Tell Zavat (Subat)

Tell Zavat (Subat)

The Tell is located on the ancient Via Maris road, south to Afek. It was inhabited from the Bronze period through the Byzantine period.

(Isaiah 9,1): “...the way of the sea... in Galilee of the nations”.

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Background:

The site is located on the coastal section of the ancient road of Via Maris (Derech Hayam), the major highway that connected for centuries the south and the north of Israel.

Tell Zavat was one of the sites along this ancient road. According to archaeological survey, the majority of the findings are from the Israelite period through the Byzantine period.

Today the site is in ruins and was badly damaged by residential houses on its eastern side, farming on the south and west side, and a busy road on its north side.

A new highway is planned to be built on its eastern side, and recently (2007) emergency excavations may have found a section of the ancient road.

Location:

The site is located in the plains south to Afek, south of Acre (Akko), on the south side of the modern agriculture village of Kefar Bialik. It is easily accessed from Kalaniot street.

The tell is 6M higher than the fields around it, and its size is roughly 100m x 150M. Most of the antiquities are buried under the fields around the Tell at depths of up to 3M, so the actual size of the Tell in its peak size during the Hellenistic period was much larger.

Ancient Roads:

Via Maris ("Derech Hayam" - the way of the sea) was the major highway that for centuries connected the center and south of the Holy Land (Egypt and Africa) - to its north and beyond (Syria, Mesopotamia and Asia Minor). This trade road was the spine of the fertile crescent.

The road had two Galilee branches - the western (coastal) branch which passes at Tell Zavat, and the eastern branch that passes through the Sea of Galilee.

The coastal road came down from Akko (Acre) in the North, passing at this point and splitting to two roads going south:

a south-western road - towards Tell Abu-Huam near Haifa, then around Mount Carmel along its shore,
a south-eastern road - towards Yokneam, then around Mount Carmel on its eastern side. It also continued on to Megiddo and connected to the eastern section.

Both roads then converged after passing mount Carmel, about 30KM south, and continued along the coast through the heart of Israel towards Egypt.

The following aerial view shows the estimated location of these roads that split somewhere near Tell Zavat. This probably was at Khirbet Gedora, a few hundred meters north. The choice of Gedora as a splitting point is based on the topography and is enforced by the fact that its name, "Gedro", is written as a landmark in a Roman milestone in Nahariyah.

You can point on the purple points to navigate to the selected point.

Tell Zavat was one of the sites along the south-western road. In the aerial view above you can see how dense were the sites along the ancient road: there was a site almost every Kilometer, and the location of the sites was selected due to their proximity to the road, the natural higher ground (a hill) and close to source of water (wells).

History of the place:

Archaeological surveys (1952, 1958) dated the earlier periods in the site to the middle bronze period II (2000-1550 BC) and possibly even the earlier Bronze period (3150-2000 BC). The site continued through the Late Canaanite period (1550 BC - 1200 BC), the Israelite and Persian period (1200-332 BC). It peaked at the Hellenistic period (332BC - 37 C BC), probably as a Phoenician site under the Seleucid Kingdom ruled from Tyre. The site continued through the Roman and Byzantine periods (1st C BC thru 6th C AD).

The site was ruined in the Arab period (7th C) and stayed in ruins since then.

Over the years the area around the Tell became swamps, since the water from the east were not drained to the sea and filled up the area. The swamps have been drained in the past century with canals that let the water flow to the Kishon creek and out to the Mediterranean sea.

In the 1940s several residential houses were built along its eastern side, a neighborhood called Rasco-Gimel. In recent years most of these houses were rebuilt and replaced by modern houses, and incorporated into Kefar-Bialik, an agriculture village that was established in 1934.

Photos:

General view:

The photo below shows the Tell from the south-west side. The agriculture fields around it leveled most of the site, while the residential houses (one of them is seen on the right background) cut it away on the eastern side. On top of the Tell, near the trees, was a well, but it is covered today.

Click on the photo to view it in higher resolution...

A panoramic view of the west side is seen below.

On the west side of the Tell is a modern dirt road, used by the farmers, which followed the path of the ancient road. The next ancient site along the path is located at the center of the trees in the far background. Behind the trees is the north side of Mount Carmel.

The photo below is a view from the south side. The corn field is located on top of the edge of the site, and the soil contains numerous fragments of ceramics, stones, glass, basalt stones, and mosaic stones.

A view from the south side towards mount Carmel is seen below. The city of Haifa is located on top of the Carmel on the right side, while on the left side are the high rises of Kiryat-Atta.

A new highway (Kerioth-Bypass - ”Kvish Okef Kerioth”) is planned to pass at this point, following the same ancient route towards Haifa.

Dig 2007: Was the ancient road found?

A new highway, the Kerioth-Bypass (”Kvish Okef Kerioth”), is planned to bypass the Kerioth of Haifa, the northern residential neighborhoods in the bay of Haifa. The modern road is now in initial infrastructure works. It follows the path of the ancient highway, and it passes about 50M east to the Tell.

Excavations were conducted in November 2007 on the eastern side of Tell Zavat in order to reveal and possibly salvage the ancient ruins along the path of the new highway. The archaeological work was headed by Amit Shedman of the Israeli Antiquities Authority. The excavations found a section of the ancient road that passed at this point and was cut into the rock. It passed in the north-south direction, and may have been part of the coastal section of Via Maris, as shown in the map above.

Our staff has visited the site and recorded the work, and waiting for IAA to approve the publishing of the information.

The current work permit limits the work to this narrow section. However, the archaeologists are waiting to dig up more sections of the road, maybe during the construction of the new highway. As it happens many times in Israel, modern constructions brings back to life old constructions.

Etymology (behind the name):

Tell - a layered mound (read about the story of the Tells, including our animation)

Subat - in Arabic: sleeping. Therefore the Tell may be translated as the "sleeping Tell".

Zavat - the Hebrew name of the Tell, based on the Arabic name (the closest name that sounds the same). Means in Hebrew: pinched.

Derech Hayam - Hebrew - “the way of the sea”. In Latin; Via Maris. Biblical reference (Isaiah 9,1): “Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations”.

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