”’Tell es-Samak”’ ({{langx|he|תל א-סמכ}}, {{langx|ar|تل السمك|translit=Tell as-Samak}}) is an ancient Phoenician [[Tell (archaeology)|tell]] (mound) situated near the [[coast|sea coast]] in the modern city of [[Haifa]], [[Israel]], just south of the [[Israeli National Institute of Oceanography]]. It has been called a “forgotten Phoenician site”.<ref>{{cite conference |last=Shalvi |first=Golan |year=2020 |title=Tel Shiqmona: a Forgotten Phoenician Site on the Carmel Coast |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344897268 |pages=1885-1892 |isbn=978-84-09-23035-8 |editor-last1=Celestino Pérez |editor-first1=S. |editor-last2=Rodríguez González |editor-first2=E. |book-title=Un viaje entre el Oriente y el Occidente del Mediterráneo. Actas del IX Congreso Internacional de Estudios Fenicios y Púnicos, Mytra 5, Mérida}}</ref>
”’Tell es-Samak”’ ({{langx|he|תל א-סמכ}}, {{langx|ar|تل السمك|translit=Tell as-Samak}}) is an ancient Phoenician [[Tell (archaeology)|tell]] (mound) situated near the [[coast|sea coast]] in the modern city of [[Haifa]], [[Israel]], just south of the [[Israeli National Institute of Oceanography]]. It has been called a “forgotten Phoenician site”.<ref>{{cite conference |last=Shalvi |first=Golan |year=2020 |title=Tel Shiqmona: a Forgotten Phoenician Site on the Carmel Coast |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344897268 |pages=1885-1892 |isbn=978-84-09-23035-8 |editor-last1=Celestino Pérez |editor-first1=S. |editor-last2=Rodríguez González |editor-first2=E. |book-title=Un viaje entre el Oriente y el Occidente del Mediterráneo. Actas del IX Congreso Internacional de Estudios Fenicios y Púnicos, Mytra 5, Mérida}}</ref>
Initially identified Calamon, it was later identified by Israeli archeologists as the Jewish town of [[Shikmona]] ({{langx|he|תל שִׁקְמוֹנָה|translit= Šiqmônah}}), also spelt Sycamine.<ref>[[Josephus]], ”[[Antiquities of the Jews|Antiquities]]” 13.12.3.</ref> Subsequent research found no evidence of Jewish artefacts, only Phoenician and Christian; nowadays researchers identify Tell es-Samak with [[Porphyreon|Porphyreon (south)]].<ref>[https://www.academia.edu/65056819/Excavations_at_Tell_es_Samak_on_the_Shores_of_Haifa_and_its_Identification_as_the_Byzantine_Porphyreon_Southern_ Excavations at Tell es-Samak on the Shores of Haifa and its Identification as the Byzantine Porphyreon (Southern)], 2021: “Elgavish’s excavations of the Hellenistic–Byzantine periods were only partially published, largely in popular science print. He identified the site as the Jewish Shikmona, despite the lack of any Jewish remains and abundance of Christian antiquities. Renewed excavations, directed by the author on behalf of the Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, in 2010–2013, unearthed additional information of the Byzantine period— mainly concerning the Southern Church and its inscriptions. The church was built in the end of the 4th–early 5th centuries C.E. During the first half of the 5th century, it was renovated, and later, around the mid-5th century, it was destroyed. This presentation, for the first time, focuses on the excavation results of the church and other Byzantine period finds—together with historiographical analyses, proof of the historical maps, the data derived from all the excavations, and the remains of the rich purple industry. All this allows us to identify the settlement as Porphyreon (the southern Porphyreon), and to suggest a new ethnic and chronological narrative for the site of Tell es-Samak”</ref><ref name=”Eisenberg-2021″/><ref name=”Di Segni-2009”>{{cite book |last=Di Segni |first=Leah |title=Shallale — Ancient City of Carmel |date=15 February 2009 |publisher=BAR |isbn=9781407303796 |editor-last=Dar |editor-first=S. |location=Oxford |page=226 |chapter=Christian Presence on Mount Carmel in Late Antiquity |quote=Porphyreon should rather be located at Tell es-Samak and south of it; hence the name could easily have migrated the short distance to Crusader Haifa. Roman-Byzantine Sycamina-Haifa – or Sycamina and Haifa if they are not one and the same place– can best be located in the Haifa Bay, at Bat Galim and Haifa el-‘Atiqa, as suggested by Mittmann |access-date=29 November 2025 |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/7368610}}</ref> The Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the [[University of Haifa]] writes that “It was wrongly identified with the Jewish Shikmona, but the latest research suggests that it should be identified as the Christian town of Porphyreon (south).”<ref>{{cite web |title=Tell es-Samak/Porphyreon (Shikmona National Park) |url=https://arch.haifa.ac.il/2014/02/13/porphyreon/ |website=University of Haifa |department=Zinman Institute of Archaeology}}</ref>
Initially identified Calamon, it was later identified by Israeli archeologists as the Jewish town of [[Shikmona]] ({{langx|he|תל שִׁקְמוֹנָה|translit= Šiqmônah}}), also spelt Sycamine.<ref>[[Josephus]], ”[[Antiquities of the Jews|Antiquities]]” 13.12.3.</ref> Subsequent research found no evidence of Jewish artefacts, only Phoenician and Christian; nowadays researchers identify Tell es-Samak with [[Porphyreon|Porphyreon (south)]].<ref>[https://www.academia.edu/65056819/Excavations_at_Tell_es_Samak_on_the_Shores_of_Haifa_and_its_Identification_as_the_Byzantine_Porphyreon_Southern_ Excavations at Tell es-Samak on the Shores of Haifa and its Identification as the Byzantine Porphyreon (Southern)], 2021: “Elgavish’s excavations of the Hellenistic–Byzantine periods were only partially published, largely in popular science print. He identified the site as the Jewish Shikmona, despite the lack of any Jewish remains and abundance of Christian antiquities. Renewed excavations, directed by the author on behalf of the Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, in 2010–2013, unearthed additional information of the Byzantine period— mainly concerning the Southern Church and its inscriptions. The church was built in the end of the 4th–early 5th centuries C.E. During the first half of the 5th century, it was renovated, and later, around the mid-5th century, it was destroyed. This presentation, for the first time, focuses on the excavation results of the church and other Byzantine period finds—together with historiographical analyses, proof of the historical maps, the data derived from all the excavations, and the remains of the rich purple industry. All this allows us to identify the settlement as Porphyreon (the southern Porphyreon), and to suggest a new ethnic and chronological narrative for the site of Tell es-Samak”</ref><ref name=”Eisenberg-2021″/><ref name=”Di Segni-2009”>{{cite book |last=Di Segni |first=Leah |title=Shallale — Ancient City of Carmel |date=15 February 2009 |publisher=BAR |isbn=9781407303796 |editor-last=Dar |editor-first=S. |location=Oxford |page=226 |chapter=Christian Presence on Mount Carmel in Late Antiquity |quote=Porphyreon should rather be located at Tell es-Samak and south of it; hence the name could easily have migrated the short distance to Crusader Haifa. Roman-Byzantine Sycamina-Haifa – or Sycamina and Haifa if they are not one and the same place– can best be located in the Haifa Bay, at Bat Galim and Haifa el-‘Atiqa, as suggested by Mittmann |access-date=29 November 2025 |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/7368610}}</ref> The Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the [[University of Haifa]] writes that “It was wrongly identified with the Jewish Shikmona, but the latest research suggests that it should be identified as the Christian town of Porphyreon (south).”<ref>{{cite web |title=Tell es-Samak/Porphyreon (Shikmona National Park) |url=https://arch.haifa.ac.il/2014/02/13/porphyreon/ |website=University of Haifa |department=Zinman Institute of Archaeology}}</ref>
