Footnotes

1.

See Israel Finkelstein and David Ussishkin, “Back to Megiddo,” BAR 20:01.

2.

Based on the length of an active fault, we can estimate the largest potential magnitude (M) of its earthquakes. For the Carmel-Gilboa system, this is M6 to M6.5 on the Richter scale, comparable to the M7.6 earthquake in Northridge, California, in 1994.

3.

Strata (singular i) are the layers of occupation excavated at an archaeological tell. The most recent layer, near the top of the tell, is numbered one. The numbers progress as archaeologists dig deeper into the ground, revealing earlier and earlier occupation layers. The numbers of the Megiddo strata used in this article are those assigned by the Oriental Institute excavators.

5.

See Andrew Stewart, “A Death at Dor,” BAR 19:02.

Endnotes

1.

The Annals of Thutmose III’s military campaign are carved on the walls of the Temple of Karnak. See James B. Pritchard, ed., i, 3rd ed. (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1969), p. 237.

2.

These earthquakes occurred in c. 1400 B.C.E., c. 1250 B.C.E., c. 1020 B.C.E., c. 760 B.C.E., 31 B.C.E., 363 C.E., 749 C.E., 1202 C.E., 1546 C.E., 1859 C.E. and 1927 C.E.

3.

Kathleen M. Kenyon, Archaeology in the Holy Land (London: Benn; New York: Norton, 1979), 4th ed., p. 188.

4.

Graham I. Davies, Megiddo (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1986), p. 64.

5.

“It appears that the first impression of the (early) Megiddo excavators was correct and that the cause of the massive destruction was a high intensity earthquake,” Aharon Kempinski, Megiddo (in Hebrew) (Tel Aviv: Hakibutz Hameuchad, 1993), p. 208; see also p. 94.

6.

David Soren, “An Earthquake on Cyprus,” Archaeology38:2 (1985), pp. 52–59.

7.

Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 15.121–122.