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Also known as Tell Thorah, Tel Shor is a small archaeological mound in the western Jezreel Valley of northern Israel. It lies at approximately 32.65° N, 35.17° E, in the central-western part of the valley, about 1 km north of the Kishon River. A spring lies immediately west of the mound, while marshy ground historically occupied parts of the surrounding lowland.

The site’s location is particularly important because the Jezreel Valley forms a major ecological and transportation corridor connecting the Mediterranean coast with the Jordan Valley and Galilee
A useful example is Mediterranean/ Haifa to western Jezreel Valley → Tel Shor to eastern Jezreel Valley → Beth-Shean to the Jordan Valley.

The Jezreel Valley was exceptionally suitable for cereal agriculture and fruit/woodland resources, but the published Tel Shor evidence does not currently provide a sufficiently detailed archaeobotanical assemblage to reconstruct its Neolithic plant economy. What it does provide is a remarkably long archaeological sequence in one of the most productive landscapes of northern Israel, beginning securely by the Early Bronze Age and continuing through numerous later periods.

Tel Shor: Water, Wetlands and Settlement in the Jezreel Valley. The sites important architectural lesson isn’t a particular neolithic house plan. It is site selection. It demonstrates the importance of placing settlements at the intersection of water, fertile soil, transportation, grazing, wetlands and agricultural land. Check it out today.

References: Yannai, E. (2009). Tel Shor (North). Ḥadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel 121. Israel Antiquities Authority.

Yannai, E. (2026). Tel Shor: A Cemetery from the Persian Period and Finds from the Late Chalcolithic–Roman and Ottoman Periods in the Western Jezreel Valley. Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel 2. Israel Antiquities Authority.

Golani, A. & Yannai, E. (2026). Tel Shor: Jewelry, Dress and Cosmetic Articles from Three Persian Burials. Qadum 2.

Ariel, D. T. & Panagou, T. (2026). Tel Shor: Stamped Amphora Handles. Qadum 2. The finds include Rhodian and Knidian amphora handles.

Winter, T. (2026). Tel Shor: The Glass Vessels. Qadum 2.