Built on eolianite[3] hills next to a small promontory forming the sole anchorage able to provide shelter to seagoing vessels between Jaffa and the Sinai,[4] Yavne-Yam is notable for its role as the port of ancient Yavne.

Excavations carried out by Tel Aviv University since 1992 have revealed continuous habitation from the second millennium BCE up to the Middle Ages; the famous Yavne-Yam ostracon is named after the site.

[5] The material culture uncovered at the site suggests that under Persian rule, Yavne-Yam was inhabited by Phoenicians from Sidon,[8] also revealing a strong Hellenic influence.

[5] According to 2 Maccabees, Judas Maccabeus, first leader of the revolt, "attacked the people of Jamnia by night and set fire to the harbor and the fleet, so that the glow of the light was seen in Jerusalem, thirty miles distant.

During a preliminary survey conducted in December 1986, a fragmentary Greek inscription was found in Yavne-Yam, documenting correspondence between Seleucid king Antiochus V Eupator and the local Sidonian community.

Dated to the summer of 163 BCE, it reveals the longstanding cooperation of the town with Seleucid authorities,[5] at a time when inland Yavne was known as a base for operations against the rebels.

Although archaeological remains from the Roman period are scant, Yavne-Yam is nevertheless mentioned in contemporary literature, including the works of Josephus, Pliny the Elder and Claudius Ptolemaeus.

[8] It became a Ribat, a fortified coastal lookout point where prisoner exchanges with the Byzantines were carried out, and a citadel, still partially visible today, was built on its southern promontory.