Editing Shefa-Amr (section)

===Ancient period===
[[File:Byzant.jpg|thumb|Christian Byzantine graves, 5th and 6th century CE.<ref name=SWP339/>]]

Walls, installations and pottery [[sherd]]s from the [[Bronze Age#Near East timeline|Early Bronze Age IB]] and the [[Bronze Age#Near East timeline|Middle Bronze Age IIB]], [[Ancient Near East#Iron Age|Iron]], [[Hellenistic period|Hellenistic]] and [[Roman Empire|Roman]] periods have been excavated at Shefa-ʻAmr.<ref>Feig, 2014, [http://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/report_detail_eng.aspx?id=9564&mag_id=121 ‘En Shefar‘am, Final report]</ref>

Shefa-Amr is first mentioned under the name ''Shefar'am'' ({{langx|he|שפרעם}}) in the [[Tosefta]] ([https://www.sefaria.org/Tosefta_Mikvaot.6.1?lang=he&vside=Sefaria_Community_Translation|en&with=Translation%20Open&lang2=he Tractate Mikvaot 6:1]), followed by the [[Talmud]] redacted in 500 [[Common Era|CE]] where it is mentioned in several places, in Tractate [https://www.sefaria.org/Avodah_Zarah.8b.14?lang=bi ''Avodah Zarah'' 8b] and [https://www.sefaria.org/Rosh_Hashanah.31b?lang=bi ''Rosh Hashanah'' 31b], ''et al.''

Settlement has existed there without interruption since the Roman period, when it was one of the cities mentioned in the [[Talmud]] as containing the seat of the Jewish [[Sanhedrin]] during the reign of [[Marcus Aurelius]].<ref name="Zaharoni1978">Zaharoni (1978), p. 125</ref><ref name="Babli">{{cite book  | title = Talmud Bavli Rosh Hashana | page = 31b }}</ref> The seat of the Sanhedrin was traditionally thought to be where the Old Synagogue "Maḥaneh Shekhinah" was built in later times.<ref name="Zaharoni1978" /> Old Shefa-'Amr was settled in the area where are now built the Police Station, the various Churches and Jews' Street.<ref>Zaharoni (1978), p. 126</ref> Decorated burial caves were documented by the [[Survey of Western Palestine]] in the late nineteenth century; they were found to be Christian tombs from the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] era, dating to the 5th and 6th century CE. [[Greek language|Greek]] inscriptions were also found.<ref name=SWP339>Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp01conduoft#page/339/mode/1up 339] -343</ref>

Archaeological excavations of a cave and [[quarries]] revealed that they were used in the Roman and Byzantine eras.<ref>Atrash, 2016, [http://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/report_detail_eng.aspx?id=25021&mag_id=124 Shefar‘am, Highway 79]</ref> Shefa-ʻAmr contains Byzantine remains, including a church and tombs.<ref>Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp01conduoft#page/33/mode/1up p. 343]; Guérin, 1880, p [https://archive.org/stream/descriptiongogr01unkngoog#page/n427/mode/1up 414], TIR, 230. All cited in Petersen, 2001, p. [https://www.academia.edu/21620272/Gazetteer_6._S-Z 276]</ref>

A [[Rescue archaeology|salvage dig]] was conducted in the southern quarter of the old city exposing remains from five phases in the Late Byzantine and early [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad]] periods. Finds include a [[tabun oven]], a pavement of small fieldstones, a mosaic pavement that was probably part of a [[wine press]] treading floor, a small square wine press, handmade [[krater]]s, an imported Cypriot bowl and an open cooking pot. Also discovered were glass and pottery vessels.<ref>Abu Raya, 2010,
[http://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/report_detail_eng.aspx?id=1428&mag_id=117 Shefar‘am Final Report]</ref>