[1][2] The survey and excavations conducted in recent years have shown that the site had been inhabited during the Bronze and Iron Ages, as well as the Persian, Hellenistic, Byzantine, Early Islamic, Crusader, Mamluk and Ottoman periods.

The site is approximately 100 dunams (10 hectares) in size and sits astride the narrow defile of Nahal Ayun, one of the four headwaters of the Jordan River.

Abel Beth Maacah was a border town, and as such, was exposed to these influences at the same time that it fulfilled the role of buffering, or bearing the brunt of, foreign invasions.

Its proximity to numerous water sources and a rich agricultural hinterland was yet another factor in making Abel Beth Maacah a large and prominent site in antiquity.

The inscription is one of several artifacts that appear to support the idea first proposed by Avraham Biran that Abel-beth-maachah was an Israelite town during the reigns of David and Solomon.

This is the only time the phrase "a city and a mother in Israel" is mentioned in the Bible and might allude to its particular political and/or religious status.

Previous study of the site involved periodic visits by representatives of the British Mandatory Department of Antiquities and limited surveys carried out by the Israel Department of Antiquities in the 1950s, by Yehudah Dayan in the 1960s, and by Prof. William G. Dever of the University of Arizona in 1972, who summarily published the results, along with a detailed historical-geographical analysis (Dever 1986).

An intact ring flask, apparently of Late Bronze Age date, was found in the survey in the vicinity of Area A.

The stone structure and rampart are part of a fortification placed on the southern end of the site, overlooking the Huleh Valley and the main north–south road that passed alongside it on the west.

In the northeastern corner of the area, the skeleton of a large male was found lying on its stomach and partly covered by a pithos.

The lowest phase exposed consists of the top of a layer of stones on the western edge of the mound that might be part of an Early Bronze wall, judging by the pottery collected nearby.

Underneath remains dating to Iron Age I and IIA, a large rampart composed mainly of diagonal gravelly layers was revealed.

Three architectural strata, debris layers, and floors from the Late Bronze Age were revealed, abutting the northern face of the MBII fortification.

On its earthen floor was a concentration of pottery and a small jug (a local imitation of a Cypriot bilbil) that contained a silver hoard.

The latest LB layer in Area F can be dated to LBIIB (13th century BCE) and the remains exposed so far indicate that it did not end in a destruction, but was peacefully abandoned.

The lowest level reached in Area A included several large walls, built of stone and brick, with associated Late Bronze pottery.

The stratum above this has a structure apparently of a cultic nature, with various installations, such as a pit with animal bones, massebot (standing stones), a small bamah (altar).

This occupation was violently destroyed, leaving large amounts of pottery, including collar-rim jars, pyxides, carinated jugs and kraters.

On the floor of one of the rooms were several jewelry items, including an amethyst scarab set in a gold ring that belongs to the time of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom.

It seems that there was some metallurgical activity in this area, similar to that at nearby Tel Dan in Strata VI and V (and possibly IV).

Below this building are architectural remains and numerous pits attributed to Iron Age I, including a floor with vessels and traces of destruction.

Cutting this activity is a massive east–west stone wall that was partly covered by the Persian-early Hellenistic building and thus, it is presently attributed to Iron Age IIB.

Located on the eastern slope of the northern end of the lower mound, in a spot whose moderate topography suggests the possibility of a gate here, a north–south stone wall was revealed, ca.

[11] In 2018, archaeologists led by Robert Mullins from the Azusa Pacific University announced the discovery of a 2,800-year-old carved head sculpture of a man.