page_title: Abel-beth-maachah
section_title: Area F
hierarchical_section_title: Abel-beth-maachah / Current exploration / Iron Age I / Area F
caption_attribution_description: English: Iron I building in foreground-MBII tower and rampart in background; looking south
context_page_description: Tel Abel Beth Maacah, Arabic name: Tell Abil el-Qameḥ, is a large archaeological site consisting of a mound with a 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. Since at least the early 13th century CE the mound was the location of the Arab village of Abil el-Qameh, also spelled al-Qamh etc., whose residents were forced to flee in 1948.
  The survey and excavations conducted so far 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, 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.
context_section_description: Remains of the Iron Age I were found just above the latest Late Bronze Age layer (dated to the 13th century BCE, LBIIB). These remains included a building with several rooms, as well numerous pits and silos. Some of these were cut into the LB walls, as well as into the top of the MBII fortification, indicating that the latter went out of use in this period. The pits contained pottery, a spindle whorl and an iron blade. One of these pits, cut deep against the wall of the MBII tower, contained a concentration of discarded cultic vessels. These remains were exposed just below topsoil. Aside from a large pit dug in the Persian period here, no later occupation was identified following the Iron Age I here.
caption: Iron I building in foreground-MBII tower and rampart in background; looking south
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 60D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0 ME", "Image DateTime": "2016:01:30 20:41:52", "Image Artist": "", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "286", "Image SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "Image RecommendedExposureIndex": "100", "Image BodySerialNumber": "2821421576", "Image LensSpecification": "[18, 200, 0/0, 0/0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1136", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4391", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/50", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:07:17 05:55:22", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:07:17 05:55:22", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "45/8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "28", "EXIF SubSecTime": "61", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "61", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "61", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1890", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1260", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1036800/181", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "691200/119", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}