Tell Sukas (also "Teil Sukäs") (possibly ancient Shuksi or Suksi) is a Late Bronze Age archaeological mound on the Eastern Mediterranean coast about south of Jableh, Syria.
The settlement at Tell Sukas was located at the center of the fertile plain of Jableh on a hill with access to two natural harbors. There is evidence of an earlier Neolithic settlement at the site dating back to the seventh or sixth millennium BC.
The earliest occupation at Tell Sukas dates to the Neolithic period, which is divided into early, middle and late phases. Archaeological finds from this period show strong similarities with other major Levantine sites such as Ras Shamra, Byblos and Tell Ard Tlaili. After this phase, there appears to be a significant hiatus before later reoccupation.
The site was identified as ancient Suksi, which was mentioned in the Ugarit tablets. The Bronze Age settlement was probably destroyed during the Bronze Age collapse. The settlement was partially destroyed around 1170 BC, possibly as part of the wider regional upheavals associated with the Bronze Age collapse.
The site was reused shortly thereafter and commercial activity at the Iron Age settlement can be traced again to at least the tenth century BC, when it became the port of Luhuti,
The Phoenician coastal settlement, divided into two phases (Phoenician II and I). Archaeological evidence points to strong trade connections with Cyprus and the Aegean, as shown by imported Greek and Cypriot pottery. It seems that the Assyrians under King Esarhaddon destroyed the settlement.
Archaeological findings indicate that the Greeks established a settlement at Tell Sukas at approximately the same time they arrived at Al-Mina, the town thrived as a Greek trading outpost until c. 498 BC. Multiple regional conflicts in the 6th century BC and the early 5th century BC contributed to the eventual abandonment of the Greek settlement. Like Al-Mina, Tell Sukas served as a port that likely enabled transplanted Greeks to engage in trade with both fellow Greeks and the local inhabitants. Greek settlers established themselves at Tell Sukas alongside Cypriots.
The site was largely abandoned after the destruction of the Greek settlement (around 498 BC) and was later reoccupied by Phoenicians between about 380 and 140 BC. Later Hellenistic phases were destroyed by earthquakes.
The Byzantines transformed the mound into a fortress, which was later expanded by the Crusaders, occupied by Muslim forces and abandoned in the 14th century.
The site was excavated in 1958âÂÂ1963 by the Danish Carlsberg Expedition to Phoenicia under P.J. Riis. Excavations uncovered an early Iron Age cemetery south of the tell which was dated to between the 13th and 10th century BC. Excavations also uncovered a large seventh-century Phoenician temple. The abundance of Greek pottery and the discovery of Greek burial grounds suggest that the city became a permanent Hellenic outpost by 600 BC. The earliest Greek type tombs discovered date to the late seventh century BC. Despite interruptions caused by destructive events around 588 and again in 552 BC, the period from approximately 675 to at least 498 BC reveals distinctly Greek elements, such as a sanctuary built in Greek architectural style, which differed from typical Syro-Phoenician religious structures.