Ancient Megiddo Unearthed: Israel Discovers 5,000-Year-Old Winepress and Hidden Canaanite Ritual Treasures Beneath Highway Project

In the heart of Israel’s Jezreel Valley, where the echoes of ancient battles still whisper through the plains, archaeologists have uncovered extraordinary relics that rewrite the early story of urban civilization and Canaanite ritual life.

Beneath a routine highway upgrade east of Tel Megiddo, the location known in the Christian world as the place where "Armageddon" will begin, a team from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has unearthed a 5,000-year-old rock-hewn winepress and a 3,300-year-old cache of ritual vessels, revealing a snapshot of everyday life and worship that predates biblical Israel by millennia. 

Armageddon" is the Greek name for "Har Megiddo," which is Hebrew for "Mount of Megiddo. Megiddo is an ancient city in modern-day Israel and the biblical location prophesied as the site of a final, decisive battle between good and evil. Its strategic importance historically made it the site of many actual battles, leading the author of Revelation to choose it as the symbolic location for the end-times conflict.

A Vineyard of the Ancients

The Early Bronze Age winepress, carved masterfully into solid bedrock, features a sloped treading floor feeding into a collection vat, a design that speaks to organized, even industrial-scale production.
Excavation directors Dr. Amir Golani and Barak Tzin described the find as a breakthrough in Israel’s archaeological record:

“This winepress is unique, one of very few known from such an ancient period when urbanization first began in our region. For the first time, we have clear, physical proof that early wine production actually took place here.”

For decades, scholars speculated that the Canaanites may have produced wine as early as 3000 BCE, but until now, evidence had been purely circumstantial. This discovery, Golani said, is the “smoking gun”, tangible proof of one of humanity’s oldest and most cherished crafts.

Ritual Secrets from the Canaanite Age

Alongside the winepress, archaeologists unearthed a Late Bronze Age ceremonial hoard, including a 3,300-year-old ceramic shrine model, imported Cypriot jugs, and an intact zoomorphic libation set shaped like a ram.
Such sets are usually found only as fragments, leaving researchers to guess their purpose. This complete assemblage, buried deliberately and undisturbed, provides an unprecedented window into Canaanite ritual life.

“For the first time in the entire region,” the IAA noted, “we can glimpse how the Canaanites actually performed their ceremonies and what role these vessels played in their worship.”

The find vividly illustrates the spiritual landscape outside the fortified city of Megiddo, where everyday people honored their gods through offerings of oil, wine, and incense, centuries before the rise of the Israelites.

📸 Aerial view of Tel Megiddo 🏛️—the ancient city tied to 26 layers of history and the biblical “Armageddon.” A must-visit site where prophecy, archaeology, and beauty meet in Israel. #Megiddo #Israel #Aerial #History #Archaeology #Bible #HolyLand #Travel pic.twitter.com/JSUKgfx2Js

— Israel with Aviel (@israelwithaviel) August 21, 2025

Ancient Industry Meets Modern Infrastructure

The excavation was triggered by highway construction under Netivei Israel – National Transport Infrastructure Company.
When workers noticed unusual stone alignments during earthworks for Highway 66, they immediately alerted the IAA. The salvage dig that followed transformed a modern infrastructure project into a portal to the Bronze Age.

Netivei Israel CEO Nissim Peretz hailed the cooperation as a model for national progress rooted in heritage:

“These remarkable discoveries are a national asset, proof that advancing Israel’s infrastructure can go hand-in-hand with preserving its ancient soul.”

IAA Director Eli Escusido added:

“The exposure of ancient wine-making facilities and folk worship outside Megiddo lets us see the daily life and beliefs of the region’s residents across thousands of years.”

Select artifacts will soon go on public display at the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of the Land of Israel in Jerusalem.

Amid the fertile Jezreel Valley in modern-day Israel lies a site layered in myth and ruin—Tel Megiddo, the ancient city that time knew as Armageddon. Once a strategic stronghold commanding the main trade route between Egypt and Mesopotamia, Megiddo's ruins whisper of battles,… pic.twitter.com/5OO6odje6b

— ArchaeoHistories (@histories_arch) September 19, 2025

Megiddo: The Crossroads of Civilization

Tel Megiddo, known in the Bible as the fateful “Armageddon”, has been a magnet for archaeologists for more than a century.
Yet these latest discoveries reveal a new dimension, a bustling agricultural and spiritual community that thrived outside the city walls, bridging the gap between Megiddo’s urban elite and the farmers, vintners, and worshippers who supported them.

As Dr. Golani summarized,

“Megiddo has always been a symbol of power and prophecy. Now we can see the people who built that power, the ones who pressed its wine, raised its offerings, and laid the foundations of the first cities in our land.”