The Site and Its Environs
Tel Kabri (Map Ref. 1632–2681) is located in the western Galilee, five km east of Nahariya and the Mediterranean coast, spreading over an area of 130 acres. Some scholars maintain that it is not a single prominent mound formed over many generations but rather a complex of sites from different periods, scattered over a considerable area. The most prominent feature of the site now known as Tel Kabri is the rampart surrounding it. This rampart, marking the northern limit of the Middle Bronze Age settlement, lies southwest of the ruins of Dharat et-Tell, one of three small Arab villages that existed in the area before 1948. An ancient agricultural terrace runs east to west across this part of the mound where the cemetery and water tower of Kibbutz Kabri stand today. In the southwestern section of the site are the ruins of et-Tell, close to the ‘Ein Shefa (Mafshuh) spring, which today is linked to the National Water Carrier. On the southeastern part of the rampart, south of the ‘Ein Giah spring, lie the ruins of a third Arab village, en-Naher. Landmarks in this village are the house of Afifi and the Turkish water mill.

Evidence of Late Neolithic occupation was found mainly in Area B, and also around the ‘Ein Giah spring and beneath the Bronze Age strata at Dharat et-Tell, near the ‘Ein Shefa spring. In the Early Bronze Age a more substantial settlement developed around the ‘Ein Shefa Spring. The Middle Bronze Age occupants utilized the higher area to build a city that became an important center in the region. In the Iron Age and Hellenistic period the occupation of the site shifted to the southwestern sector where there was a fortress whose remains exhibit material culture closely associated with Phoenicia. During the Roman to Ottoman periods, the local inhabitants preferred to live on the hill that lies northeast of the ancient settlement. In modern times two Arab villages (et-Tell and en-Naher) were built on the southernmost ruins of the Middle Bronze Age enclosure.

'Ein Shefa from the air

Identifying the Site
Because of the importance of Kabri in the Middle Bronze Age IIA and Iron Age, Aharon Kempinski, who excavated the site from 1986-1993, speculated that it was the city of Rehob mentioned in Joshua 19:28: the A-r-h-bum mentioned in the Execration Texts and the Rhabu from New Kingdom Egyptian inscriptions. The lack of clear finds from the Late Bronze Age, however, poses a serious problem to this hypothesis, which may be solved by further excavations.