Location:

Eight dunams in total and nestled adjacent to the Carmel Ridge's northern Mediterranean shoreline towards Akko bay, Tell As-Samech, alternatively dubbed Shikmona, lies to the southern outskirts of the city of Haifa's neighbourhoods: Bat Galim & Kiriyat Eliezer. Initial Archaeological interest and identification were ignited in the first half of the 20th century (Dothan, 1954). The site is just a few kilometres from the Haifa El-'Atika site (now specifically engulfed by the Rambam Hospital complex in Bat Galim Neighborhood and the Haifa Harbor. Di Segni (2009) proposed, based on literary sources such as the anonymous pilgrim of Piacenza, that the site was perhaps misinterpreted as Sycamine, and instead should be addressed to as Porphyreon. Furthermore, Di Segni suggested that the "True" Roman and Byzantine Sycamine site should be addressed to the Bat Galim area or Haifa El-'Atika. Significant archaeological assemblages can be attributed to the Persian and Iron Age Periods at the vicinity of the Tell as Acropolis, and to the Late Roman and Byzantine Periods respectively as the settlement spread to the nearby lower, and horizontal, south-eastern oriented areas near the Carmel Ridge. Notable stratigraphical entries of the Shikmona include Persian, Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine activity evidence. An anomaly can be found at "behind the rail tracks" and the Tel Aviv-Haifa motor highway in the site's adjacent necropolis which has confined mostly Roman remains. A rock-carved warrior tomb, probably of Hyksos orientation from Middle Bronze Age II was found. Some of the fundamental finds included weapons and a few scarabs. 

Archaeological research History & record:
Dothan (1954) remarked that the initial academic interest towards the site in the second installment of F. M. Abel's "Geographie De la Palestine" published at 1938. The first archaeological activity was conducted by the regional inspector of antiquities of the British Mandate of Palestine, N. Makhouly, between 1939 to 1940 (Peleg, 1988). Then, what appeared to be a Byzantine chapel had been uncovered. A major boom in human activity can be associated with the frame of the Byzantine period, as implied by religious architectural evidence. As a substantial part of the site was excavated through the Salvatory activity of the IAA, finds were interrupted by modern activity (Dothan, 1954; Torge & 'Ad, 2003, 2010; Kletter, 2002, 2012; A-Salam Sa‘id, 2009; Hirshfeld, 2006). The bulk of the archaeological research has been carried out by J. Elgavish between 1963 till 1979. However, only a scarce amount of methodological publications had been made regarding the entirety of these excavations. Elgavish (1970) remarked that in the first season of the Archaeological project, a large part of the Persian Period city had been unearthed. 

Geology: 

The site nests at the diffusion barrier between sand dunes from the southwest (namely the Mediterranean Sea), Grumusois from the south-southeast and Terra Rosas, Brown rendzinas and pale rendzinas from the southeast. According to Geological survey of the site's surroundings, to the south there is a short strip, north-south oriented, of characteristic Chert 330m or Limestone. The immediate surroundings of the Geological aspects of Tel Shikmona are composed of Alluvium (Gravel, sand & Clay; Quaternary). To the Carmel ridge looking westward towards the site. The geological composition mainly consists of a spread-out layout of Quartz oriented material, perhaps limestone, with concentrated peaks of Turonian Bina Fm. (Limestone, Marl, Dolostone) which dot across the Carmel interior landscape in a southeast orientation. Through swift examination, in a North to South axis from the Tel. 

Regarding to the Soil identified, minor discrepancy arise between Dan & others (1975) and Singer & Ravikovitch (1980) identification. According to Singer & Ravikovitch, the immediate and adjacent soils stationed are primarily Brown Colluvial soils (Xerofluvents; site's immediate soil assemblage) made from non to moderately calcareous rock whose origin stems from Terra Rosa soils, followed by coastal Sand dunes to the south and west, and non or slightly calcareous red Terra Rosa developed from Lime stone or Dolomite (as the adjacent soils).

In the Geomorphology department, Nir (1980) concluded that the Haifa area's coastal plain is a young, Quaternary feature. The oldest rocks being sandstones of the lower Quaternary. The sands invaded the gap between the Carmel and the Upper Galilee. The adjacent Slopes and cliffs to the site were apparently shaped by the Quaternary Seas, depositing coastal sediments such as Beach rock, Kurkar and Marine Terraces. 

Contributor: Alon Weiss, October 2021