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Excavations on the Northern Hill at Tel Mikhal revealed rich finds, in stark contrast with the poorly preserved and scant architectural remains. The earliest settlement here dates to prehistoric times, continuing into the Middle Bronze Age, when a ceramic industry operated at the site. In the Iron Age, settlement was sporadic, and mainly winepresses were unearthed. Toward the end of the Persian period, the area functioned as an industrial area for pottery production and a metal industry, as well as an area for storage and commerce. In the Hellenistic period, the site was also used for industry and storage. No signs of destruction were discerned; therefore, it seems that the area was abandoned toward the end of the second century BCE.

Excavations at the site revealed a large building complex, comprising casemate walls built on bedrock around a large central courtyard with corner towers. It was a well-planned and well-fortified complex, located at a strategic point. The complex was occupied for a brief period of time, at the very end of the Persian (Achaemenid) period and the very beginning of the Hellenistic period (c. 350–325 BCE). It was destroyed by a violent destruction, which claimed human victims. The destruction was dated by a single bronze coin of Alexander III to 336–323 BCE. The pottery finds at the site were homogenous, including bowls, kraters, cooking pots, a flask, jugs and juglets, storage jars and lamps. Metal tools and weapons were found as well. The stone implements included a pair of fine hopper-rubber millstones, which were imported from the Aegean. Beneath the building were exposed walls of a Middle Bronze Age IIA–B building, alongside pottery vessels and animal bones. Subsequent to the destruction of the Persian-period building, the site served as a cemetery during the Mamluk–Ottoman periods.

A large, one-phase building was discovered. Its architecture is typical of the Persian period: walls made of fieldstones with regular intervals of well-dressed ashlar stones. All the pottery from the building was fragmentary, dating to the fifth century BCE. Imported vessels include Eastern Greek and Attic wares. Two heads of drinking vessels (rytha), in the shape of a ram and a lion, were found, as well as an almost intact rython with an anthropomorphic face.

Two buildings were exposed. The northern building comprised rooms surrounding a central courtyard; the pottery finds from this building date from the Persian period, and chiefly, to the Hellenistic and Early Roman periods (first century BCE). Only two rooms survived of the southern building, which apparently opened to a courtyard. Many storage-jar sherds were found, seemingly in situ. On two of them, Aramaic letters were incised before firing. An Achaemenid-style conical glass seal was unearthed, depicting a hero or a ruler holding flanking lions. This building may have had an administrative or storage function. Three tombs were uncovered in proximity to the southern building; they probably date to the Persian period.