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raw archaeologic evidence from the ancient city of Megiddo — the locating of the last struggle " Armageddon " in the Book of Revelation — endure the scriptural story of an Israelite king and Egyptian Pharaoh of Egypt collide there more than 2,600 years ago .
According to the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament ( which are slimly different collections of ancient Hebrew authorship ) , theKingdom of Judah ’s King Josiah confronted the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho II at Megiddo in 609 B.C. Now , an psychoanalysis of ancient pottery fragments indicate that Megiddo was indeed occupied by the Egyptians at that fourth dimension , Israel Finkelstein , an archeologist at the University of Haifa and Tel Aviv University , recount Live Science .
The large numbers of pottery fragments from seventh century B.C. Egypt and Greece unearthed at the Megiddo archaeological site correspond to references in the Bible.
Finkelstein is the lead author of a written report describing the finds , which was publish Jan. 28 inThe Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament . He tell in an email that large Book of Numbers of Egyptian pottery fragment had been discovered alongside Greek clayware fragments in a bed go steady to the belated seventh 100 — a clip whenEgypt often employed Hellenic mercenariesalongside Egyptian scout troop . The researchers determined the ancestry of the fragments by examining the character of clay and their style .
The fragments support the biblical accounts that Egyptian personnel were at Megiddo during Josiah ’s reign . However , the findings are n’t direct evidence that Josiah was at the battle . If he was there , as the Bible says , it ’s unclear if Josiah snuff it from wounds he ’d suffered during a engagement against the Egyptians at Megiddo , or if he was executed there as a vassal of the Pharaoh of Egypt . Josiah ’s death was afterwards say to foretell the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. to the Neo - Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar II , whose force-out destroyed the First Temple , also live as Solomon ’s Temple .
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(Image credit: Megiddo Expedition)
ArchaeologistAssaf Kleimanof Ben - Gurion University , a cogitation co - source , told Live Science in an email that the opposition between the two ruler was describe differently in two different stead in the Bible . " The Josiah - Necho consequence at Megiddo in 609 BCE is described in the Bible twice : as an executing in a short chronistic verse in Billie Jean King and as a critical battle in Chronicles , " he said . The Book of king was written close to the prison term of the report outcome , but the Book of Chronicles was composed century later , so the account in the Book of world-beater was more authentic , he say .
The finds suggest that Egyptian troops were place there with a contingent of Greek mercenaries when the biblical King Josiah of Judea was killed in 609 B.C.
expert say it is not clear whether King Josiah fail to Megiddo to do battle as an enemy or as the loss leader of a vassal state who was executed by Pharaoh Necho .
(Image credit: Megiddo Expedition)
Ancient city
The ruination of Megiddo are now in a national park about 18 mile ( 30 kilometers ) sou'-east of Haifa . Megiddo was a strategically important metropolis at a crossroads on trade and military path , and it was occupied at different time by Canaanites , Israelites , Assyrians , Egyptians and Persians . Many neat engagement occurred at Megiddo , and its name inspired the Word of God " Armageddon"—the location of a concluding battle prophesy in the New Testament’sBook of Revelation , which now have-to doe with in the main to the idea of the end of the worldly concern .
Excavations at Megiddo have unearthed more than 20 archaeological layers since the 1920s . The layer with Egyptian and Hellenic clayware fragments draw in the latest study is among several layers that date from after 732 B.C. , when book signal Megiddo was conquer by the Neo - Assyrians under their king Tiglath - Pileser III . According to the Bible , the northern realm of Israel fell to the Neo - Assyrians about 10 years later on , followed by the ejection of the " 10 tribes " or " lost tribes " of Israel .
The many fragments of Greek pottery found at Megiddo suggest a contingent of Hellenic mercenary were send there alongside Egyptian troops .
(Image credit: Megiddo Expedition and Sasha Flit/Tel Aviv University)
The many Egyptian pottery fragment found in the same spot betoken Megiddo was then under the military control of a force of Egyptian troops .
Battle or execution
There is debate among academics whether the encounter between Josiah and Necho at Megiddo in 609 B.C. was actually a battle , or if Necho had merely executed his feudatory Josiah there — in other words , whether the southerly Israelite realm of Judah was subordinate to Egypt at that time . The Bible does not register this , but story and archeology show Egypt contract over the region after 630 B.C. as Neo - Assyrian force pass up .
HistorianJacob Wright , a prof of Hebrew Bible at Emory University who was not involve in the study , told Live Science that Josiah had credibly traveled from Jerusalem to Megiddo to pay court to Necho but was executed there for an unknown reason .
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Wright andReinhard Kratz , a historiographer at the University of Göttingen in Germany who was also not involved in the study , both noted that the relevant poesy in the Book of Kings say only that Josiah traveled to Megiddo and was " put to death " there — and that nothing was written about a battle until more than 100 days later in the Book of Chronicles .
The authors of the new study , too , are cautious about the circumstance of Josiah ’s expiry .
Finkelstein take down that Josiah was count an exceptionally pious big businessman , and that the idea of " Armageddon " had only begin after his death . This indicate Josiah ’s death had leave to prophecies that the final fight between the forces of God and the force of evil would take place where he died , Finkelstein say .
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