Tel Shimron is situated on the edge of the Jezreel Valley, at the foot of the southwestern fringes of the Nazareth hills. Surveys of the tell and its surroundings documented settlement remains (c. 150 dunams) dating from the Chalcolithic to the Ottoman periods (Portugali 1982; Raban 1982: Site 83). During the Roman period, the main Legio–Zippori road skirted the tell’s western side (Isaac and Roll 1982; Strange 2014:263–271). Previous excavations on the western margins of the tell uncovered building remains dating from the Persian period and probable remains of the Legio–Zippori road (Feig 2007; Fig. 1: A-4284), as well as meager architectural remains from the Roman period (Feig 2009; Fig. 1: A-5334). The tell settlement is identified with the biblical city of Shimron in the tribal territory of Zebulun (Joshua 19:15), with the Second Temple-period village of Simonia (Josephus Life 24.152) and with a settlement mentioned at the time of the Mishnah and Talmud (e.g., JT Megillah 1:1:7) whose name was preserved in that of the site’s former Arab village, Semunieh.

In the current excavation, four squares (A–D) were opened along the eastern fringes of Road No. 7626. Square A had been damaged by a modern disturbance, and architectural remains attributed to the Persian–Roman periods were uncovered in Squares B–D.
 
Square A
A wide modern trench had damaged any archaeological remains. The square yielded a small stone bowl (L105, B1064; Fig. 2:1) and a fragment of a stone loom weight (L103, B1032; Fig. 2:2), neither of which can be dated.
 
Square B (Figs. 3, 4)
A segment of a field wall (W113; length 4 m, width 0.9 m) comprised of two rows of partially dressed limestone blocks with a core of small stone between them, was preserved for a single course (height 0.4 m). The wall was severely damaged, probably by road works, precluding establishing its function.
The square yielded sherds of jars (Fig. 5:1, 2) and an imported bowl (Fig. 5:3) dating from the Hellenistic period, and cooking pots (Fig. 5:4, 5) and jars (Fig. 5:6, 7) dating from the Roman period; a Byzantine bowl (Fig. 5:8) was also recovered on the surface. Since the latest finds abutting the wall date from the Roman period, the wall should probably be dated to this period.
 
Square C (Fig. 6)
Three settlement strata were revealed (III–I); Strata III and II were only evident in a probe near the square’s southwestern corner (Fig. 7). The probe’s limited dimensions make it difficult to identify the findings. Based on the ceramic finds, the three strata were dated to the Persian–Early Hellenistic periods.
 
Stratum III exhibited a floor bedding (L131; thickness 0.1 m) composed of small stones in compacted gray soil that was only identified in the section. The bedding was overlain by a tamped earthen floor. Based on the pottery finds, the floor was dated to the Persian–Early Hellenistic periods.
 
Stratum II contained a floor bedding (L121; 0.6 × 1.5 m; thickness 0.1 m) identical to Bedding 131; it was only partially preserved and did not continue eastward into the probe section. It was probably also the bedding of a tamped earthen floor. Here too, the pottery finds dated the floor to the Persian–Early Hellenistic periods. While excavating the fill (L126) in the eastern part of the square, a round carnelian bead was found (B1051; Fig. 8) that should probably be attributed to this stratum.
 
Stratum I (Fig. 9). The meager architectural remains comprised a wall segment (W106) and a floor (L107). Wall 106 (length 1.6 m, width 0.4 m) was built of a single row of undressed limestones, without bonding material, preserved for a single course (height 0.2 m). Floor 107 (1.7 × 2.5 m, width 0.1 m) was made of small and medium-sized stones, mostly limestones with some basalt stones, some of which were partially dressed. A grinding stone was incorporated in secondary use in the floor. The floor was sunken and did not abut W106, and it was not clear whether the two were contemporaneous. An intact spindle juglet (Fig. 10:7) found on top of the paving stones (L104) dated to the Hellenistic period. The roadworks had evidently cut the floor’s eastern side. Based on the pottery finds, the remnants of the floor and the wall were dated to the Persian–Early Hellenistic periods.
 
The pottery assemblage from Square C included mortaria (Fig. 10:1, 2), a cooking pot (Fig. 10:3), jars (Fig. 10:4–6), a spindle juglet (Fig. 10:7), a decorated body fragment (Fig. 10:8) and oil lamps (Fig. 10:9, 10), all dating from the Persian and Early Hellenistic periods.
 
Square D (Figs. 11, 12)
A thin north–south wall (W202; length 4.2 m, width 0.2 m) was built of a row of undressed limestones with no bonding material and set on a shallow foundation layer of small limestones. The wall was abutted to its west by a sunken layer of small stones and tamped earth (L207; thickness 0.15 m) that extended into the western balk (Fig. 13) and that overlay a soil fill layer (L209). Square D yielded pottery sherds of bowls (Fig. 14:1, 2), cooking pots (Fig. 14:3, 4), a jug (Fig. 14:5), a juglet (Fig. 14:6) and an oil lamp (Fig. 14:7), all dating from the Roman period. The construction of the wall and the abutting stone layer were probably part of a rural track dating from the Roman period.
 
Flint Finds
The excavation yielded a flint assemblage consisting of 1,391 items (Table 1) including mostly non-diagnostic knapping debitage and tools. The knapping debitage mostly consisted of flakes and primary flakes. Most of the cores lacked a clear form and were used to produce flakes and blades. The tools (Table 2) were mostly ad hoc tools with a few diagnostic tools that included bifacials, an ax, an adze and a chisel, characteristic of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods. The main diagnostic tools in the assemblage were sickle blades, three of which were backed and some were denticulated (Fig. 15:1), characteristic of the Neolithic period; one was backed with truncations (Fig. 15:2), characteristic of the Chalcolithic period; five were formed on Canaanite blades (Fig. 15:3), characteristic of the Early and Intermediate Bronze Ages; and three were formed on large geometric items (Fig. 15:4) and were characteristic of the Middle Bronze–Iron Ages.
 
Table 1. The flint items
Item
N
%
Primary flakes
171
13.74
Flakes
569
45.74
Blades
65
5.23
Canaanite blades
2
0.16
Core trimming elements
34
2.73
Chunks
96
7.72
Chips
307
24.68
Total debitage
1244
100
Tools
62
42.18
Cores
85
57.82
Total
147
100
 
Table 2. The flint tools
Tool
N
%
Retouched blades
8
12.90
Retouched flakes
6
9.67
Scrapers
2
3.23
Side scrapers
4
6.45
Awls
6
9.68
Denticulates/notches
11
17.74
Drills
2
3.23
Burins
1
1.61
Sickle blades
19
30.65
Bifacial tools
3
4.84
Total
62
100
 
The flint assemblage dates to several periods: the few fragmented bifacial tools date from the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods (Rosen 1997:93–98), whereas the various sickle blades date from between the Neolithic period and the Iron Age (Rosen 1997:44–60). The ancient assemblage was probably washed down from the tell, representing the various occupation periods on the tell.
 
The excavation uncovered architectural remains from the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman periods. Rural tracks or paths similar to that discovered in Square D were discovered nearby, at Kibbutz Allonim (Kapul 2018) and at Moshav Alloney Abba (Alexandre 2008). These tracks were built by the local inhabitants and led mainly from the settlement to the agricultural lands, or to main roads. The track discovered in the current excavation may have linked the site’s Roman settlement to the nearby main route between Legio and Zippori.