Crusader-Era Battlefield Identified

News July 31, 2020

(Courtesy Rafael Lewis)
SHARE:
Israel Battle of Arsuf
(Courtesy Rafael Lewis)

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL—The Jerusalem Post reports that Ashkelon Academic College and University of Haifa archaeologist Rafael Lewis believes he has pinpointed the site of the Battle of Arsuf, a key engagement of the Third Crusade. Long celebrated in the West as a great victory, the battle took place on September 7, 1191, when England’s Richard I, or Richard the Lionheart, led his forces against an army commanded by the great Muslim military leader Saladin. The exact location of the battlefield has since been lost. To recover it, Lewis studied a combination of historical and environmental records, and analyzed a network of medieval-era roads to identify an area north of Tel Aviv as the likely site of the battle. A limited survey of the area with a metal detector led Lewis to unearth Crusader-era artifacts, including two arrowheads and a horseshoe dating to the late twelfth or early thirteenth centuries. While the Battle of Arsuf is celebrated as a great victory by European sources, Lewis points out that the Crusaders failed to recapture Jerusalem, the main objective of their campaign. To read in depth about the archaeology of this period, go to “Reimagining the Crusades.” 

  • Features May/June 2020

    A Path to Freedom

    At a Union Army camp in Kentucky, enslaved men, women, and children struggled for their lives and fought to be free

    Read Article
    (National Archives Records Administration, Washington, DC)
  • Features May/June 2020

    Villages in the Sky

    High in the Rockies, archaeologists have discovered evidence of mountain life 4,000 years ago

    Read Article
    (Matt Stirn)
  • Letter from Morocco May/June 2020

    Splendor at the Edge of the Sahara

    Excavations of a bustling medieval city tell the tale of a powerful Berber dynasty

    Read Article
    (Photo Courtesy Chloé Capel)
  • Artifacts May/June 2020

    Torah Shield and Pointer

    Read Article
    (Courtesy Michał Wojenka/Jagiellonian University Institute of Archaeology)