A colossal monument, estimated to be around 3,800 years old, has been unearthed atop the ancient hill of Tel Shimron.
The monument, constructed with intricate mud bricks and employing advanced architectural techniques of its time, extends over 1,200 square meters – roughly the size of an Olympic swimming pool – and dramatically raises the hill's height by an additional 5 meters. The remarkable find has raised numerous questions about its purpose and significance.
"You know how it is with archaeology — usually, you have these stumps of walls that raise up no more than a meter, and you just have the foundations. But all of a sudden, here, we’re dealing with a huge monument that has been constructed at the top of this huge city in the Middle Bronze Age, and that really surprised us in terms of conservation," said Daniel Master, a professor of archaeology at Wheaton College who has been excavating Tel Shimron since 2017.
The round knoll of Tel Shimron, towering about 70 meters above the Jezreel Valley, was believed to be a typical archaeological mound until recent excavations revealed its extraordinary secret.
The monument, composed of over 9,000 unfired mud bricks, includes a tower and a domed passageway built using the innovative "corbelled" technique. The method, which involves progressively stepped bricks to form a narrowing roof, is thought to be the earliest known example of corbelled architecture in Israel.
The construction's aesthetic intricacies are equally remarkable, with a layer of white chalk artfully inserted between the bricks purely for visual effect. The rare level of preservation has astounded archaeologists, given the delicate nature of unfired mud bricks.
Despite its grandeur, the purpose of the monument remains a mystery, with archaeologists speculating it could be remnants of a fortified city wall to a religious or symbolic structure. Master emphasized the monumental challenge of understanding its significance and purpose, questioning why such a massive effort was invested in constructing the monument at an already elevated location.
The monument's obscurity is compounded by the fact that the site features no signs of extensive wear, suggesting limited usage post-construction. Some experts propose its connection to religious practices due to the discovery of a seven-spouted vessel, a known item used in ancient rituals.
"To have this kind of delicate structure preserved for 3,800 years blew our minds. Everyone we showed it to in the archaeological community could hardly imagine what they were seeing, because it’s so rare to have that level of preservation in these structures," said Master.
Comparisons have been drawn with a similar monument in Syria: the White Monument at Tel Banat, which is believed to be one of the world's oldest war memorials due to its systematic arrangement of the deceased.
While Tel Shimron's nature reserve and park are open to the public, the monument itself remains off-limits, painstakingly backfilled to preserve its delicate state. The ongoing excavation is expected to take several more years, and the monument's exceptional preservation has awed the archaeological community, sparking renewed interest and inquiry into the ancient mysteries it holds.