תל א-סמכ | |
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  Tell es-Samak Shown within Israel | |
| Location | Israel |
|---|---|
| Region | Haifa |
| Coordinates | 32°49′30″N34°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), meaning 'mound of the fish',[1] is an ancient Phoeniciantell (mound) situated near thesea coast in the modern city ofHaifa,Israel, just south of theIsraeli National Institute of Oceanography. It has been called a "forgotten Phoenician site".[2]
Initially identified as Calamon (seeTell Abu Hawam), it was later identified by Israeli archeologists as the Jewish town ofShikmona (Hebrew:תל שִׁקְמוֹנָה,romanized: Šiqmônah), also spelt Sycamine.[3][4] Subsequent research found no evidence of Jewish artefacts, only Phoenician and Christian; nowadays researchers identify Tell es-Samak withPorphyreon (south).[5][6][7] The Zinman Institute of Archaeology at theUniversity 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)."[8]
Victor Guérin wrote in his 1874Description géographique, historique et archéologique de la Palestine that he believed Tell es-Samak was Calamon / Kalamoun of theItinerarium Burdigalense andIsaac Chelo.[9][10]
It was described by thePalestine Exploration Fund in 1881 as follows:[11]
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.
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 theIsrael 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 theZinman Institute of Archaeology at theUniversity 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 ofShikmona Public Park. The work also aimed to study the stratification of the tell and create a precise chronological framework.[12][13][14]
The remains on the tell date from the LateBronze Age to theLate 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 ofsherds, the most common of which belonging to the red-slipped plates and bowls (Easternsigillata A) made on thePhoenician coast during the 1st century CE.[15] In addition, archaeologists discovered evidence for dyeing industry based on theMurexsea snail, also known asTyrian purple, dating back to theIron Age.[16] The purple dye extracted from themollusk 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.[17]
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.[6]
Tell es-Samak was declared a 1677-dunam nature reserve in 2008. A small area (73 dunams) was declared a national park, as well.[18]
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
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.
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.
32°49′30″N34°57′19″E / 32.8249372°N 34.9552572°E /32.8249372; 34.9552572
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