Tel Shikmona

Tel Shikmona

Tel Shikmona (Šiqmônah, Hebrew: תל שִׁקְמוֹנָה‎) 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 while Dr. Shay Bar is directing the excavations in the tel. The goals of the Haifa University project is 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 renewed excavations in the tel aimed mainly at the Persian, Iron and LB starta.

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.^[1]

References

1. "List of National Parks and Nature Reserves" (PDF) (in Hebrew). Israel Nature and Parks Authority. Retrieved 2010-09-27.

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