Armageddon. John of Patmos saw the great battle, where the "demonic spirits" would join "the kings of the whole world" and battle against the armies of "God Almighty." Revelation 16: 14,16 reads: "They are demonic spirits that perform signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty...Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon."  Since then, few words in the English language have carried the power of "Armageddon" -- the great symbol of the end of times apocalyptic battle royale. Why did John see this as the site for his great showdown? What is there about the hill of Megiddo (now Armageddon) that would inspire such violent imagery? Today we find out. We speak with the man who wrote "the" book on the Collapse of the Late Bronze Age and now has written "the" book on the history of the great dig at Har Megiddo and what was found there.   In this interview we cover the VERY violent past of Megiddo, the many battles that were waged there, and its status in the Bronze Age Collapse. Dr. Cline shares rare insights into the writing and teaching and researching life, references his extensive corpus of work, and previews some of his coming releases.   He also paints a sobering, not to say grim, picture of how similar our civilization today is to the end of the Late Bronze, and how a knowledge of history can go a long way toward saving the world. Highlights include comments on the origins of the Sea Peoples, the evidence for EXTENSIVE drought and famine at the end of the Late Bronze, the great plagues of the Hittites and Athens, a cryptic pleading letter from the King of Ugarit, the digs at Megiddo and the 34 battles fought there including Dr. Cline's own digs at Megiddo (!), the Great Temple of Megiddo from the 31st century BCE, John of Patmos and his Revelation of the penultimate battle at the end of time, and why he couldn't possibly have chosen a more apropos place to have a good apocalyptic war. Visit Dr. Cline: ehcline.com Buy his books: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=eric+cline&ref=nb_sb_noss_1 Write to me: thobhpodcast@gmail.com Intro song: Kaiak "Run to the Hills" Art: Ian Armstrong