Tel Akko 1997 Overview

Aaron J. Brody
The multi-period site of Tel Akko is located on the northern Mediterranean coast of Israel at a confluence of ancient trade routes along both sea and land. As a gateway city, Akko was central in connecting northern Palestine to exchange networks stretching overseas to the Aegean, Cyprus, and the Egyptian Delta, and overland from Egypt to Mesopotamia. More localized, dendritic networks also placed Akko as an outlet for regional products coming from the Akko plain, Galilee hills, and the Jezreel and Jordan Valleys. The city's strategic position, riverine sources of fresh water, and one of the few natural harbors along the southern Levantine littoral, made Tel Akko a natural site of continual habitation from the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age through the Hellenistic period.

Over twelve seasons of excavation, from 1973-1989, nine major areas were opened on the mound of Akko under the directorship of M. Dathan, through the auspices of the Center for Maritime Studies at Haifa University in Israel. A few synthesizing articles and brief field reports have been published, yet twenty-three years after ground was broken at the tel no final publication has appeared reporting the archaeological discoveries at Akko. The dig's director, M. Dothan, is currently quite ill and has placed the responsibilities of publishing on the site's area supervisors. M. Artzy, who managed the excavation of areas A, AB, and P, and now has the rights to their publication, suggested to me that I take over the project of researching and publishing the Bronze and Iron Age material from her three trenches. All of the material culture, records, and notes from the excavations at Akko is stored at Haifa University. M. Artzy has recently received a grant to support the beginning stages of organization of the material from. Akko for publication. In conjunction with this, Artzy has promised me complete access to this material and full rites to its publication, realizing my unique qualifications for this project given my background in coastal archaeology and research on ancient Levantine harbor sites.

I propose to rescue the material from Akko from its dormancy and to publish its Bronze and Iron Age material in a format usable by archaeologists and other scholars interested in lifeways in eastern Mediterranean coastal sites. In addition to adding to our knowledge of daily life at the site, the publication of the material from Akko using an Annales approach will give new insight into trade items and exchange networks in the Middle and Late Bronze Age economies of the region, add crucial information about the coming of the Sea Peoples and early Iron Age coastal society, and provide data on the acculturation of the Sea Peoples and rise of early Phoenician polities in the later Iron Age. These research questions, key to understanding broader societal and economic issues in the Bronze and Iron Age eastern Mediterranean, can not be approached without the publication and interpretation of primary data from the site of Tel Akko.