[4] Archaeological artifacts unearthed at the site include a large Jewish cemetery, a Roman-Byzantine amphitheater, a Byzantine church, public baths, mosaics and burial caves.

[3] Tel Maresha (Modern Hebrew) or Tell Sandahannah (Arabic) is the site of Iron Age (biblical) Mareshah, which continued through the Persian and into the Hellenistic period.

In the late Persian period a Sidonian community settled in Maresha, and the city is mentioned in the Zenon Papyri (259 BC).

Conquered by the Roman general Vespasian during the Jewish War (68 CE) and completely destroyed during the Bar Kochba revolt (132–135 CE), it was re-established as a Roman colony and in the year 200 it received the title of a city and the ius italicum, under the new name of "Eleutheropolis", 'city of freemen'.

A large Jewish community existed during the Roman and Byzantine Periods and famous Tannaim and Amoraim resided here.

[17] Maresha was first excavated in 1898–1900 by Bliss and Macalister, who uncovered a planned and fortified Hellenistic city encircled by a town wall with towers.

A cock crows to scare away demons; the three-headed dog Cerberus guards the entrance to the underworld; a bright red phoenix symbolizes the life after death.

[21] It has been carved underground from the soft chalkstone endemic to the area, and built with tiers of niches capable of housing hundreds of brooding pigeons.

There are a number of cave-like dwellings carved from the chalkstone bedrock, some of which display a vast extension of networks and passageways, with staircases descending down into the depth, made with step-like balustrades, and replete with cisterns for storing water and millstones for grinding olives.

[22] The largest and most impressive of these caverns and dwelling places is that built near the Tell on its southeast side, and which the locals knew by the name Mŭghâret Sandahannah (The Cave of Saint Anne).

[dubious – discuss][citation needed] Byzantine mosaics depicting birds and animals were discovered on the hilltop in 1924.

[26] Several hundred astragali – animal knucklebone dice – used 2,300 years ago during the Hellenistic period for divination and gaming have been found at the site since 2000.