29 revious discussions of the Hebrew term mig- dal and its Ugaritic equivalent magdalu— both of which were references to towers in Iron and Bronze Age texts—have been dominated by two concerns. The first of these preoccupations is with the identification of the settlement of Migdôl in Egypt (e.g., since Gardiner 1920: 107–10), which is associated with the Exodus tradition as well as later settlement during the Iron Age (if both of these references were, indeed, to the same settlement in Egypt). The other preoccupation is with the remains of Middle Bronze Age temples in the southern Le- vant that have been commonly, though probably mis- takenly, identified as migdal-temples (see discussion below). Much greater attention should be given, however, to the evidence relating to the Arabic toponym máj- dal (pl. majadil) and its variants, which have for quite some time been correlated with the Northwest Semitic (hereafter NWS) and Hebrew terms magdalu and migdal, respectively. The retention of the earlier toponyms among modern Arabic place names facil- itates the location of these Bronze and Iron Age settlements throughout the Levant. The evidence re- lating to these toponyms is collected in this study in order to demonstrate how this term was frequently used to designate strategically located military settle- ments established from as early as the Middle Bronze Age through the Iron Age, which are best described as observation posts. methodology Previous studies of the historical geography of the Near East have amply demonstrated that Arabic toponyms often preserve the ancient names of Near Eastern settlements. The classic case study of this fact is certainly the identification of biblical places in the southern Levant. Although much of this work was accomplished during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, similar efforts continue to be under- taken by scholars working with toponyms found in Magdaluma, Migdalîm, Magdoloi, and Majadil: The Historical Geography and Archaeology of the Magdalu (Migdal) Aaron A. Burke Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures University of California, Los Angeles Box 951511 Los Angeles, CA 90095–1511 burke@humnet.ucla.edu Several lines of evidence permit us to characterize ancient Levantine settlements whose modern place names include variations of the Arabic term májdal. It has been suggested for some time that these sites preserve the locations of Bronze and Iron Age watchtowers, though this has not been unequivocally demonstrated. However, textual ref- erences to Bronze Age magdaluma, Iron Age migdalîm, and Classical magdoloi, when compared against the locations of majadil, indeed support the identification of these sites as Bronze and Iron Age military observation towers. This fact is further supported by archaeological data available from nearly half of these settlements. The distribution of Arabic majadil reveals a logical selection of strategic positions within the Levantine landscape for the establishment of towers that served as part of an integrated defensive network related to the major political centers of the Levant, principally during the Mid- dle and Late Bronze Ages. P