When did Megiddo fall silent? Rethinking the end of an Assyrian provincial capital

What is it about?

In the 7th century BCE, control of the southern Levant passed from the Assyrian Empire to Egypt and then to Babylon. Written sources for this period are scarce, so sites with a clear archaeological sequence are especially valuable. Megiddo, the seat of the Assyrian province of Magiddû, is one of them. The Megiddo excavators recently argued that the city remained a fortified administrative centre throughout the century and ended as an Egyptian stronghold. We re-examined the site’s layers and its main pottery groups (Phoenician, Greek, Egyptian and Assyrian-style) and reached a different conclusion: Megiddo was abandoned around 640 BCE, well before the Assyrian Empire collapsed, and was not meaningfully resettled during the Iron Age.

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Why is it important?

The date of Megiddo’s abandonment changes how we understand the end of Assyrian rule in the region. If the site’s last two Iron Age strata both belong to the Assyrian province, and there is no Babylonian occupation, then the move from Assyrian to Egyptian and Babylonian control was not a sudden event at the end of the century. It was a gradual process that began decades earlier than usually thought. Megiddo’s detailed record offers a rare, high-resolution view of this poorly documented period.

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