87 Entering the Arena: The Megiddo Stables Reconsidered Norma Franklin University of Haifa Much has been written about the stables of Megiddo Stratum IV 1 since a series of tripartite buildings were discovered in 1928 during excavations conducted by The Oriental Institute under the direction of P. L. O. Guy. 2 The buildings continued to be identifed as Solomon’s Stables until the early 1970s, when Yadin conducted a number of small-scale excavations on behalf of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and dated them down to the 9th century BCE; consequently, they became known as Ahab’s Stables 3 (Yadin 1970; 1976). The Megiddo Expedition of Tel Aviv Univer- sity launched a large-scale excavation of the site in 1992, and excavations in the area of the northern stables (Area L) were resumed in 1998. The Tel Aviv University excavations resulted in the stables being dated later—yet again—to the 8th cen- tury BCE and cautiously attributed to Jeroboam II (Cantrell and Finkelstein 2006: 644–45; Finkelstein 1999: 63–66). The Construction of the Stable-City It is important to note that the stables were not just one aspect of Stratum IV at Megiddo—they were its raison d’être. In order to fully understand how profound a change took place, one must briefy look at the previous city. The Preceding Phase (Stratum V) The multi-phased Stratum V city 4 was exposed in ca. 50% of the upper tell. There 1. Author’s note: I am very happy to dedicate this paper to Israel Finkelstein—a paper whose incep- tion really dates back to 1991 when Israel invited me to help him launch the Megiddo Expedition. Little did I know then what a joyous 20-year ride I was about to have. Thank you, Israel, for being there as an enthusiastic PhD adviser and wise mentor. I would like to thank Deborah Cantrell and Eric Cline for reading earlier drafts of this paper and adding valuable comments and insights. I am particularly indebted to Deborah Cantrell, who introduced me to the importance of the horse in the Levant. “Stratum IV” is The Oriental Institute at The University of Chicago’s name for the stable- city. The name was changed to “Stratum IVA” following The Hebrew University of Jerusalem excavations conducted by Yigael Yadin in the late 1960s. “Stratum IV” will be used in this article. 2. Guy sent a cable to James Henry Breasted at The Oriental Institute on June 4, 1928, an- nouncing he had found Solomon’s Stables (The Oriental Institute Archives). The story was an- nounced to the world via The New York Times on August 8, 1928. 3. Yadin supported the identifcation of the buildings as stables; it was only their date of construction that he questioned. 4. Gordon Loud, the third director of The Oriental Institute excavations, noted that Stratum V had no less than three phases (Lamon and Shipton 1939: 7 n. 4). The term “Stratum V” includes certain elements of the so-called Stratum IVB (VA–IVB). For a full analysis, see Franklin 2006. For a response to certain criticisms, see Franklin 2007. Original footnotes 4 and 5 have been combined; coming in such proximity to one another made good page layout impossible.