location

Tel Abu-Zeitun is on a hill south of Yarkon in the territory of today’s Bnei Brak. The mound is located on limestone hill, covers an area of about three dunams, and rises to a height of about nine meters above the ground, and 24 meters above sea level

Identification

The Catholic researcher, Father Felix-Marie Abel, identified the biblical site Gat Rimon as Tel Abu-Zeitun. Binyamin Mazar rejected this identification because Tel Abu Zeiton is too small, according to him, and therefore proposed to identify Gat Rimon with Tel Napoleon (Tel Grisa).

History

The mound was inhabited for periods from the Middle Bronze Age to the Persian period. A brick wall and a silo were found from the Iron Age 2a, which indicates that the place was of an agricultural nature. From the Persian period, a brick and pottery wall was found engraved with the name “Hashuv” – which the excavator of the site, Jacob Kaplan, identified with the name of the Levi family mentioned in the Bible in connection with the return to Zion.

The history of the excavations

At least two archaeological excavations were carried out at the mound over the years, in 1957 at the top of the mound by Jacob Kaplan, and in 2005, on the southern slopes of the mound in a rescue excavation by the Antiquities Authority. In the early excavation two layers from the Persian period were uncovered, and in the later excavation three layers from the Middle Bronze Age were discovered

Findings

In the lower layer was found a pure red-hued Tabon material, under which was a layer of pottery that included a cooking pot and jugs, dating to the Middle Bronze Age 2A, as well as the blades of a siege sickle. became dated to the Middle Bronze Age.
Remains of Tabun were also recorded in the excavation

Sources

Golan, D., 2008, Tel Zeton, Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel, 120

Kaplan, J., 1958, Tell Abu Zeitun , IEJ 8, 133-134