Tel Aphek is a mound that covers about 120 dunams in the Mekorot Yarkon area between modern Petah Tikva and Rosh Ha’Ayin, and was active from the Chalcolithic to the Ottoman period. Until the 20th century it was difficult to cross the stream and the crossing areas were at the mouth of the Yarkon in the west and in the area where it originates in the east near Tel Aphek. This is a major factor in the strategic importance of the tel, as its location allows the occupants to control the people crossing from the Sharon to the southern coastal plain and the lowland and vice versa. Three different expeditions excavated Tel Aphek over the years, the most extensive of which were carried out by Farahia Beck and Moshe Kochavi between 1972-1985. Rescue excavations were carried out by Yaakov Uri in 1936-1934 and by Avraham Eitan in 1961.
The Arabic name of the site was Tel Ras al-Ain, meaning the head of the eye or the head of the springs. Scholars William Albright and Albrecht Alt suggested that the place is the biblical horizon. In the Bible, five places are mentioned with the name Aphek or Afik (the meaning of the name is Afik Nahal – ravine). In the Septuagint translation Aphek is mentioned as Aphek to Sharon, and also in the 15th century BCE topographical list of Pharaoh Thutmose III Aphek is mentioned as a place in the Sharon between Ono and Shuka. Indeed this mound is the largest of the two places and remains from this period were found there. In the Hellenistic period a city called Pegai existed on the tel, a name that means springs in Greek, and likewise the name of the Ottoman citadel – Pinar Pasha – means head of the eye.
In the Late Bronze Age, Aphek was home to a series of palaces built on the upper mound, a continuation of the tradition of building palaces from earlier periods. The first palace was built in the 15th c. BCE on the remains of an earlier palace with a worship corner in the same place where the worship corner was in the ancient palace. The second palace was built in the 14th c. BCE on top of the previous palace. The last palace from the period was built in the 13th c. and was identified as the house of an Egyptian governor. The building had two floors and in the thirties or forties of the 13th c. BCE, it was destroyed in a fire that collapsed the second floor on top of the first and thus sealed many finds from the building. Among these finds were: a clay tablet with a letter stamped in cuneiform on it from the ruler of Ugarit in Syria to the Egyptian governor in Canaan, clay tablets which served as dictionaries that translated between Canaanite, Akkadian and Sumerian and other written finds.
During the beginning of the Iron Age I (ca. 12th c. BCE), the settlement was renewed on the tel. At that time there were two separate residential areas: one was the residence of the elite with well-built buildings and the other area had dilapidated houses that testified to their poor residents. In this residential area fishing hooks and weights for fishing nets were also found, suggesting that the inhabitants of this area were fishermen. The ethnic affiliation of the first settlers in Aphek during the Iron Age is not clear, but after them were the findings related to the Philistine culture on the coast and the Israelite culture in the hills. Many Philistine pottery was found from layers of the Iron Age, as well as a Philistine figurine of the Ashdod type and a tablet with an undeciphered and unknown writing that may have been used by the Philistines in ancient times. From later layers of the Iron Age, from the 10th c. BCE, stone silos and four-room houses typical of Israelite settlements were found. The Israelite city was destroyed at the end of the 10th c. BCE and the remains found between that period and the Hellenistic period are few. However, Aphek is mentioned in the book of Kings as also inhabited in the days of Jehoahaz (end of the 9th c. BCE), in Assyrian inscriptions from the beginning of the 7th c. BCE, and in a letter from the king of Ekron from around 600 BCE.
From the Hellenistic period, remains of a citadel and private houses were found from the Hellenistic city of Pagai, which was established in the 3rd century BCE. Pagai is also mentioned in the writings of Josephus, who mentioned that the Hasmonean expedition to Rome in the 2nd century BCE sought to transfer it to the control of Judah. During the time of Herod, the city of Antipatris was founded on the ancient Hellenistic city and one of its streets was uncovered in excavations, the city was destroyed by an earthquake in 363 CE and since then no other settlement has been built on the mound. In the seventies of the 16th century, an Ottoman citadel was built on the upper hill to guard the passage, and it has been the most prominent element in the landscape of the hill ever since.