The Bible tells the story about a king who died at the hands of an Egyptian pharaoh in a battle at Armageddon, and new evidence may prove scripture to be true.
Archaeologists have uncovered buried ruins and pottery at a site of the ancient city of Megiddo where scripture says Josiah was killed in 609BC and is the Hebrew phrase for Armageddon.
Analysis of the artifacts suggested that the building was constructed around the mid-seventh Century BCE, not long before Necho was said to have killed Josiah.
The vast majority of the pottery was Egyptian, specifically from the Nile Valley, including vessels that varied widely in shape and size and served many different functions.
Assaf Kleiman, co-researcher from the Haifa University, said: ‘This is not decorated fine tableware, so it’s very hard to argue that someone at Megiddo, a deportee or a surviving Israelite, all of a sudden acquired a taste for sub-par Egyptian pottery and decided to import it into his house.’
Therefore, the most likely explanation for its presence at Armageddon is that it was brought there by Necho’s army and later abandoned, the researchers concluded.
While this new evidence does not tell us much about the details of Josiah’s death, it does point to Necho’s military presence at Armageddon around that time, bringing experts one step closer to understanding what took place on that ancient battlefield.
Archaeologists have found evidence to support the Biblical story of Josiah, the last king of Judah, who was fatally wounded during the last battle of Armageddon
Most of the city of Armageddon had been excavated in the 1920s. But one area in the northwest corner of the site, known as ‘Area X,’ had been left untouched
Josiah, according to the Bible, was known for leading a revival and reformation of Judah by ordering the repair of the temple of the Lord.
Necho was on his way to aid the Assyrians in the northern Levant, and his army was marching through Judah. Josiah and his army met the Egyptians at a nearby mountain pass where the two armies clashed at Megiddo.
Until recently, however, experts had not found any archaeological evidence to support the story of Josiah’s fatal shooting there.
The research team conducted excavated the site known as Armageddon from 2016 to 2022.
Most of the city had been unearthed in the 1920s, but one area in the northwest corner of the site, known as ‘Area X,’ had been left untouched.
Lead researcher Israel Finkelstein and his colleagues focused their efforts on that part of the city, and soon unearthed a large building that contained a cache of pottery, at least five rooms and a paved courtyard.
‘When we opened the boxes of finds from the dig at my lab in Ben-Gurion University, I told my students to put the Egyptian pottery on the tables, and table after table got filled,’ Kleiman told Haaretz.
‘The number of Egyptian vessels is double of even triple the amount found in the entire Levant for that period,’ he added.
The vast majority of the pottery was Egyptian, including vessels that varied widely in shape and size and served many different functions
The Bible states that Necho’s archers mortally wounded Josiah on the battle field and he was brought back to Judah’s capital city, Jerusalem, to die
As for the Greek vessels, historical and archaeological evidence supports the idea that Necho’s army was accompanied by Greek mercenaries, according to the researchers.
Further analysis confirmed that the pottery discovered at Armageddon came from the Nile Valley or Delta, but it is unlikely that they were imported because of their crude make, according to the researchers.
The team discussed their findings in two papers published in the January and February editions of the Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament.
The story of Josiah established end-of-the-world traditions in Judaism and Christianity that revolve around the site of his death: Armageddon.
The term ‘Armageddon’ appears only once in the Bible, in Revelation 16:16, but ti is also a Hebrew phrase meaning ‘Mount Megiddo.’
