THE LATE IRON AGE AT TELL ES-SAMAK/SHIKMONA AND QUESTIONS OF CONTINUITY

This paper presents the stratigraphic, architectural and ceramic findings from the renewed excavations at Tell es-Samak/Shikmona, which took place from 2011-2013. Shikmona, located in modern day Haifa, is an integral site for understanding the material culture of southern Phoenicia in various periods. Here, we focus on a presentation of the late Iron Age material found in Area A of the renewed excavations in a final report. The data presented in this study comes from one of the best-stratified sequences in southern Phoenicia to-date. It can thus serve as a backbone for future studies on the nature of this region in the relevant periods. Questions of continuity into the Babylonian period, although arrived only through stratigraphic analysis, also make Shikmona a fruitful site for future studies on the topic.