The Four-Chambered Gate at Megiddo

ABSTRACT

Work at Megiddo in 2018 shed light on Gate 3165 of Stratum VIA (late Iron I) and the six-chambered Gate 2156 of Strata VA-IVB and IVA (late Iron IIA and early Iron IIB). The disputed question of the number of gates which post-date Gate 2156 was only briefly discussed. Continued investigation of the gates’ area in 2022 assembled information for the existence of a four-chambered Gate 500b, described by the University of Chicago excavator as a construction error, which was replaced by the two-chambered Gate 500a. The new data is presented here.

KEYWORDS:

• Megiddo
• Iron Age II
• Gates
• 8^th Century bce
• Ancient Israel
• Fortifications
• City Walls

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Note that the six-chambered gate has been referred to as Gate 2156 because this was the locus of the floor that the original excavators associated with it. As we indicated in previous articles and demonstrate in more detail here, Floor 2156 is, in fact, the floor of the later gate. The term Gate 2156 has been retained because of its use in the literature. Ergo, in our usage, Gate 2156 should be distinguished from Floor 2156. See below.

2 That is, in contrast to Floor 2156 which was at the top of the preserved portion of the Gate.

3 The Megiddo Expedition is conducted under the auspices of Tel Aviv University. Consortium members are the Jezreel Valley Regional Project (JVRP), The George Washington University, Fuller Theological Seminary. The Expedition is directed by Israel Finkelstein (Tel Aviv University), Matthew J. Adams (W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research) and Mario A.S. Martin. In the 2022 season the Expedition was supported by the Shmunis Family Foundation, the Katzman Family Foundation and Mr. Jacques Chahine. The excavation in the gates (Area Z of the current Expedition) was supervised by Eythan Levy, assisted by Marko Runjajić and Charles Fineran.

4 It is difficult to decide between the two solutions. That several blocks of the third course are missing here (Fig. 4; see also Loud 1948: Fig. 94) supports the former; the plans in Megiddo II (Loud 1948: Figs. 105, 389), which show Floor 3 touching on the pier, may hint at the latter.

5 For the outer gates, not discussed here, see Finkelstein et al. 2019.

6 To differ from the debris on Floor 1, there is no collapse of bricks on Floor 2 (see, Fig. 4), indicating that Gate 2156 was indeed replaced rather than destroyed.

7 The chambers of the new gate are larger than those of Gate 2156, i.e. 9 m in depth instead of 5 m. Perhaps this was done when Megiddo was turned into a horse-industry town. O'Daniel Cantrell (2011: 80–81) raised the possibility that a gate with deeper chambers was essential for the horse industry – each chamber could fit two horses hitched to a chariot.

8 The poor wall seen in the middle of Section B in Figure 3 may hint at a phase of activity after the destruction of Stratum IVA and before the construction of Gate 500a.