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THE BIBLE UNEARTHED: THE MAKING OF A RELIGION -- ILLUSTRATED SCREENPLAY & SCREENCAP GALLERY |
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Megiddo, Israel
In the strata of the Megiddo site corresponding to this period, the remains of a flourishing city have been found. During the whole of the 13th and 14th centuries, Megiddo was apparently a prosperous Canaan city, but suddenly, around 1130 B.C., it was destroyed.
A layer of carbonized debris that is clearly visible in many areas of the site,
attests to the violence of the event that caused this destruction.
[Israel Finkelstein, Tel Aviv University] Megiddo is only one piece of evidence in a much bigger picture of the destruction of Canaanite culture. Other places were also put to the torch: Hazor, Lachish, Bethel and Megiddo. HOWEVER, NOT IN THE SAME TIME. Some of them came down in the 13th century. Others survived a little bit. Some of them were destroyed in the 12th century B.C. It took about a century until all of them were put to the torch.
Who did it, then? And why?
[Narrator] If we broaden our perspective, we can see that the entire Levant region underwent an intensely troubled period at the time. Egypt was no longer the power of bygone days, and had lost its far-off colonies one-by-one. The Hittites who controlled Asia Minor at the north of Syria, disappeared, as did the Mycenaean civilization and its monuments. As for the Levant city-states, they were swept away.
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