Abel-beth-maachah
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 Shown within Israel
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| Location | Near Metula, Israel |
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| Coordinates | 33°15′25″N 35°34′48″E / 33.257°N 35.580°ECoordinates: 33°15′25″N 35°34′48″E / 33.257°N 35.580°E |
| Site notes | |
| Website | Tel Abel Beth Maacah Excavations website |
Tel Abel Beth Maacah, Arabic name: Tell Abil el-Qameḥ, is a large archaeological site consisting of a mound with an small upper northern section and a large lower southern one, connected by a saddle. It is located on the northern border of present-day Israel, about 2 km south of the town of Metulla and about 6.5 km west of Tel Dan.
The survey and excavations conducted so far (2012-2016) have shown that the site had been inhabited during the Bronze and Iron Ages, as well as the Persian, Hellenistic, Byzantine, Early Islamic, Crusader, Mamluk and Ottoman periods. However, the lower mound was not occupied after the Iron Age I (late 11th/early 10th centuries BCE), when occupation seems to have concentrated on the upper mound.
The site was fortified by walls and a rampart in the Middle Bronze Age II. These fortifications were reused in the Late Bronze Age in the south of the mound, but went out of commission in the Iron Age I. A silver hoard in a jug, dating to the end of the Late Bronze Age, is one of the earliest such hoards found in the country. The Iron Age I sequence is one of the densest in this region and includes strata of cultic, domestic and public nature. Traces of metal-working were found in the latter. The Iron Age II is represented by a very large stone wall in the upper mound that might be part of a citadel. A well-built structure dating to the Persian-early Hellenistic period was built above this wall and other Iron Age remains.
Since at least the early 13th century and until 1948 the mound was the location of the Arab village of Abil al-Qameh.
The site is approximately 100 dunams (10 hectares) in size and sits astride the narrow defile of Nahal Iyyon, one of the four headwaters of the Jordan River. The Tanur Waterfall, fed by the Iyyon, is located just north of the site. From its strategic vantage point overlooking the narrow northern end of the fertile Huleh Valley, the site commands roads leading north to the Lebanese Beq'a, northeast to inland Syria (Damascus) and Mesopotamia, and west to the Lebanese/Phoenician coast.
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Wikipedia