Those include complete vessels and figurines made of stone and pottery. The site was surveyed by Israeli archaeologist Avner Raban and a salvage excavation took place for the first time in 2013. The studies showed that although small, Tel Shem had human presence through almost every period from the Neolithic until the Byzantine rule, as well as during the Mamluk and Ottoman periods.[1][2] A station of the old Jezreel Valley railway near Kfar Yehoshua was named after the site which was still visible in the beginning of the 20th century, before it was changed to "Kfar Yehoshua Station".[3]