[4] The tell rises on the east side and close to Road 90, which follows the Jordan Valley and connects Beit She'an with Jericho.
[1] William F. Albright was the first to identify Tell el-Hammeh with the Canaanite city state of Hammath, known from a stela of Seti I (r. 1290–1279 BCE) describing a military campaign during which the Egyptian pharaoh aided an alliance between Pahel (Pella) and Hammath in their fight against Beth-shal (Beth-shan) and Rehob.
[4][1][2][5] The tell was excavated in 1985-1988 by Jane Cahill, who reported of layers of the Iron Age, or 11th to 7th centuries BCE, separated by the remains of major fires.
Unusual concentrations of loom weights and spindles from different periods suggest the city maintained a weaving industry.
A 1986 survey found shards from the Byzantine, Early Muslim and medieval period in relatively equal quantities.