It is a great pleasure to acknowledge that I was one of the thirty-six inaugural recipients (2015–16) of a Public Scholar grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to work on this book; I hope that they will overlook the fact that it took far longer to complete than I had originally anticipated. That grant allowed me to spend the spring 2016 semester researching and writing full-time, in conjunction with a leave granted by a very understanding administration at George Washington University (GWU).
I had previously received a Collections Research Grant from the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago and a sabbatical leave from GWU during the spring 2015 semester, which allowed me to take the first preliminary steps toward tackling the material. The final push was subsequently made possible by a Dean’s Research Chair fellowship from GWU, which allowed me to do additional research and writing during the summer and fall of 2018, as well as to be on leave during the spring 2019 semester in order to put the final touches on the manuscript and begin to see the project through the publication process.
I am grateful to all of the above, as well as to the student participants in my undergraduate seminar on Megiddo, taught at GWU during fall 2016. They allowed me to try out numerous ideas and provided me with their feedback and insights in return.
The vast majority of the archival material cited and quoted here comes from the archives at the Oriental Institute Museum of the University of Chicago, primarily filed under “Megiddo Collection” or “Director’s Correspondence.” This archival material is, however, not currently digitized and must be accessed in person. Much of the additional cited material appears courtesy of the archives of the Israel Antiquities Authority (available online at http://
Further material comes from the Rockefeller Archive Center in Sleepy Hollow, New York (http://
Overall, I am extremely grateful to all those who made this archival material and other relevant items available to me for observation and publication, and who have allowed me to quote liberally from their holdings. These include the following (in no particular order and with sincere apologies in advance to anyone whom I may have accidentally omitted).
Gil Stein (former director), John Larson and Anne Flannery (successive archivists), Kiersten Neumann (curator and research associate), Helen McDonald (registrar), Susan Allison (associate registrar), Catie Witt (intern), and Charles E. Jones (former research archivist—bibliographer) at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, as well as Jack Green (former chief curator) and Jean Evans (current chief curator) of the Oriental Institute Museum; Silvia Krapiwko, head of the Archives Branch at the Israel Antiquities Authority; Lee R. Hiltzik (senior research associate), Amy Fitch and Tom Rosenbaum (archivists), and the rest of the incredible staff at the Rockefeller Archive Center; Alessandro Pezzati, archivist at the Penn Museum; Felicity Cobbing, executive director at the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF); Ken Grossi (archivist) and Ed Vermue (special collections and preservation librarian), as well as Louisa Hoffman (archival assistant), at Oberlin College; Daisy Njoku of the National Anthropology Archives at the Smithsonian Museum Support Center, Smithsonian Institution; the various archival assistants in the Manuscript Reading Room of the Library of Congress (Madison Building); Aaron J. Brody (director) and Tara Lewandowski (collections manager) at the Badè Museum of Biblical Archaeology, Pacific School of Religion; Cynthia Rufo-McCormick, archivist and website manager at the American Schools of Oriental Research; Sue Richter (director) and Alan Woodrum (volunteer coordinator) at the Lamon House in Danville, Illinois; Ryan Rikicki (director), as well as Rose Overton and Linda Warrum, at the Working Men’s Museum in New Harmony, Indiana; Patricia Sides, archivist at the Willard Library; Dan Elliott, web manager for the Maple Hill Cemetery in New Harmony, Indiana; David Woolman, son of Laurence and Janet Woolman, who allowed me to see and cite his unpublished manuscript about his parents’ time at Megiddo and Luxor; Barbara A. Keller, who provided material and photographs from the estate of Stanley Fisher; Steven R. Fisher, grandson of Clarence S. Fisher; Michael Stanner, grandson of Yemima Guy; Annabelle Redway Dunn and Merrell Redway Cherouny, granddaughters of Gordon Loud, as well as cousins Susan Gordon Kern and Gordon S. Loud; and Carol DeLoach Fletcher, daughter of Edward and Florence DeLoach, who went far beyond the call of duty to provide material from the letters, diaries, and photographs of her parents. Quotations or citations of archival and other material in this book appear courtesy of the above-named institutions, museums, and individuals, to all of whom I am most grateful.
I also owe thanks to a number of other individuals for providing information about a variety of topics, as well as assistance in searching for and procuring various documents, including Herb Somers of the GWU Jacob Burns Law Library; Shmuel Ben-Gad of the GWU Gelman Library; Ruth Levush of the Global Legal Research Center at the Law Library of Congress; Jennie Ebeling of the University of Evansville; Edhem Eldem of Bosphorus University; Yasar Ersoy of Hitit University; Zeynap Kiziltan, director of the Istanbul Archaeological Museums; Nazan Ölçer, director of the Sabanci Museum; Sabine Böhme of the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin; Anat Kidron and Yaron Perry at the University of Haifa; Eran Arie, the Frieder Burda Curator of Iron Age and Persian Period Archaeology at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Raz Kletter of the University of Helsinki; Shimon Gibson of UNC Charlotte; and Israel Finkelstein and David Ussishkin (emeritus) of Tel Aviv University and the Tel Aviv Megiddo Expedition. As with my other books, I could not have written this without the assistance of many other people as well; they are too numerous to mention by name here, but they know who they are and that I am immensely grateful for their efforts on my behalf.
For their labors and permissions regarding the photographs and other illustrations reproduced in this book, I would like to specifically thank Anne Flannery and Susan Allison at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago; Ed Vermue and Ken Grossi at Oberlin College; Cynthia Rufo-McCormick at the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR); Felicity Cobbing at the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF); Daisy Njoku at the Smithsonian Museum Support Center; and Barbara A. Keller, Jack Green, Michael Stanner, Zeev Herzog, Norma Franklin, and Dan Elliott. I would also like to thank Eisenbrauns and Pennsylvania State University Press for permission to republish the material pertaining to Rosamond Templeton and her ownership of Megiddo.
As for additional thanks and expressions of gratitude, once again I would like to single out my intrepid editor, Rob Tempio, and all of the hardworking people at Princeton University Press, for their belief in me, their patience, and for helping me turn this book into reality. In particular, however, I would like to especially thank Norma Franklin, who knows all the details about Megiddo past and present, and without whose tremendous store of knowledge this book could not have been written. Both Mitch Allen and Jill Rubalcaba helped make my wordsmithing inestimably better than it would have been otherwise; I am also grateful to a number of additional people who read through parts or all of the manuscript while it was in draft form, including Bill Dardis, Jean Evans, Steve Fisher, Anne Flannery, Norma Franklin, Rachel Hallote, Randy Helm, Michael Howell, Barbara Keller, Raz Kletter, and Sarah Parcak.
Finally, I would like to respectfully dedicate this book to the memory of James Henry Breasted and all of the staff members and their spouses who took part in Chicago’s excavations at Megiddo, as well as to my Megiddo family, including all of the staff and team members of the Tel Aviv Expedition past and present. I would also like to thank once again my real family—Diane, Hannah, and Joshua, as well as the cats—who put up with me being away at Megiddo every other summer for as long as they can remember.