Tel Shikmona

Tel Shikmona
תל שִׁקְמוֹנָה
Shown within Israel
Location Israel
Region Haifa
Coordinates 32°49′30″N 34°57′19″E / 32.82500°N 34.95528°E / 32.82500; 34.95528
Tel Shikmona

Tel Shikmona (Šiqmônah, Hebrew: תל שִׁקְמוֹנָה‬, Tel a-Samakh) is an ancient tell (mound) situated near the sea coast on the modern city of Haifa, Israel, just south of the Israeli National Institute of Oceanography.

History

The main archaeological excavations conducted in the tel and in the Byzantine city south of it were carried out by the archaeologist J. Elgavish in the 1960s-70s on behalf of the Department of Museums, Municipality of Haifa.

Salvage excavations were conducted in the 1990s by the IAA and concentrated in the eastern part of the Byzantine city, west of the Carmel Mountain slopes, were the city's necropolis is. In 2010 a new series of excavation seasons was conducted by a team from The Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, headed by Dr. Michael Eisenberg with Dr. Shay Bar directing the excavations on the tel itself. The goals of the project were to re-expose excavated archaeological complexes south and east of the Tel (excavated by Elgavish), expand those areas and undertake extensive conservation work in order to preserve the antiquities and present them to the public as part of Shikmona Public Park. The work also aimed to study the stratification of the tel and create a precise chronological framework.[1][2]

The remains on the tel dated as from the Late Bronze to the Late Byzantine period. The lower city, east and mainly south of the tel is dated to the Late Roman period-Byzantine period. No remains have been found so far dating to the Early Arab period, leading the archaeologists to conclude, Shikmona was abandoned before the 7th century CE.

Shikmona was declared a 1677-dunam nature reserve in 2008. A small area (73 dunams) was declared a national park, as well.[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Zinman Institute of Archaeology Shikmona Archaeological Project". Zinman Institute of Archaeology. Retrieved 2017-04-17.
  2. ↑ "Zinman Institute of Archaeology Shikmona Archaeological Project poster" (PDF). Zinman Institute of Archaeology. Retrieved 2017-04-17.
  3. ↑ "List of National Parks and Nature Reserves" (PDF) (in Hebrew). Israel Nature and Parks Authority. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-10-07. Retrieved 2010-09-27.

Coordinates: 32°49′30″N 34°57′19″E / 32.8249372°N 34.9552572°E / 32.8249372; 34.9552572

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