During the early Arab period (7th century AD), there was a small settlement here, and at the end of the 16th century, there was an Arab village of Sheikh Abrek named Sheikh Burek known in these places. Josephus mentioned the city called Basara as the administrative center of the lands of Princess Berenice in the Jezreel Valley. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD The Sanhedrin was at a certain stage in Beit Shearim. Rabbi Yehuda Ha-Nasi, head of the Sanhedrin, settled in Beit Shearim. The last seventeen years of his life, he spent in Sepphoris (Zipory) because of a more favorable climate, but had to be buried in Beit Shearim in the limit, which he received as a gift from his friend, the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Antonin. The most desirable place for the burial of the Jews was the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, but in 135 AD, when Jews were removed from Jerusalem, the Beit Shearim district became an alternative. The archaeological significance of this place was recognized in the mid-1880s during the Survey of Western Palestine, which mentions many tombs and catacombs, but there is no mention of an ancient city. Translated with Google Translate