Tel Shikmona ( he, תל שִׁקְמוֹנָה, translit= Šiqmônah), or Tell es-Samak ( ar, تل السمك, translit=Tell as-Samak), also spelt Sycamine, is an ancient Phoenician
tell (mound) situated near the
sea coast
The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...
in the modern city of
Haifa
Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...
,
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, just south of the
Israeli National Institute of Oceanography. It has been called a "forgotten Phoenician site". Nowadays researchers identify Tell es-Smak with Porphyreon (south).
History
In the
Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax
The ''Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax'' is an ancient Greek periplus (περίπλους ''períplous'', 'circumnavigation') describing the sea route around the Mediterranean and Black Sea. It probably dates from the mid-4th century BC, specifically t ...
it is mentioned the Sykaminon (Συκάμινον) as a city of the
Tyrians
Tyre (; ar, صور, translit=Ṣūr; phn, 𐤑𐤓, translit=Ṣūr, Greek ''Tyros'', Τύρος) is a city in Lebanon, one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, though in medieval times for some centuries by just a tiny pop ...
, and also that there was a river of the same name.
Stephanus of Byzantium
Stephanus or Stephan of Byzantium ( la, Stephanus Byzantinus; grc-gre, Στέφανος Βυζάντιος, ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD), was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethni ...
called it Sykaminon (Συκαμίνων) and called it a city of the
Phoenicians
Phoenicia () was an ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient thalassocracy, thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-st ...
.
Josephus
Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for ''The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly d ...
in his ''
Antiquities
Antiquities are objects from antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean: the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures. Artifacts from earlier periods such as the Meso ...
'' mentions Shikmona (''Sycamine'') as being a place where ships could be brought to harbor, and where
Ptolemy Lathyrus
Ptolemy IX Soter II Ptolemy IX also took the same title 'Soter' as Ptolemy I. In older references and in more recent references by the German historian Huss, Ptolemy IX may be numbered VIII. ( el, Πτολεμαῖος Σωτή ...
, during an incursion in the country, had brought his army ashore.
Strabo
Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...
mentions the site (Sycaminopolis, Συκαμίνων πόλις) as being no more than a ruin in his own day. The
Mishnah
The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Torah ...
(''Demai'' 1:1), compiled in 189
CE, mentions the region of Shikmona as being renowned for its cultivated variety of
jujubes
Jujube ( or ; also known as jube or juju) is a gummy type of candy drop.
History
A recipe for "pate de jujubes" was published in 1709.
The recipe called for gum arabic, sugar, and the date-like jujube fruit. In 1853, both "ju ju paste" and "j ...
(
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
: ''rīmīn''). The
Bordeaux pilgrim
The ''Itinerarium Burdigalense'' ("Bordeaux Itinerary"), also known as the ''Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum'' ("Jerusalem Itinerary"), is the oldest known Christian ''itinerarium''. It was written by the "Pilgrim of Bordeaux", an anonymous pilgrim ...
in 333 CE passed through ''Sycaminon'' while traveling through the Holy Land.
Archaeology
Excavation history
The main archaeological excavations conducted at the tell 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
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA, he, רשות העתיקות ; ar, داﺌرة الآثار, before 1990, the Israel Department of Antiquities) is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of ...
(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 th
Zinman Institute of Archaeologyat the
University of Haifa
The University of Haifa ( he, אוניברסיטת חיפה Arabic: جامعة حيفا) is a university located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Founded in 1963, the University of Haifa received full academic accreditation in 1972, becoming Is ...
, 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.
Findings
The remains on the tell date from the Late
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
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 Shikmona was abandoned before the 7th century CE.
Tel Shikmona has yielded various types of
sherds
This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains.
A
B
C
D
E
F
...
, the most common of which belonging to the red-slipped plates and bowls (
Eastern ''sigillata'' A) made on the
Phoenicia
Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...
n coast during the 1st century CE. In addition, archaeologists discovered evidence for dyeing industry based on the
Murex
''Murex'' is a genus of medium to large sized predatory tropical sea snails. These are carnivorous marine gastropod molluscs in the family Muricidae, commonly called "murexes" or "rock snails".Houart, R.; Gofas, S. (2010). Murex Linnaeus, 1758 ...
sea snail
Sea snail is a common name for slow-moving marine gastropod molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguished from snails primarily by the ...
, also known as
Tyrian purple
Tyrian purple ( grc, πορφύρα ''porphúra''; la, purpura), also known as Phoenician red, Phoenician purple, royal purple, imperial purple, or imperial dye, is a reddish-purple natural dye. The name Tyrian refers to Tyre, Lebanon. It is ...
, dating back to the
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
. The purple dye extracted from the
mollusk
Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...
was used by the potters of Shikmona 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.
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 expected from Shikmona.
Nature reserve and national park
Shikmona was declared a 1677-
dunam
A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; tr, dönüm; he, דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount ...
nature reserve in 2008. A small area (73 dunams) was declared a national park, as well.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shikmona
National parks of Israel
Archaeological sites in Israel
Land of Israel
Tel Shikmona
Tel Shikmona ( he, תל שִׁקְמוֹנָה, translit= Šiqmônah), or Tell es-Samak ( ar, تل السمك, translit=Tell as-Samak), also spelt Sycamine, is an ancient Phoenician tell (mound) situated near the sea coast in the modern city of ...
Tel Shikmona
Tel Shikmona ( he, תל שִׁקְמוֹנָה, translit= Šiqmônah), or Tell es-Samak ( ar, تل السمك, translit=Tell as-Samak), also spelt Sycamine, is an ancient Phoenician tell (mound) situated near the sea coast in the modern city of ...
Tel Shikmona
Tel Shikmona ( he, תל שִׁקְמוֹנָה, translit= Šiqmônah), or Tell es-Samak ( ar, تل السمك, translit=Tell as-Samak), also spelt Sycamine, is an ancient Phoenician tell (mound) situated near the sea coast in the modern city of ...
Tells (archaeology)
Phoenician cities