[5] During the early Roman period, the city was expanded and fortified by Herod the Great, who renamed it Sebastia in honor of emperor Augustus.

[9][10] Since the middle of the 4th century, the town has been identified by Christians and Muslims as the burial site of John the Baptist, whose purported grave is today part of Nabi Yahya Mosque.

[12][13] In ancient times, Sebastia was known as Shomron (Hebrew: שומרון, romanized: Šomron) which translates into "watch" or "watchman" in English.

According to first-century historian Josephus, Herod the Great renamed the city Sebastia in honor of the Roman emperor Augustus.

[18][19] At the modern village site of Sebastiyeh near the tell, pottery findings were dated to the Late Roman and Byzantine periods, but also to the Early Muslim, medieval (Crusader, Ayyubid, etc.

[clarification needed][23] In 720 BCE, Samaria fell to the Neo-Assyrian Empire following a three-year siege, bringing an end to the Kingdom of Israel.

A large stadium was also built at the city, which was settled with 6000 veteran colonists, probably non-Jews who fought alongside Herod and helped him secure the throne.

Later, in 7 BCE and after a trial at Berytus, Herod had his sons Alexander and Aristobulus IV transported to Sebastia and executed by being strangled for treason.

[35] Niccolò da Poggibonsi, an Italian monk who visited Sebaste in 1347, wrote that the town was in ruins, and that only "some Saracens and a few Samaritans" lived there.

[36] Sebastia was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine, and in 1596 it appeared in the tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Jabal Sami, part of Sanjak Nablus.

The villagers paid taxes on wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, occasional revenues, goats and/or beehives; a total of 5,500 akçe.

[39] In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Sebastia as "A large and flourishing village, of stone and mud houses, on the hill of the ancient Samaria.

On the north it is bare and white, with steep slopes, and a few olives; a sort of recess exists on this side, which is all plough-land, in which stand the lower columns.

[40] A sarcophagus lies by the road on the north-east, but no rock-cut tombs have as yet been noticed on the hill, though possibly hidden beneath the present plough-land.

In the months of July and August a stream was found (in 1872) in the valley south of the hill, coming from the spring (Ain Harun), which has a good supply of drinkable water, and a conduit leading from it to a small ruined mill.

The site was first excavated by the Harvard Expedition, initially directed by Gottlieb Schumacher in 1908 and then by George Andrew Reisner in 1909 and 1910; with the assistance of architect C.S.

[57] The ancient site of Sebastia is located just above the built-up area of the modern day village on the eastern slope of the hill.

[6][58] In 2024, the Israeli military occupied the site, wounding villagers and illegally seizing land at the summit of the tell and the town square in the process.

In July, 19-year-old Fawzi Makhalfeh was killed by Israeli soldiers at the village, to what the Palestinian Authority described as an execution, and residence described as an act of terrorism.