🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Ain Mallaha (Eynan)
Late Natufian (c.12000–9600 BCE) · Natufian
Natufian open-air hamlet (c.12000–9600 BCE) at the Hula lake edge, excavated by Jean Perrot. Over 50 round semi-subterra...
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Ashkelon
Early Bronze to Crusader 1191 CE · Canaanite → Philistine → Phoenician → Roman
Five-period tells (Canaanite vaulted mudbrick gate — oldest arch in the world c.1850 BCE, 4 m high; Philistine emporium of titans with 15,000 sq m market; Phoenician Tyrian-purple, Greek, Roman,…
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov
Lower Palaeolithic Acheulean (c.780 ka) · Acheulean Homo erectus/heidelbergensis
Acheulean lakeside camp (c.780,000 BCE) on the paleo-Hula shore, earliest habitations with controlled fire. Excavated by...
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Gezer
Early Bronze to Iron Age · Canaanite → Egyptian → Israelite
Hilltop Canaanite tel (c.3500–586 BCE) with the Gezer Calendar (10th c. BCE, earliest Hebrew inscription — agricultural almanac) and bronze-age standing-stone alignment: 10 monolithic massebot (up to…
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Horvat Qitmit
Iron IIB–C (c.700–600 BCE) · Edomite (with Judean/ Arabian influence)
Iron II Edomite open-air shrine (c.700–600 BCE) on a hilltop in the Negev, excavated by Itzhaq Beit-Arieh. Single-phase...
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient village
Kfar HaHoresh
Middle PPNB · PPNB cult complex
PPNB cult and mortuary center (7500–6650 BCE) in the Nazareth hills, not a normal village but a regional feasting and secondary-burial site serving surrounding settlements.
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Lachish
Early Bronze to Babylonian destruction 587 BCE · Canaanite → Israelite/Judahite
Major Canaanite city-state and Judahite fortress second only to Jerusalem (Joshua, Hezekiah, Sennacherib's 701 BCE reliefs at British Museum).
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Megiddo
Chalcolithic to Iron Age / Persian · Canaanite → Egyptian → Israelite
Strategic tell commanding Via Maris (Egypt-Mesopotamia road) through Jezreel, occupied 7000 BCE–586 BCE with 26 strata, Thutmosis III 1457 BCE battle (first battle in recorded history), Canaanite…
🇮🇱 Israel · Ancient city
Munhata
Yarmukian to Ghassulian (c.6400–3500 BCE) · Yarmukian → Wadi Raba → Ghassulian Chalcolithic
Stratified Neolithic–Chalcolithic mound (5 m high) in the central Jordan Valley, excavated by Jean Perrot. Yarmukian Pot...
🇮🇱 Israel · Tell
Tell es-Safi (Gath)
Chalcolithic through Ottoman; EBA III, MB–LB Canaanite, Iron I–II Philistine/Judahite, Crusader–Mamluk · EBA Canaanite → Philistine Pentapolis (Sea Peoples) → Judahite fortress → Crusader
40 ha Philistine pentapolis capital — EBA to Crusader tell with Gath Siege Trench and Goliath inscription (c.5000 BCE–present).