TEL AVIV, ISRAEL— A crescent-shaped, mudbrick wall that was more than 12 feet wide and 15 feet tall and covered with layers of mud and sand has been unearthed at Ashdod-Yam, an area under Assyrian rule in the eighth century B.C. This massive, Iron-Age fortification may have protected a large artificial harbor. “If so, this would be a discovery of international significance, the first known harbor of this kind in our corner of the Levant,” said Alexander Fantalkin of Tel Aviv University. The structure may have been built in connection with a rebellion led by the Philistine king of nearby Ashdod.
Assyrian Fortified Harbor Discovered in Israel
News August 21, 2013
Recommended Articles
Off the Grid January/February 2025
Tzintzuntzan, Mexico
Digs & Discoveries January/February 2025
Bad Moon Rising
Digs & Discoveries January/February 2025
100-Foot Enigma
Digs & Discoveries January/February 2025
Colonial Companions
-
Features July/August 2013
The First Vikings
Two remarkable ships may show that the Viking storm was brewing long before their assault on England and the continent
Courtesy Liina Maldre, University of Tallinn -
Features July/August 2013
Miniature Pyramids of Sudan
Archaeologists excavating on the banks of the Nile have uncovered a necropolis where hundreds of small pyramids once stood
(Courtesy Vincent Francigny/SEDAU) -
Letter from China July/August 2013
Tomb Raider Chronicles
Looting reaches across the centuries—and modern China’s economic strata
(Courtesy Lauren Hilgers, Photo: Anonymous) -
Artifacts July/August 2013
Ancient Egyptian Sundial
A 13th-century limestone sundial is one of the earliest timekeeping devices discovered in Egypt
(© The Trustees of the British Museum/Art Resource, NY)