Tel Michal is located on the kurkar ridge about six kilometers north of the Yarkon River above the stretch of coast where the Herzliya marina is today. Excavations at the site revealed remains of port cities from various periods related to the Phoenician coast (modern Lebanon region) and later used by the Hasmoneans. The hill consists of an upper mound with an area of about three dunams and to the north of it the lower city of about forty dunams and a number of small hillocks. The mound was inhabited intermittently for thousands of years, during which it was used as a maritime trading station. The current name of the mound is a distortion of its Arabic name – Mekmish – the ancient name of the site is unknown.
The history of the excavations
The site was excavated by Nachman Avigad in 1958 and 1960, by Ze’ev Herzog from Tel Aviv University in 1977-1980 and in 1993 by Ze’ev Herzog and Yossi Levy in salvage excavations in the north of the hill.
The settlement in the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age
The site was first inhabited in the 17th c. BCE during the Middle Bronze Age and existed for most of the Late Bronze Age in the 16th to 13th c. BCE, then the site was abandoned for about three hundred years. In the 10th c. BCE, during the Iron Age 2, the site was resettled and cultic buildings were built on the small hills and two winepresses were found at the foot of the hills, which according to the excavator of the site are related to the cultic buildings. According to Ze’ev Herzog the findings at the mound from the Iron Age testify to the Phoenician expansion into this area and the cultic buildings are related to the religious needs of the Phoenician traders. The site was uninhabited for the rest of the Iron Age.
The Phoenician port under the patronage of the Persian Empire
At the end of the sixth c. BCE, the beginning of the Persian period, the site was resettled after hundreds of years of abandonment. During this period, the city of Tel Michal reached the peak of its size and prosperity. A citadel was built on the upper mound and on winepresses were built on the hillocks in addition to metallurgical industry, ceramics industry and a temple with many figurines. Many imported vessels from Greece, Persia, Egypt and Cyprus were discovered from this period. According to Herzog, Tel Michal was a Phoenician city under Persian control during this period and was used by the Persians on their way to campaigns against Egypt.
The site in the Hasmonean period and later
Tel Michal continued to be inhabited during the Hellenistic period and the Hasmonean period, but the area of the settlement was reduced to only the upper mound, and the latest activity from this period took place during the reign of Alexander Jannaeus (103 to 76 BCE). At the beginning of the Roman period, a large citadel was established at the tel after decades in which the site was abandoned and in the center of the citadel there are remains of a large tower which, according to the researchers of the site, was used as a lighthouse. The citadel was abandoned after a short time. After that Tel Michal was not inhabited for about eight hundred years until the early Muslim period when a watchtower was built on it and was used in the ninth and tenth centuries. After that the mound was abandoned and was not settled again.
Sources
Ze’ev Herzog, “Michal, Tel” in (ed. Eric M. Meyers) The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, Oxford University Press 2011.
זאב הרצוג, “תל מיכל – תחנת מסחר לחוף הים”, קדמוניות: כתב עת לעתיקות ארץ ישראל וארצות המקרא, תשמ”ב גיליון 3 עמ’ 96-103.
Biblical Hiking map