A jackal-like predator that may date to the Hellenistic period stands alertly atop a bronze standard or finial from Tel Soreg. Though Tel Soreg had been inhabited during the Bronze and Iron Ages, by the ninth and eighth centuries B.C.E. it had been reduced to a 60-foot-wide agricultural settlement under the control of the Arameans of Damascus. After the establishment of the nearby towns of Sussita (also known as Hippos) and Afeka in the late Hellenistic period, Tel Soreg was abandoned forever.