Tel Aviv - Tell Qasileh

In the center of the Eretz Israel Museum complex in Tel Aviv is Tell Qasileh with its excavations and a pavilion displaying finds from the site. The Israeli archeologist B. Mazar identified twelve occupation levels on the tell, the earliest dating back to the 12th century B.C. A brick building of that period was found in stratum XII and a strong wall and two copper-smelting furnaces of the 11th century in stratum XI. These two levels are attributed to the Philistines. Stratum X dates from the 10th century, when, after David's conquest of the area, the kings of Israel had a port here. Recently some scholars have suggested that the cedarwood from Lebanon which Solomon required for the building of the Temple was landed here, at the mouth of