In May–July 2013, an underwater excavation took place along the planned line of expansion of the southern breakwater of the ‘Akko harbor (Permit No. A-6829; map ref. 206913–7025/758348–474; Fig. 1). The excavation, on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and the University of Rhode Island and funded by the Old Acre Development Company and the Ministry of Tourism, was directed by J. Sharvit, D. Planer, B. Buxton and W. Krieger, with the assistance of S. Ben-Yehuda (drafting and GIS) and D. Katz (maritime engineering and planning).
In the 1960s and 1970s, archaeological investigations, including a survey and preliminary and salvage excavations, were undertaken in the harbor (Linder and Raban 1964; 1965a:1–10; 1965b:1–23; Raban 1986). The aim of these investigations was to locate, document and identify remains of the ancient breakwater and submerged ancient structures. The various investigations included mapping the Land Wall that extended for c. 30 m from the corner of the wall next to the Round Tower southward to the breakwater (Fig. 2:A); mapping segments of the southern breakwater (Fig. 2:B); excavating a probe in the west, near the Abu Christo restaurant (Fig. 2:C); digging two shallow trial trenches on the eastern side of the Land Wall (Fig. 2:D) and a deep trial trench on its western side (Fig. 2:E); digging three probes in the center of the bay and three trial trenches on the northern side of the breakwater’s end (Fig. 2:F); and digging two trial trenches in the gaps between the remains of the breakwater (Fig. 2:G). None of these probes in the harbor reached down to the bedrock or to virgin soil.
In the 1990s, the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Expedition conducted an excavation at the ‘Island of Flies’ (Flinder, Linder and Hall 1993:216–221), uncovering seven courses of worked stones laid as headers at a depth of 6 m below sea level; these courses were dated to the Hellenistic–Early Roman periods. This excavation also did not uncover evidence of construction on the bedrock. In 1992–1993, excavations were undertaken to deepen the entrance into the Marina and the Fishermen’s Harbor, under the supervision of the IAA (Galili et al. 2002; Sharvit and Galili 2002). The data retrieved in this project were published in a report summarizing the archaeological activity in the harbor, also featuring a section dug from the breakwater to the eastern ramp, presenting a proposed reconstruction of the underwater sub-seabed strata in the harbor (Galili et al. 2010:203, Fig. 13).
In 2011, two geological cores were drilled under the supervision of the IAA Marine Unit, for the analysis and study of the sub-seabed under the western fishermen’s harbor. The core samples (Keller 2011) revealed a layer of a calcareous sandstone conglomerate with loose sand at a depth of 9 m below sea level in the western quay. This layer appeared at a depth of 11 m below sea level along the line of the eastern quay. The core cut through friable kurkar and reached a maximum depth of 12.5 m below sea level, apparently not reaching hard bedrock. The 2006–2008 underwater excavation of the submerged eastern rampart that extends from the shoreline to the ‘Island of Flies’ (Yurman 2013) reached a depth of c. 7 m below sea level, again without reaching bedrock or virgin soil. In the archaeological excavations conducted by the IAA in 2009–2013 at the foot of the Southern Seawall, which extends from the Horses’ Beach to the Fishermen’s Harbor, structures and installations of the ancient port dating to the Hellenistic–Early Roman periods were uncovered, including a quay built of large dressed kurkar stones and harbor installations constructed on the bedrock. This excavation uncovered the bedrock along the entire Southern Seawall, at a depth of 2.4–2.6 m below sea level (Sharvit, Planer and Buxton 2013).
In the current excavation, two underwater probes were opened 5–6 m north of the present-day quay, the departure and arrival point for passenger vessels plying a route between the harbor of ‘Akko and the Qishon harbor in Haifa. The location of the probes (Fig. 2:H) was determined based on an engineering plan for the construction of a new quay and the expansion of the dock, and they were dug 10 m apart, between each pair of pilings of the planned quay. Prior to the excavation, two wooden excavation frames (2 × 2 m) were placed at a depth of 2.2 m below sea level. The strata discovered in both the probes were identical, and therefore only the excavation in the southwestern probe is described below (Fig. 3). The excavation dug through layers of silt and clay typical of harbor sludge, making the water murky and impeding photography; the excavation did not reach bedrock in either probe.
A layer of sand and silt (L100) at a depth of 2.2–2.7 m below sea level was mixed with modern debris. Below L100, there was a layer of large to medium-sized stones, some worked (L101); these were probably the remains of ancient structures that had once stood on the breakwater and had since tumbled into the harbor. This layer also included fieldstones and pebbles (length 5–10 cm) mixed with carbonate sand (zifzif). In the lower part of L101 (3.2 m below sea level), two small brass containers were found (3.4 × 5.0 × 7.0 cm; Fig. 4), one partly preserved and the other intact. One side of each container is straight, and the other is semicylindrical. Both are open containers and have identical metal lids. Two brass strips (width 1.3 cm) were soldered along the width of each of the containers’ convex sides, one in the center and the other near the base. Three loops (width 2 cm) were soldered on each side of the container (six in total), through which a carrying strip may have been inserted. The containers are identical to 158 containers retrieved in the excavation of the nineteenth-century ‘Akko 1 shipwreck (Ashkenazi et al. 2014:51–54), which were found to have held gunpowder. Two flat gray pebbles (diam. 5.5 cm, thickness c. 1 cm; Fig. 5), found together with these containers were probably ignition stones. There was a layer (L102) of small flat pebbles interspersed with clay and silt at a depth of 3.40–4.17 m below sea level. Below it, down to a depth of 5.5 m below sea level, was a layer devoid of archaeological finds (L103), consisting mainly of fine-grained clays and silt, as well as small clusters of shells and small potsherds. A PVC pipe (length 1 m, diam. 5 cm) was inserted at the bottom of the probe (5.5 m below sea level) to remove a core sample for granulometric analysis. A prodder (length 1.5 m) inserted into the pipe to a depth of c. 7 m below sea level did not reach bedrock.
The plans of the harbor and of the ancient structures, prepared by the 1964–1965 Linder–Raban expedition, were reexamined after the excavation in order to locate the probes in relation to the ancient quay. The plans were scanned and digitally drawn and then superimposed on a GIS layer and an orthophoto of the harbor (Fig. 6). A comparison of the 1960s plans with the current excavation plan revealed that the probes were dug c. 20 m north of the ancient breakwater, explaining why they did not reveal the layer of stones that probably served as the quay. The dressed building stones exposed in L101, which probably came from the buildings and installations on the breakwater that had collapsed, must have been swept northwards to the area of the probes. A few of these buildings can still be seen on historical maps and in an aerial photo of ‘Akko taken by the Prussian squadron in 1917–1918 (Shor 1990:4), including part of a tower at the eastern end of the breakwater. The discovery of the gunpowder containers (L101) under the layers of worked stones may indicate that the destruction of the buildings postdates these containers. The containers may have been transported from place to place as a result of the mechanical dredging of the harbor. Alternatively, they may have been part of the cargo of a ship that was wrecked on the ancient breakwater.
The seabed layers in the core sample and in the probes’ sections, along with the bathymetric map of the area south of the breakwater (outside the harbor), and the finds from the excavations carried out near the ‘Island of Flies’ and the underwater rampart, show that the ancient breakwater was built on layers of sediment rather than on the bedrock. Linder and Raban (1964; 1965a:1–10) proposed that the rampart was built on an artificial foundation of pebbles and small stones, intended to stabilize and level the seabed before setting the building stones on it; the remains of this foundation layer may have been uncovered in the excavation (L102). It seems that in this part of the ancient harbor, the bedrock was very deep and was covered with thick layers of silt—apparently originating in the Nahal Na‘aman estuary, sand of Nilotic origin carried by the sea—and of debris. The bedrock in this area appears to lie deeper than the depth reached in any excavation or dredging operation carried out so far, and the data collected from the dredging of the Fishermen’s Harbor (Galili et al. 2010: Fig. 13) are consequently only partial, shedding light on the periods represented in the exposed layers. Excavations in the harbor should be expanded to shed light on the structure of the harbor in this area prior to the Hellenistic period.
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