Hershel Shanks

Grain silo. Two staircases—one presumably for going up, the other down—wind their way up and down the sides of this huge silo. Dated to the ninth or eighth centuries B.C.E., this storage pit measures 21 feet deep and 34 feet across at the top. Excavators discovered traces of grain and chaff in the chinks of the stones; they estimate that the silo could hold about 12,800 bushels of grain. A dome, possibly of mudbrick, probably covered the silo when it was in use.