Tel Michal lies in Herzliya on Israel’s coastal plain, in an estuary on the southern or south-eastern side of the high “tel” overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.
Excavations show habitation from the Middle Bronze Age
(about 2000 BCE) to the Persian period (586-332 BCE).
Tel Michal declined during Persian rule as Apollonia (lying 3.5 km north) was founded and grew in importance.
The archaeological remains of Tel Michal are scattered over five hills, seventeen strata have been excavated from 1977 through 1980.
Special finds are the Iron Age wine presses, the Persian cemetery, and the 31x38m Roman fortress, that was based on fundamental elements from non chiseled stones of kurkar.
The fortress functioned in the first half of the first century, this according to coins of the following procurators:
Marcus Ambibulus (Roman Prefect under Augustus, 9 – 12 CE),
Valerius Gratus (Roman Prefect under Tiberius, 15 – 26 CE),
Pontius Pilate (Roman Prefect under Tiberius, 26 – 36 CE)
and one coin of Herod Agrippa I (37 – 44 CE), that were found in Tel Michal.
