n>James Henry Breasted, the founding director of the newly-established Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, had been wanting to dig at Megiddo, the site of biblical Armageddon, ever since June 1920. It was Lord Edmund Allenby, hero of the Allied forces in the Middle East during World War One and victor of the battle fought at Megiddo in 1918, who convinced Breasted that he should begin a new series of excavations at the ancient site. ‘Allenby of Armageddon’, as he was frequently called though his official title was ‘Viscount Allenby of Megiddo’, had won the 1918 battle at the ancient site in part because of Breasted’s multi-volume publication, Ancient Records of Egypt, which appeared in 1906. In one of those volumes, Breasted translated into English the account of Pharaoh Thutmose III’s battle at Megiddo in 1479 BC. Breasted’s translation allowed Allenby to successfully employ the same tactics 3,400 years later. Read Full Article »