The Jezreel Valley Regional Project is a long-tem Archaeological survey excavation project exploring the Jezreel Valley, in the southern Levant the Prehistoric through the Ottoman and British Mandate periods in Israel/Palestine. [1]
The project is directed by Matthew J. Adams. Its stated mission is to present a "a total history of the region using the tools and theoretical approaches of such disciplines as archaeology, anthropology, geography, history, ethnography, and the natural sciences, within an organizational framework provided by landscape archaeology". [2]
The Jezreel Valley Regional Project undertakes excavations at key sites for Biblical archaeology and Judeo-Christian history, including Tel Megiddo, Tel Shush, Ein el-Jarba, Tel Shimron and the Roman camp town of Legio. [3] [4] [5]
Monographs and edited volumes
Articles
Megiddo is a kibbutz in northern Israel, built in 1949. Located in the Jezreel Valley, it falls under the jurisdiction of Megiddo Regional Council. In 2022, it had a population of 867.
Tel Megiddo, called in Arabic Tell el-Mutesellim, 'Mound of the Governor', is the site of the ancient city of Megiddo, the remains of which form a tell, situated in northern Israel near Kibbutz Megiddo, about 30 kilometres (19 mi) south-east of Haifa, at the western edge of the Jezreel Valley. Megiddo is known for its historical, geographical, and theological importance, especially under its Greek name Armageddon. During the Bronze Age, Megiddo was an important Canaanite city-state. During the Iron Age, it was a royal city in the Kingdom of Israel.
The archaeology of Israel is the study of the archaeology of the present-day Israel, stretching from prehistory through three millennia of documented history. The ancient Land of Israel was a geographical bridge between the political and cultural centers of Mesopotamia and Egypt.
Israel Finkelstein is an Israeli archaeologist, professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University and the head of the School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures at the University of Haifa. Finkelstein is active in the archaeology of the Levant and is an applicant of archaeological data in reconstructing biblical history. Finkelstein is the current excavator of Megiddo, a key site for the study of the Bronze and Iron Ages in the Levant.
The Jezreel Valley, or Marj Ibn Amir, also known as the Valley of Megiddo, is a large fertile plain and inland valley in the Northern District of Israel. It is bordered to the north by the highlands of the Lower Galilee region, to the south by the Samarian highlands, to the west and northwest by the Mount Carmel range, and to the east by the Jordan Valley, with Mount Gilboa marking its southern extent. The largest settlement in the valley is the city of Afula, which lies near its center.
Tel Hazor, also Chatsôr, translated in LXX as Hasōr, named in Arabic Tell Waqqas / Tell Qedah el-Gul, is an archaeological tell at the site of ancient Hazor, located in Israel, Upper Galilee, north of the Sea of Galilee, in the northern Korazim Plateau. From the Middle Bronze Age to the Iron Age, Hazor was the largest fortified city in the region and one of the most important in the Fertile Crescent. It maintained commercial ties with Babylon and Syria, and imported large quantities of tin for the bronze industry. In the Book of Joshua, Hazor is described as "the head of all those kingdoms". Though scholars largely do not consider the Book of Joshua to be historically accurate, archaeological excavations have emphasized the city's importance.
Tel Arad, in Arabic Tell 'Arad, is an archaeological tell, or mound, located west of the Dead Sea, about 10 kilometres west of the modern Israeli city of Arad in an area surrounded by mountain ridges which is known as the Arad Plain. The Tel overlooks an important crossroads from the Early Bronze Age to the present day. During the Iron Age, Arad defended the main road that went from Jerusalem, Hebron, the Arad Valley towards the ruins of Horvat Uza and the Dead Sea.
Legio VI Ferrata was a legion of the Imperial Roman army. In 30 BC it became part of the emperor Augustus's standing army. It continued in existence into the 4th century. A Legio VI fought in the Roman Republican civil wars of the 40s and 30s BC. Sent to garrison the province of Judaea, it remained there for the next two centuries.
David Ussishkin is an Israeli archaeologist and professor emeritus of archaeology.
Legio was a Roman military camp south of Tel Megiddo in the Roman province of Galilee.
Rafi Greenberg (Rafael) is a senior lecturer in archaeology at Tel Aviv University.
Lajjun was a large Palestinian Arab village located 16 kilometers (9.9 mi) northwest of Jenin and 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) south of the remains of the biblical city of Megiddo. The Israeli kibbutz of Megiddo, Israel was built 600 metres north-east of the depopulated village on the hill called Dhahrat ed Dar from 1949.
The Yarmukian culture was a Pottery Neolithic A (PNA) culture of the ancient Levant. It was the first culture in prehistoric Israel and one of the oldest in the Levant to make use of pottery. The Yarmukian derives its name from the Yarmuk River, which flows near its type site of Sha'ar HaGolan, near Kibbutz Sha'ar HaGolan at the foot of the Golan Heights. This culture existed alongside the Lodian, or Jericho IX culture and the Nizzanim culture to the south.
Nuris was a Palestinian Arab village in the District of Jenin. In 1945, Nuris had 570 inhabitants. It was depopulated during the 1948 War on 29 May 1948 under Operation Gideon. The Israeli moshav of Nurit was built on Nuris' village land in 1950.
Tel Shimron is an archaeological site and nature reserve in the Jezreel Valley.
Tel Jezreel is an archaeological site in the eastern Jezreel Valley in northern Israel. The city of Jezreel served as a main fortress of the Northern Kingdom of Israel under king Ahab in the 9th century BCE.
Megiddo church, near Tel Megiddo, Israel, is an archaeological site which preserves the foundations of one of the oldest church buildings ever discovered by archaeologists, dating to the 3rd century AD. The ‘Megiddo Church’, as the room became known, was dated to circa 230 AD on the basis of pottery, coins, and the inscriptional style. The site’s abandonment, circa 305 AD, is evident in the purposeful covering of the mosaic, and relates well to the crisis of 303 AD, when the Christian communities of Judea experienced the Diocletianic Persecution.
Tel Yokneam, also spelled Yoqne'am or Jokneam, is an archaeological site located in the northern part of the modern city of Yokneam Illit, Israel. It was known in Arabic by a variant name, Tell Qamun, believed to be a corruption of the Hebrew name. The site is an elevated mound, or tel, spanning around 40 dunams and rising steeply to a height of 60 meters (200 ft). With a few brief interruptions, Yokneam was occupied for 4,000 years, from the Middle Bronze Age to the Ottoman Empire.
Matthew J. Adams is an archaeologist who specializes in the Near East. He earned his degrees at Pennsylvania State University and the University of California, Los Angeles. He served as the director of the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem (2014–2022), and is the current the president of American Archaeology Abroad, Inc. He has worked on several archaeological projects in the past, and is currently director of the Jezreel Valley Regional Project, Co-Director of the Megiddo Expedition along with Israel Finkelstein and Mario Martin, and co-director of the Solomon's Pools Archaeological Project with Mark Letteney.