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Courtesy of Israel Finkelstein

Three scholars, one stratum. The interpretation of Megiddo Stratum VI has a long and tangled history. Leading the Chicago excavation in 1934 was P.L.O. Guy, who oversaw the greatest exposure of Stratum VI remains. When that year’s excavation season ended, however, Guy was dismissed from his job by the director of the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute, James Henry Breasted. Breasted was impatient with Guy’s slow progress. After Guy’s departure the Stratum VI records lay neglected until 1990, when Douglas Esse located them in the Chicago archives, and planned to publish them in a scholarly monograph. Esse’s death in 1992 stalled the project, but Harrison, Esse’s former student, is now working toward its completion.