Tell Keisan, تل كيسان (Arabic name meaning "the mound of treachery" [1]) or Tel Kisson, תל כיסון (Hebrew name), is an archaeological site located 8 km (5.0 mi) from the Mediterranean coast in the Galilee region of Israel between Haifa and Akko.
According to historians such as Diodorus Siculus and Strabo, King Cambyses II attacked Egypt after massing a huge army on the plains near the city of Acre.
In December 2018 archaeologists digging at the site of Tell Keisan in Acre unearthed the remains of a Persian military outpost that might have played a role in the successful 525 B.C.
[4] Incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, it appeared under the name Tall Kisan in the census of 1596, located in the Nahiya of Acca of the Liwa of Safad.
[8][9] In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) noted: "Guerin gives the measurement of the mound at 350 paces in length from west to east, by 125 in its greatest breadth; it is about 130 feet high.
The plateau on the top is covered with fragments of pottery, and among them cubes of mosaic; heaps of stones from buildings now destroyed are also scattered about.
Phoenician era Tell Keisan, particularly during the second half of the 11th century BC, is one of the find spots of silver hoards belonging to the Cisjordan corpus of hacksilber.
[19] The hoard includes cut ingots, sheets, wires, rods, jewelry, four linen wrapped bundles of hacksilber sealed with unbaked clay bullae, and loose fragments.
They established this through Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA), comparing the composition of pots from Tell Keisan to clays from various potential sources.
In their analysis they also refute previous claims that this variety of loop handle jars originated from Rhodes, based again on chemical composition.
[22] It is also thought that the large quantities of bevel rimmed bowls, in comparison to other nearby locations, suggest a strong tie to Cyprus.