Wednesday, March 21, 2007

March 21, 2007: My Own Armageddon


Today, we went to Megiddo for a tour by my friend Norma Franklin, of Tel Aviv U. This was my 4th time to the site. Norma is the volunteer coordinator for the dig there and gave me a private 4 hour tour 6 years ago. Megiddo is interesting for lots of reasons that have nothing to do with it’s infamous reputation. For me, the big interest is in the fact that there are mason’s marks there that may have a connection to earlier Aegean marks based on the possible use of Carian mason’s there.

When we arrived at Megiddo, I got 2 of my fingers stuck in the car door. Besides the pain, I was very worried at first as the last time this happened, so much blood built up under the nail, that I had to go to the emergency room and they made a tiny hole in the nail to release the blood. Fortunately, this did not happen and we were able to continue our site tours with a trip to Caesarea after Megiddo. After 12 hours of site visits, I went to the last half of my Hebrew class. I was so tired when I got home, I could barely eat.

The photo shows the so-called north stables at Megiddo. Another group are sometimes called the stables of Solomon. It is unlikely that they were either, but instead are large, 3 aisle warehouses supported by rows of stone pillars and linked with trade. Similar 3 aisled storage buildings occur on Cyprus.

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