Standing atop Tel Megiddo, George Washington University archaeologist and military historian Eric Cline, the dig's former co-director, overlooks a panorama of biblical and violent lore. "Over there, to the left, is Mount Carmel, where Elijah the prophet is said to have pitted the Hebrew God, Yahweh, against the idols of the Canaanites, provoking the fall of a dynasty in the ninth century B.C.," he says. To the right, he points out Mount Tabor, where Deborah, mentioned in the Old Testament's book of Judges, calls on her general, Barak, to lead an Israelite army 10,000 strong in about the 12th century B.C. He then traces the strategic route taken by Pharaoh Thutmose Ill's army when it marched right up to Megiddo, engaging the Canaanites in the first recorded battle in the history of the world, in the 15th century B.C.
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