In November 2024, archaeologists revealed their discovery of a monumental structure containing a large cache of rare cultic objects used by the Canaanites 3,800 years ago.

During the early Roman period, the city was expanded and fortified by Herod, who renamed it Sebastiya in honor of emperor Augustus.

[4][5] Tel Shimron is located northeast of modern moshav of Nahalal on the western edge of the Nazareth range,[6] on the border between the Lower Galilee and the Jezreel Valley.

Its location at the intersection of the Lower Galilee and the Jezreel Valley, as well as its proximity to the Acre (Akko) Plain, made it an important trade route.

East of the site which it occupied rises a round isolated hill, which commands the plain in every direction, and was once surrounded on its summit by a wall, of which a few traces still remain.

Among them I found, in the midst of the various debris which cover the soil, the remains of a building in cut stone, completely overthrown, once ornamented by columns, as is attested by two mutilated shafts lying on the spot.

[10] In 2004, 2008 and 2010, salvage excavations were conducted adjacent to Tel Shimron by Nurit Feig and Yardenna Alexandre on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).

[11] Nurit Feig directed a salvage excavation on behalf of the IAA prior to the installation of electrical poles at the Bet Zarzir-Nahalal Junction road.

[13] Another salvage excavation was conducted on behalf of the IAA, this time by Yardenna Alexandre near the Nahalal junction before a widening of Road 75.

The project is co-directed by Daniel M. Master and Mario A. S. Martin on behalf of the Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University and Wheaton College, IL.

[16][17] While excavating the entrance to the passageway, the team found a "Nahariya bowl", a seven-cupped vessel which is thought to have had ritual function.

Very little Neolithic material has been found at Tel Shimron, but during the 2010 excavation, a PPNB arrowhead as well as remains of the Wadi Rabah culture were discovered.

[20] The juxtaposition of domestic activity in the lower city and monumental buildings on the acropolis provide an interesting case to study status difference in the Middle Bronze Age.

Evidence of daily life in the Middle Bronze Age was found in the houses, including craft industries like metal working.

[16][17] The cylinder seal, which dates to the 17th century BCE, or the Middle Bronze Age II, was discovered at Tel Shimron during the 2017 season.

[19] While surveys indicate that Shimron shrunk somewhat in the middle of the second millennium, the Amarna Letters attest that it was still an important royal city in northern Canaan.

Burraburiyash of Babylon complains to the pharaoh that Šum-Hadda, most likely the same ruler of Shimron mentioned in the other letters, and Sutana of Acco raided one of his caravans.

This text not only indicates the location of Shimron along an important trade route, but its alliances with western powers like Acco, which is supported by Cypriot material found at the site.

The 2004 salvage excavation uncovered a Persian-period building that likely served a public function, which could indicate that Shimron had an administrative role in the area.

[13] Excavations on the western side of the site revealed a hoard of coins from the reign of Antiochus III, just at the moment when this region moved from Ptolemaic to Seleucid rule.

Josephus, mentioning the village by name, states that he was attacked there at night by the Roman decurion, Æbutius, who had been entrusted with the charge of the Great Plain and who had one-hundred horse and two-hundred infantry at his disposal.

These domestic structures were typical of Jewish Galilean villages in the Roman period and included a ritual bath (miqveh) in one of the houses.

The Apple-ring Acacia, native to Africa and the Middle East, is used for nitrogen fixation, erosion control for crops, for food, drink and medicine.