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Tell es-Samak

Coordinates: 32°49′30″N 34°57′19″E / 32.8249372°N 34.9552572°E / 32.8249372; 34.9552572
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Tell es-Samak
תל א-סמכ
Tell es-Samak is located in Israel
Tell es-Samak
Tell es-Samak
Shown within Israel
LocationIsrael
RegionHaifa
Coordinates32°49′30″N 34°57′19″E / 32.82500°N 34.95528°E / 32.82500; 34.95528

Tell es-Samak (Hebrew: תל א-סמכ, Arabic: تل السمك, romanized: Tell as-Samak) is an ancient Phoenician tell (mound) situated near the sea coast in the modern city of Haifa, Israel, just south of the Israeli National Institute of Oceanography. It has been called a "forgotten Phoenician site".[1]

Initially identified as Calamon (see Tell Abu Hawam), it was later identified by Israeli archeologists as the Jewish town of Shikmona (Hebrew: תל שִׁקְמוֹנָה, romanized: Šiqmônah), also spelt Sycamine.[2] Subsequent research found no evidence of Jewish artefacts, only Phoenician and Christian; nowadays researchers identify Tell es-Samak with Porphyreon (south).[3][4][5] The Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa writes that "It was wrongly identified with the Jewish Shikmona, but the latest research suggests that it should be identified as the Christian town of Porphyreon (south)."[6]

Archaeology

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19th century

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Victor Guérin wrote in his 1874 Description géographique, historique et archéologique de la Palestine that he believed Tell es-Samak was Calamon / Kalamoun of the Itinerarium Burdigalense and Isaac Chelo.[7][8]

It was described by the Palestine Exploration Fund in 1881 as follows:[9]

Tell es Semak: A low hillock by the sea. It is covered, as well as the shore near it, with ruins of dressed masonry, and there appears to have been a place of some importance at this site. Pottery, glass, and marble were found, and there are tombs east of it, in the sides of Carmel. Quantities of the ashlar blocks have been taken away, the holes remaining whence they were dug out. A fragment of a capital and coins (Byzantine) were here found by the Germans. Shafts and capitals of Byzantine appearance were also dug up. Fine building stones were transported to Haifa to build houses with. Large quantities of copper coins of Constantine were found, and a Crusading coin, with the date 127[•]. The tombs are rude caves, with loculi.

Elgavish excavations

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1927 map of the site from the Survey of Palestine.

The main archaeological excavations conducted at the site 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 Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and concentrated in the eastern part of the Byzantine city, west of the Carmel Mountain slopes, where the city's necropolis is. In 2010–2011, 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 tell itself. The goals of the project were to re-expose excavated archaeological complexes south and east of the tell previously 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 tell and create a precise chronological framework.[10][11][12]

Findings

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Mosaic floor at Tell es-Samak

The remains on the tell date from the Late Bronze Age to the Late Byzantine period. The lower city, east and mainly south of the tell, is dated to the Late Roman period-Byzantine period. No remains have been found dating to the Early Arab period, leading the archaeologists to conclude that Tell es-Samak was abandoned before the 7th century CE.

Tell es-Samak has yielded various types of sherds, the most common of which belonging to the red-slipped plates and bowls (Eastern sigillata A) made on the Phoenician coast during the 1st century CE.[13] In addition, archaeologists discovered evidence for dyeing industry based on the Murex sea snail, also known as Tyrian purple, dating back to the Iron Age.[14] The purple dye extracted from the mollusk was used by the potters of Tell es-Samak to paint pottery. After the discovery, the entire collection of painted pottery underwent a chemical analysis to determine the make-up of the paint, during which time it was confirmed that the color was an authentic purple dye extracted from the Murex sea snail.[15]

Identification

It is agreed among scholars that the site, Tell es-Samak, has no identification so far during the Biblical periods. Latest historical and archaeological research points towards the identification of the site during Hellenistic-Byzantine periods as Porphyreon (south). This new identification fits with the clear Christian remains at the site and the absence of Jewish ones as should be expected from Tell es-Samak.[4]

Nature reserve and national park

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Tell es-Samak was declared a 1677-dunam nature reserve in 2008. A small area (73 dunams) was declared a national park, as well.[16]

See also

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Bibliography

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  • Conder, Claude R. (1877). "Sycaminon, Hepha, Porphyreon, and Chilzon". Palestine Exploration Quarterly. 9 (4): 187–190. doi:10.1179/peq.1877.9.4.187. ISSN 0031-0328.

References

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  1. ^ Shalvi, Golan (2020). "Tel Shiqmona: a Forgotten Phoenician Site on the Carmel Coast". In Celestino Pérez, S.; Rodríguez González, E. (eds.). Un viaje entre el Oriente y el Occidente del Mediterráneo. Actas del IX Congreso Internacional de Estudios Fenicios y Púnicos, Mytra 5, Mérida. pp. 1885–1892. ISBN 978-84-09-23035-8.
  2. ^ Josephus, Antiquities 13.12.3.
  3. ^ Excavations at Tell es-Samak on the Shores of Haifa and its Identification as the Byzantine Porphyreon (Southern), 2021: "Elgavish’s excavations of the Hellenistic–Byzantine periods were only partially published, largely in popular science print. He identified the site as the Jewish Shikmona, despite the lack of any Jewish remains and abundance of Christian antiquities. Renewed excavations, directed by the author on behalf of the Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, in 2010–2013, unearthed additional information of the Byzantine period— mainly concerning the Southern Church and its inscriptions. The church was built in the end of the 4th–early 5th centuries C.E. During the first half of the 5th century, it was renovated, and later, around the mid-5th century, it was destroyed. This presentation, for the first time, focuses on the excavation results of the church and other Byzantine period finds—together with historiographical analyses, proof of the historical maps, the data derived from all the excavations, and the remains of the rich purple industry. All this allows us to identify the settlement as Porphyreon (the southern Porphyreon), and to suggest a new ethnic and chronological narrative for the site of Tell es-Samak"
  4. ^ a b Eisenberg, Michael (2021). "Tell es-Samak (Porphyreon/Shikmona) in the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Periods". Michmanim. 29: 55–78.
  5. ^ Di Segni, Leah (15 February 2009). "Christian Presence on Mount Carmel in Late Antiquity". In Dar, S. (ed.). Shallale — Ancient City of Carmel. Oxford: BAR. p. 226. ISBN 9781407303796. Retrieved 29 November 2025. Porphyreon should rather be located at Tell es-Samak and south of it; hence the name could easily have migrated the short distance to Crusader Haifa. Roman-Byzantine Sycamina-Haifa – or Sycamina and Haifa if they are not one and the same place– can best be located in the Haifa Bay, at Bat Galim and Haifa el-'Atiqa, as suggested by Mittmann
  6. ^ "Tell es-Samak/Porphyreon (Shikmona National Park)". Zinman Institute of Archaeology. University of Haifa.
  7. ^ Guérin, Honoré Victor (1874). Description géographique, historique et archéologique de la Palestine. 3 pt. [in 7] (in French). p. 275-276. Retrieved 29 November 2025. Pour accorder ces deux itinéraires, en apparence contradictoires, je crois qu'il faut admettre une transposition dans celui de Bordeaux et lire ainsi: * Civitas Ptolemaida: * Mutatio Sycaminos, XII millia. * Mansio Calamon, III millia; au lieu de: * Civitas Ptolemaida: * Mutatio Calamon, XII millia. * Mansio Sycaminos, III millia. En effet: * 1o entre Ptolémaïs et Heïfa el-A'tika ou Sycaminos, il n'y a que 12 milles romains, et cela par terre en suivant les contours de la baie, et non pas 15 milles. * 2o Entre l'emplacement de Heïsa el-A'tika et le Kharbet Tell es-Semak, réuni au Kharbet Tennameh, on ne compte, à la vérité, que 2 milles romains au lieu de 3; mais le Pèlerin de Bordeaux a pu, par erreur, indiquer un mille de trop entre Sycaminos et Calamon. * 3o Le Kharbet es-Semak et le Kharbet Tennameh offrent les restes d'une petite ville antique, qui sont très-certainement ceux dont parle Ishak Chelo sous le nom de Kalamoun. Tout porte donc à croire qu'il faut placer là la mutatio Calamon du Pèlerin de Bordeaux et, par conséquent, introduire dans le texte de l'itinéraire de cet auteur la transposition que je propose ici. Si, au contraire, le texte du Pèlerin de Bordeaux ne doit point subir ici de transposition, il faut reconnaître la mutatio Calamon dans la ville actuelle de Kaïpha, et la mansio Sycaminos à Tell esSemak. Dans ce cas, Eusèbe et saint Jérôme auraient eu tort de confondre Sycaminos avec Hepha. Ishak Chelo se serait également trompé en plaçant Kalamoun à Tell es-Semak, comme il semble le faire.
  8. ^ Conder, Claude Reignier (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: sheets I.-IV. Galilee. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. Retrieved 29 November 2025. These ruins are close to those of another place, which according to Guérin bears the name of Khurbet Tennameh. The same traveller calls attention to a discrepancy between the 'Itinerary' of the Bordeaux Pilgrim and that of the Rabbi Ishak Chelo, who travelled in Palestine in the year 1333. The latter says that from Cæsarea one goes by sea to Kalamun, and from Kalamun to Haifa. But the pilgrim places Kalamun between Ptolemais and Sycaminos, that is, north of Haifa. Guérin proposes therefore to read the Pilgrim thus. (1) Civitas Ptolemaida : (2) Mutatio Sycaminos xii. millia: (3) Mansio Calamon iii. millia. That is to say, he would substitute Sycaminos for Calamon, which agrees with the distance between Ptolemais and Haifa or Sycaminos. It is true that the distance from Haifa to Tell es Semak is not more than three miles. If the transposition is not allowed, then these ruins should be those of Sycaminos.
  9. ^ Conder, Claude Reignier (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: sheets I.-IV. Galilee. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. p. 352. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  10. ^ "Zinman Institute of Archaeology Shikmona Archaeological Project". Zinman Institute of Archaeology. Retrieved 17 April 2017.
  11. ^ "Zinman Institute of Archaeology Shikmona Archaeological Project poster" (PDF). Zinman Institute of Archaeology. Retrieved 17 April 2017.
  12. ^ Eisenberg, M.; Bar, S., eds. (September 2021). "Tell es-Samak (Shikmona/Porphyreon) on the Haifa Coast". Michmanim (29). Hecht Museum. ISSN 0334-7311.
  13. ^ Andrea M. Berlin, "Jewish Life Before the Revolt: The Archaeological Evidence", in: Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Period, vol. 36, no. 4 (2005), p. 445.
  14. ^ "The Price of Purple: Archaeologists have found new evidence of a robust dye industry that endured on the Mediterranean coast for millennia". archaeology.org. 2020.
  15. ^ Israel Antiquities Authority - The Forty-fifth Archaeological Congress in Israel, The ancient purple industry in Tel Shekmona, p. 8 (in Hebrew)
  16. ^ "List of National Parks and Nature Reserves" (PDF) (in Hebrew). Israel Nature and Parks Authority. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 October 2009. Retrieved 27 September 2010.

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

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