Tel Qedesh is one of the largest biblical mounds in northern Israel. First settled as early as the
Chalcolithic period, the site reached its peak during the Early Bronze Age, when an enormous
site (ca. 60 hectares), extending well beyond the main mound, emerged during this crucial phase
of early Levantine urbanism. A Canaanite city continued to thrive on the mound during the
second millennium BCE, to be followed by an important Israelite center during the Iron Age II,
known as one of the Refuge and Levite Cities (Joshua 20:7; 21:32). Following its conquest by the
Assyrian King Tiglath Pileser III in 732 BCE (2 Kings 15:29), it re-emerged as a Phoenician
administrative center during the Persian and Hellenistic periods, and later as an important
pagan town on the boundary between Tyre and Jewish Galilee during the Second Temple period
(BJ 3:35-40). A rural cultic center, housing two temples and numerous mausolea (elaborate
burial monuments), developed here in the Late Roman period, and an important market town is
attested during the Early Islamic period. The site that was a major cultural, economic and
political hub for over four millennia is now nestled peacefully in the quiet, green scenery of the
Upper Galilee of Israel, waiting for archaeologists to uncover its treasures.

2019 Season
Join us in the 2019 excavation season at Qedesh in the Galilee! During this season, the first full
season of the Hebrew University expedition to the site, we will expand our investigations of the
mega-site of the Early Bronze Age which developed around the main mound, the largest urban
center in northern Canaan at that time, focusing on the site’s fortifications and domestic
quarters. In addition, and for the first time since Aharoni’s trial trench in 1953, we will open a
new step-trench on the mound, digging into the hidden secrets of the Canaanite and Israelite
cities spanning the 3 rd -1 st millennia BCE.

Aplly now!

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