Lead isotopes may link the earliest silver hoard from Megiddo to the military campaign of Thutmose III

Abstract

During the University of Chicago excavations at Megiddo, a 135 g hoard of silver fragments wrapped in cloth and enclosed in a small clay jug was unearthed in a room with an earthen or plastered floor, in a focal point of the Middle Bronze (MB) city. It was affiliated by the excavators with Stratum XIIIA, dated to the MB I. The hoard is published here for the first time, along with various possibilities for its dating, the weights of the items, and the chemical composition and isotopic ratios of a selected number of them. Although the hoard could be associated with several overlying MB II strata, the isotopic ratios of the silver, combined with archaeological considerations, suggest that it be placed in the Late Bronze Stratum IX and associated with the siege and takeover of Megiddo by Thutmose III in the mid‐15th century bce.