This volume presents the final report on the excavations at Tell Qasile during 1949–1950 and 1959, directed by Benjamin Mazar, and during 1982–1992, directed by Amihai Mazar and Smadar Harpazi-Ofer. The 1948–1950 seasons were the first academic archaeological excavations in the State of Israel and paved the way for the study of Philistine culture before excavations in Philistia proper. Excavations during 1971–1974 revealed the unique sacred enclosure, dated to the twelfth–early tenth centuries BCE, which was published in two volumes of Qedem in 1980 and 1985. The 1982–1992 seasons expanded the excavation of the Iron I residential areas.
The small port town on the northern bank of the Yarkon River became a cornerstone for the study of Iron I–IIA in Israel’s coastal plain. This volume focuses on the town plan and the residential and administrative buildings. The 13 chapters include analyses of stratigraphy and architecture, the publication of rich pottery assemblages and other artifacts, several scientific studies, and a concluding discussion of the implications of the excavations for the study of the Iron Age in the southern Levant.