The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) will unveil a newly discovered assemblage from the eastern outskirts of Tel Megiddo tomorrow during the annual conference on innovations and research in northern Israel, co-hosted with the University of Haifa’s School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures. The cache contains Late Bronze Age cult objects and a 5,000-year-old winepress unearthed in a salvage excavation ahead of the Highway 66 upgrade led by Netivei Israel for the Ministry of Transport.
The excavation extended 1.2 kilometers along the highway’s “Section 2” and exposed hundreds of features from several periods. Among the earliest remains stands a rock-cut winepress dated to the Early Bronze IB period, roughly 5,000 years ago. The installation has a sloping treading floor that funneled grape must into a bedrock collecting vat. “One of the few winepresses known from so early a period, it coincides with the rise of the first urban centers in our region,” said excavation directors Amir Golani and Barak Tzin. “Until now, we had only indirect evidence for wine production 5,000 years ago; this is the smoking gun.”
Late Bronze Age II layers, about 3,300 years old, yielded a buried group of ritual vessels beside a large rock outcrop that may have served as an open-air altar overlooking Megiddo’s temple on the mound. The finds include jugs, flasks, imported Cypriot ware, and a rare libation kit shaped like a ram. “A small bowl attached to the ram’s body acted as a funnel, and another bowl was likely used to pour liquid into it,” the archaeologists explained. “When the ram was tilted, the liquid flowed from its mouth into a bowl set below.” Because the set was interred intact, it offers an unparalleled glimpse of Canaanite ritual practice. The team believes farmers placed offerings of milk, oil, or wine along the approach to Megiddo’s city gate, forming a popular cult alongside the formal temple inside the tel.
“The broad excavation along Highway 66 is revealing the wealth of history embedded in this soil; the wine-making installations and evidence of folk worship let us meet the region’s residents across millennia,” said IAA Director Eli Escusido.
Netivei Israel Chief Executive Nissim Peretz called the road project “a cornerstone of the Connecting Israel plan, linking the periphery with the center while maintaining safety and transport continuity,” and said the discoveries prove that national infrastructure can advance responsibly toward the past. The upgrade will convert the route into a dual carriageway with two lanes in each direction.
Beginning Sunday, 9 November, the finds will be displayed during guided tours at the National Archaeological Park of the Land of Israel named after Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein in Jerusalem; registration details appear on the IAA website. The authority stated that the Early Bronze Age winepress and Late Bronze Age cult burials together illustrate the early roots of regional viticulture and the enduring practice of ritual libations outside Megiddo’s sacred precinct.
The preparation of this article relied on a news-analysis system.