Editing Haifa (section)

===Sycaminum and Efa===
The earliest named settlement within the area of modern-day Haifa was the city Sycaminum.<ref name=Dumperp159 /> The remains of the ancient town can be found in a coastal [[Tell (archaeology)|tell]], or archaeological mound, known in Hebrew as {{Transliteration|he|[[Tel Shikmona]]}},<ref name=Sharon /> meaning 'mound of the [[Ficus sycomorus]]', and in Arabic as {{Transliteration|ar|Tell el-Semak}} or {{Transliteration|ar|Tell es-Samak}}, meaning 'mound of the [[sumak]] trees', names that preserved and transformed the ancient name, by which the town is mentioned once in the [[Mishnah]] (composed c. 200 CE) for the wild fruits that grow around it.<ref name=Sharon>{{cite book |last=Sharon |first=Moshe |author-link=Moshe Sharon |author2=Fondation Max van Berchem |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1d8xHcor0psC&pg=PA99 |title=Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae addendum: squeezes in the Max van Berchem collection (Palestine, Trans-Jordan, Northern Syria) |edition=Illustrated |publisher=BRILL |year=2007 |isbn=978-90-04-15780-4 |access-date=2 July 2011 |archive-date=3 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803014841/https://books.google.com/books?id=1d8xHcor0psC&pg=PA99 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=PEF1875 />

The name ''Efa'' first appears during [[Palestine (region)#Roman rule (63 BC)|Roman rule]], some time after the end of the 1st century, when a Roman fortress and small Jewish settlement were established not far from Tel Shikmona.<ref name=Dumperp159>{{Cite book |last1=Dumper |first1=Michael |last2=Stanley |first2=Bruce E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3SapTk5iGDkC&pg=PA159 |title=Cities of the Middle East and North Africa: a historical encyclopedia |edition=Illustrated |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-57607-919-5 |access-date=2 July 2011 |archive-date=3 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803074834/https://books.google.com/books?id=3SapTk5iGDkC&pg=PA159 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Sharon/> Haifa is also mentioned more than 100 times in the [[Talmud]], a work central to Judaism.<ref name=Sharon />

''Hefa'' or ''Hepha'' in [[Eusebius of Caesarea]]'s 4th-century work, ''Onomasticon'',<ref>''Onom.'' 108, 31</ref> is said to be another name for Sycaminus.<ref name=Negev>{{cite book |pages=213–214 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27nq65cZUIgC&pg=PA213 |title=Archaeological encyclopedia of the Holy Land |first1=Avraham |last1=Negev |first2=Shimon |last2=Gibson |edition=4th, revised, illustrated |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-8264-8571-7 |access-date=31 May 2020 |archive-date=2 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802231716/https://books.google.com/books?id=27nq65cZUIgC&pg=PA213 |url-status=live}}</ref> This synonymizing of the names is explained by [[Moshe Sharon]], who writes that the twin ancient settlements, which he calls Haifa-Sycaminon, gradually expanded into one another, becoming a twin city known by the Greek names Sycaminon or Sycaminos Polis.<ref name=Sharon /> References to this city end with the Byzantine period.<ref name=Judaica/>