rehov, Dor, and possibly Tell Keisan, as well as numerous village sites (see esp. Ilan 1999:162 71; Faust 2000). Mazar (2003:93) adds Yoqneam to the list. The social developments hypothesized here at Megiddo may have been relatively widespread in the wealthier areas of the north. The K estate hosted foreign visitors. The marzēăḥ in Area M is away from the palatial area, AA (if, indeed, Building 2072 there was a palace), by the northern gate. In AA, Building 2072 exhibits contacts with Philistia and with Cyprus, as well as with Phoenicia. These Stratum VI estates had lands in the Jezreel and probably the hills along the Wadi «Ara, otherwise almost devoid of LB occupation (Gadot 1999: ). 11 Those living on the tell were the elite, 10 One theory might be that the group who first developed Philistine bichrome dominated the others, whether by diplomacy (Ekron) or by warfare (Ashdod). 11 There is no indication that the VIB/VIA distinction is a chronological indicator for more than local architecture. But for the distribution of objects in these layers, and particularly in the destruction of VIA, see Halpern 2000: The flint knapping in K-4 indicates an agricultural hinterland for the site, as does the massive quantity of olives and of oil there, not to mention the K-6 oil press. The textile industry in Area CC suggests either local or contracted

8 158 Baruch Halpern probably housing dependent populations, to judge at least from the skeletons found in Area K, and the larger number found by the University of Chicago expedition in Area CC (Harrison 2004:3 4, 8 9), some partly buried, others not. This fits, too, with the presence of the Ramses VI statue base. Both K and Area CC yielded a number of collar-rim storejars as well (Mazar 2002 versus Finkelstein, Zimhoni, and Kafri 2000:254 on the association of the type with VIA): this suggests that highland populations were at least trade partners, mixing like the Egyptians and Philistines into local politics, and possibly were even involved in connubium (see Esse 1992). On this scenario, the VIIA palace, and even the VIIB palace, may have been destroyed by wealthy kin-groups, proprietors of these estates, as once suggested by Albrecht Alt (1953c). In Alt s view, the aristocracy was in league with the Tjekker at Dor and especially with the Philistines. But the indications are rather that its various factions were in league with and especially trading, already in VIIA, with various foreign powers, possibly including competing groups among the Philistines, Phoenicians, and Cypriots, as well as the Tjekker and Egypt. The grievances of the local elites will have related to the resumption of trade toward the middle of Iron IA, at a regional level, partly because of Sea-People colonization and the cordon sanitaire erected around the colonies by Egypt (see Stager 1995; compare with the response of Finkelstein and Singer-Avitz 2001; Finkelstein 2005:33). While the economic stakes in such regional trade were probably small, the issue of social prestige loomed large, at least among the prosperous. In this view, the fall of the palace and the transformation of the site into the mudbrick town of Stratum VI, was partly a result of the introduction of Sea-People, Egyptian, Syrian, Canaanite, and Israelite elements as allies of some of the aristocracy on the site against the king. A picture of competing alliances, among the Sea Peoples themselves and with other local populations, emerges. Where Egypt stood after Ramesses III is an issue. To review, after the Asiatic campaigns of Thutmosis I had established Egyptian claims to an extensive empire, Thutmosis III made Megiddo IX the forward staging point for abiding administrative expansion in Asia. Under Amenhotep II, witnessed among other things by the organization of an expedition leaving from Megiddo in the Taanach Letters, it retained this status (Halpern 2000:543 45). The palace in Stratum IX did not just expand, but featured imports, such as pastoralism, more likely the former, and indications of local wine production suggest engagement in viticulture as well. seashell floors and Golan basalt, and exhibited some walls serviceable as fortifications (a similar thickness of walls is found in a massive Stratum VIII structure on the lower tell in the north). Meanwhile, the erection of Migdol Temple 2048 restored a royal cult to the sacral area in BB, replacing the familial cult located there during the Middle Bronze. In Stratum VIII, the royal establishment continued waxing with support from the Egyptian state and army, and perhaps by mobilizing local and even regional resources based on that support. The palace, though larger, no longer exhibits the massive walls of Stratum IX. We now find large basalt tables both in the palace and in Schumacher s Nordburg. Although the palace of VIIB was destroyed, signaling the weakening of royal authority on site, the palace of VIIA was wealthier still, including the Megiddo ivories. Even though the durables in this stratum could be heirlooms, they attest the accumulation and concentration of wealth specifically in the palace. Independence was unimaginable until later; but the statue of Ramesses VI could well be an artifact of the transition to Stratum VI, some of whose early phases exhibited stone foundations and even structural stone wainscoting that might be mistaken for construction of an earlier stratum. It is a possibility that the statue base was anchored in a secondary location by a Stratum VI foundation structure, although it must have reached the site originally in VIIA (compare with Harrison 2004:11). The later stages of the LB are represented in new excavation, thus far, primarily in our K-8. On that temporal horizon, the palace, whose defenses had earlier diminished, declined and fell. Further analysis is necessary to isolate insulae in VIIB A architecture around the site, to complement the case of K-8; there may be several in CC (covered admirably in Harrison 2004). The object would be to identify further patrimonial compounds in this layer, and, later, in Stratum VI architecture in the southern end, where the Ramses VI base appears in Area CC. But certainly the Ramses VI statue should have been in the northern, palatial sector of the VIIA site were powerful forces not at work elsewhere at Megiddo in securing contacts and this possibly already after the demise of the VIIB palace recalling again the shrinking of the royal temple, 2048 in VIIA. Notably, the basalt basins of the VIII (DD) palace enjoy parallels only in M, and we have olive presses in K-6 and M-6. Note also the growth of insulae compounds from VIIB to VIA. The shift in VB could not, in any sense, be more clear VB represents the first serious break since IX. But, again, outside the area of the northwest

9 The Dawn of an Age: Megiddo in the Iron Age I 159 palace, there is considerable continuity from Stratum VIIA to Stratum VI. But the key point is that the changes in the Canaanite city-states, either in the eleventh or indeed in the twelfth centuries, do not reflect peasant revolt or even flight. At Amarna, the situation is similar (Halpern 1983:88). For example, it is a regular complaint that captors ransom captives back to their original, mostly coastal, towns for certain sums (as Knudtzon 1915:55:48 52; 116:42 44; 245:24 35; 292:48 51; and, probably, 89:39 50; the issue is related to demands from Egyptian officials). Why? Because in the LB, cash-crop agriculture in the hills was a rarity. Rather, as in the accounts of the Peloponnesian War, much of the conflict was among elite groups, some of whom allied, say, with Amurru, and some of whom allied with forces to the south this is why Rib-Addi s successor in Byblos was in fact his brother (Knudtzon 1915:136 38; 142; 162:7 21). There was probably precious little authentic versus convenient loyalty to Egypt. The palace of the Canaanite city-state in the twelfth eleventh centuries depended heavily on the support of landed classes, of clients, who had accumulated land, capital, and power over the course of the LB II. Some of them allied with elements as Rib-Addi s brother and his faction did that opposed the policies and network of alliances of their predecessors. But this was inevitably the nature of politics within the hierarchy. What is interesting at Megiddo is that there is little evidence of much destruction outside of the LB palaces. This suggests that, in the instance, it was the local elites who, probably in the absence of a real Egyptian garrison, and thus after about 1160, turned on the king. In line with authentic Marxian ideas, the revolt was not proletarian, but haut bourgeois. One can imagine that processes, different but not dissimilar, characterized other lowland sites in the aftermath of Egypt s effective withdrawal. But the simple opposition of palace to commons is not reflected at Megiddo. Such a theory would underestimate the complexity of political alliance, among differential parts of the palace, the elite and the commons, as well as with foreign agents, that no doubt was more than less characteristic of city-state reality. Even for Amarna, with its rich documentation, no adequately diachronic and complex political analysis along such lines has been done. How the lowland sites were integrated into the United Monarchy of Israel remains a mystery. David did not conquer them certainly, no such claim is lodged in Samuel, and Judges 1 simply reinforces this impression. Yet Dor and the Jezreel fortresses were integrated into Solomon s kingdom. There are only two possibilities, disallowing conquest. The first is that locals who hoped to control sites such as Dor and Megiddo made common cause with the Israelite United Monarchy against factions of the Philistines; the latter, after all, were projecting their influence up the coast and across the Jezreel Valley (1 Samuel 27 2 Samuel 1). The second possibility is that local aristocracies engaged in warfare against one another on all sides of the conflicts of the time between Saul and the Philistines, between David and Absalom, and in circumstances of which we are not informed some of them on the assumption that David would permit autonomy in local governance, although demanding remissions from them. The installation of regional governors under Solomon (1 Kings 4:7 19), all with primary loyalty to the national state in Jerusalem (Mettinger 1971: ; Halpern 1974), and the dedication of former city-states such as Megiddo and Hazor to administrative populations, only put paid to that arrangement in some cases, suggesting that these towns were resistant to the new order (versus, say, Rehov or Taanach). Still, the wholesale incorporation of the Jezreel and coast into Solomon s kingdom does suggest as does the archaeology that the Israelite state, under Saul, David (perhaps most likely), or Solomon picked up the pieces of a system of political and economic relations that had fallen apart. Whether the origin of the change was Saulide, or came in the context of the Absalom revolt, is not yet clear. What is clear from the evidence at hand is that we should be placing a premium on two aspects of scholarship. One is the political economy reflected in biblical texts about the early monarchic period, including patterns of settlement and the development of administrative structures (on this last, see Niemann 1993). The other is the archaeology of social organization, and economic and mercantile relations, and their symbolic as well as practical expression, a subject to which Larry Stager has been a consistently innovative contributor. It is a pleasure and an honor to dedicate this article to him.

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