Reading down the sides of a balk such as this one, you can make out a number of different occupation strata. You can see the dark layer of ash just below the white line on the balk--this tells you that there was a destruction (perhaps by fire). Pottery and other finds have indicated there to be a major destruction level which likely took place in the Iron II period. What groups of people conquered the other cities of Israel at this time? Were there similar destructions found at Megiddo, Hazor,and Lachish at this time? Were there other records and/or biblical accounts of such destructions?

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