A 5,000-year-old wine press has been unearthed next to the iconic archaeological site of Tel Megiddo, providing the earliest evidence of wine production in the Land of Israel, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced Wednesday.
The press was uncovered during a salvage excavation ahead of road construction to expand Route 66.
The dig also uncovered several small pits used to bury cultic objects, including a unique ram-shaped pottery vessel and a small model of a shrine. The artifacts date back approximately 3,300 years and offer a glimpse into the cultic practices that the early Israelites encountered as they clashed with the Canaanite people, according to Dr. Amir Golani, IAA director of excavations at the site.
"Megiddo is one of the largest and most important archaeological sites in Israel; it's really a linchpin of archeological research in Israel," Golani told The Times of Israel in a phone interview.
"It's situated in a strategic location, with a water source and fertile lands," he added. "It is an ideal location for settlements, and settlement at Megiddo began during the Neolithic period, already more than 10,000 years ago. [Archaeologists] have found remains from that period and all the way to modern times."
Researchers have been excavating the mound, or tell, that was the heart of the settlement, for over 100 years, uncovering layers and layers of occupation and activity.
The site is also famous because the New Testament describes "Armageddon" -- a corruption in Greek of the Hebrew Har Megiddo, or Megiddo hill -- as the location of the final battle between God and the forces of evil at the end of times (Revelation 20:7-9).
Golani's team recently worked in an area about 1.2 kilometers (three-quarters of a mile) long adjacent to the mound and next to the current road.
"The tell was the focal point of settlement," he said. "In our findings, we're looking at how the [surrounding areas] were connected to the settlement in different periods, and how the settlement grew or contracted over time."
Approximately 5,000 years ago, the Early Bronze Age marked the dawn of urbanization in the ancient land of Israel.
"We already knew that Megiddo at the time was a very important place, because previous excavations by Tel Aviv University uncovered a huge, monumental temple, which appears to have been a gathering place for many people who came to Megiddo," Golani explained.
"With our excavation, we discovered that the settlement extended far beyond the boundaries of the tell, and it was therefore much larger than what we had ever expected," he said.
The IAA archaeologists uncovered the remains of many structures.
"We found several agricultural installations, and one of them was a wine press," Golani said.
He explained that they could date the wine press to 5,000 years ago thanks to the pottery sherds found within it as well as its archaeological context, as the installation was surrounded by several residential buildings.
"The dating of the wine press was done on the basis of associated finds -- datable ceramics that covered the press and other associated finds such as the architectural elements around it. The buildings around were all typical of the period and had numerous datable finds such as ceramics inside them as well," he said.
"In the past, we had indirect evidence that wine was consumed in the region at the time, such as pits of domesticated grapes and vessels we believed were used for wine, but we never had direct proof that wine was produced in the land of Canaan in the Early Bronze Age."
According to Golani, numerous ancient wine presses have been uncovered in archaeological excavations in modern-day Israel; however, it's often impossible to date them precisely. He said that other ancient wine presses found in the Land of Israel date back to the Late Bronze Age (1600-1200 BCE) or the Iron Age (1200-586 BCE), while the oldest wine press known in the world was found in modern Georgia in the Caucasus, dating back to at least 6,000 years ago.
The recently excavated 5,000-year-old press "is the most ancient securely dated wine press ever found in this area," the scholar noted.
Fast forward some 1,700 years, and Megiddo was still the location of a temple and an important center of worship.
Based on the artifacts uncovered by the IAA archaeologists, ceremonies and rituals also took place outside of the boundaries of the tell.
"In the Late Bronze Age, the Egyptian empire of the New Kingdom had political, military, and cultural hegemony over the land of Canaan," Golani said. "Megiddo was a cultic and administrative center and the seat of a very large temple."
The temple likely drew a significant number of pilgrims.
According to Golani, based on the findings outside the temple compound, it is possible that poorer people were denied access to the settlement and were instead left to worship outside, in an area where the temple was still clearly visible.
The archaeologists found several pits containing artifacts that they interpreted as cultic objects.
"They were buried next to a rock outcrop that they could have used as a form of altar to bring offerings," he said.
In one pit, they unearthed a pouring vessel shaped like a stylized ram, along with three bowls that appeared to have been part of a set designed for pouring liquid in and out of it.
"This is a libation kit," Golani said. "A liquid was ritually poured, maybe to consecrate something, anoint something, or even to be offered as a drink as part of a religious ceremony. The kit was purposefully buried."
"Sherds of similar objects had already been uncovered in the past, but this is the first time that not only a complete artifact, but even a complete set has been found, allowing us to fully appreciate its function," he added.
The researchers are currently attempting to identify any residue of liquid in the vessels.
In a different pit, the researchers found a rudimentary clay model of a Canaanite temple.
"This is a much less refined, smaller, and simpler artifact than other temple models found in the past," Golani said.
According to the researcher, the findings might open a new window into how Canaanite lower classes worshiped.
"The simplicity might be a reflection of more folksy ritual," Golani said. "What makes it so fascinating is that maybe we can see how the common people were making offerings in their religion outside the city. We are making an assumption, but it is very clear that this is a form of religion that we were previously unaware of."
Golani stated that tombs were also discovered in the same area as the pits; however, at this stage, it is not possible to determine whether there was any connection with the objects.
The Late Bronze Age coincided with the time the Israelites emerged as a people in the region (the earliest mention of the word "Israel," dating from circa 1208 BCE, is found on the Merneptah Stele, describing the Egyptian king's military victories in Canaan).
At the time, the Land of Israel was largely divided into Canaanite city-states.
In the book of Deuteronomy, God commands the Israelites to completely destroy the Canaanites (Deuteronomy 20:16).
"You could think that the cultic practices we uncovered are the kind of cultic practices that the Israelites came up against," Golani said.