Image Details

OLAF TAUSCH, CC BY 3.0, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

BIBLICAL BATTLES. Recent archaeomagnetic research across the southern Levant has produced a high-precision model of the ever-changing magnetic field in the region. This makes it possible to pin down dates for several battles mentioned in the Bible, including the Levantine campaign of Pharaoh Shoshenq I (biblical Shishak) to the southern Levant in the late tenth century BCE. In his relief at the Temple of Amun in Karnak, Shoshenq lists Rehov and Beth Shean among the many polities he conquered, depicted here as bound prisoners identified with labels. Using archaeomagnetic dating, archaeologists have suggested connecting specific destruction levels at those sites with Shoshenq’s campaign of 925 BCE.