IN SEARCH OF A MIDDLE BRONZE AGE HARBOR:
EXCAVATION AT TEL MEVORAKH
Paula Waiman-Barak & Sveta Matskevich, 2017 Shirlee Meyers/G. Ernest Wright Excavation Fellowship Recipients
Tel Mevorakh, first excavation season
Aerial photo of Tel Mevorakh, Mt. Carmel, the Carmel Coast and the Mediterranean.
Tel Mevorakh is a small mound on the southern bank of Nahal Taninim, 2 km inland from the river’s opening into the Mediterranean Sea along the ancient maritime route between Egypt and the Levantine coastal sites. In antiquity, this area was an estuary where salt marshes—influenced by tidal currents, brackish water from local springs and sweet water from the river—formed a wetland interface between the coast and its hinterland. We believe that during the Middle Bronze Age (MBA) Tel Mevorakh served as an inland port of trade for seafaring Canaanite merchants on the crossroad between maritime and land routes.
The tell was previously excavated by Ephraim Stern of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Over four seasons (1973–1976), two excavation areas and one trench revealed a site occupation sequence spanning from the Neolithic to the Byzantine period. Later remains, mostly Crusader and Muslim burials dug into the latest occupation layers, were found in small-scale salvage excavations conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) in 1997 and 2005–2006. Other exposed areas included the presumed “lower town,” located in the lower part of the slope of the tell, unearthed architectural remains dated to the Late Iron Age and the Persian Period.
Since the earliest architectural remains at Mevorakh belong to the Middle Bronze Age, we decided to focus our investigation on this period. During the previous excavation on the tell, MBA remains were found in the lower strata (XIII-XV) in the main areas, as well near the surface in the eastern test trenches. In the main area, a large MBA structure with thickened walls was unearthed (Stratum XIII). Because of the thickened walls of the main building, Stern interpreted it as a garrison. However, adjacent to this structure, Stern described sediments that might be interpreted as characteristic of wetlands. To our minds, this raised the possibility that this structure was built in close proximity to water and therefore required thick walls to withstand the elements of. In the fall of 2017 we opened a small excavation in an attempted to address the question of the ancient environment of the site during the MBA.
On site, it was evident that a new excavation at “Stern’s Garrison” was impossible for safety reasons. We decided instead to reopen the excavation areas on the eastern slope (the easternmost squares of the main area and the “East Cut”), to record the architectural remains and to collect sediments and ceramics for analysis. In addition, for control, we excavated new squares on both sides of this “East Cut.”
The material culture of the site from all periods suggested that there was substantial maritime traffic, and that the economic prosperity of the residents of Tel Mevorakh depended on the interconnections with neighboring communities. However, there were two main interpretations regarding Tel Mevorakh and its place in the settlement history of the area. Stern’s excavations focused on the site and its presumed connections to a terrestrial road network along the Carmel Coast, while Avner Raban, in his 1985 paper on Canaanite harbors suggested that Mevorakh was an inland port on the banks of the Nahal Taninim in an ancient semi-closed marine lagoon.
Excavations on the east slope, Fall 2017.
The paleoenvironment of the broader area nearby was researched extensively by geologists via coring. However, those studies were concerned with environments predating the Bronze Age. Therefore, we decided to approach the problem with a different method: to gather sediments from excavated archaeological contexts, and to analyze them using geological techniques with the aim to derive environmental information. The mineralogical and faunal content of associated sediments can provide a reflection of the environment in which they were deposited. Thus, using sediments from mudbricks with a solid archaeological context can potentially provide a well-dated reconstruction of the paleoenvironment.
During the inaugural 2017 season at Tel Mevorakh we focused the work on the MBA settlement. For this purpose, we reopened one of the old excavation areas on the eastern slope and started several new squares immediately next to it. According to the 1970’s excavation report on the eastern slope, MBA stratum were the uppermost archaeological layer, and these contained a brick wall and MBA ceramics. In our excavation, we re-exposed the MBA brick wall and found it mostly burnt and collapsed on several MBA Canaanite jars (now on our restoration table). One of the jar fragments had shells of Glycymeris (a saltwater marine bivalve mollusk) attached to it. Glycymeris, as well as other marine shells (e.g., Murex, Egyptian Chambardia) were very common in the excavation. This is consistent with the malacological analyses published in the 1970’s excavation report and suggests a marine connection. Although Glycymeris species no longer exist along the Israeli coast, they were common in the Bronze and Iron Ages and were collected by humans for different usages.
Sediment analysis
We collected several sediment samples from the collapsed brick wall based on the assumption that the materials used for making the mudbricks were harvested near the site. A preliminary analysis of the sediment was done in collaboration with Beverly Goodman-Tchernov. In the mudbricks of the MBA wall we found sediments typical of the coastal area with abundant fauna characteristic of marine and brackish wetlands: marine shell fragments, spines of sea urchins and foraminifera of species highly tolerant to both marine and brackish waters. Additional coring in the immediate surrounding of the site is planned.
Ceramic analysis
Volunteers from Kibbutz Ma’agan-Michael Field School and Sveta Matskevich.
While the study of the sediments in mudbricks is progressing, we apply ceramic petrography to the assemblages of pottery found at our excavation and from the MBA “garrison” published by Stern. Usually, ceramic petrography is used to determine provenance of the artifacts in order to trace commercial interactions. Indeed, we found an abundance of imported pottery from various production centers up and down the Levantine coast, as well as from Egypt and Cyprus. The same method allows us to characterize the clays available in the vicinity o the site, which will give us additional information about the environment of the site during the MBA.
Prior to our excavation, we conducted petrographic examination of the ceramic assemblages from the MBA “garrison” published by Stern. We found an abundance of imported pottery from various production centers up and down the Levantine coast, as well as from Egypt and Cyprus. The ceramic petrography of the local pottery shows a similar sedimentological fingerprint as in the mudbricks, although the mudbricks exhibit a higher ratio of clay minerals and are not fired. The fabric of the ceramics also contains minerals formed in saltwater environments, such as gypsum and glauconite, so far unidentified in the mudbricks.
The ceramics of the 2017 excavation are currently being drawn using the 3D camera scanner and associated computerized morphological analysis at the Computerized Archaeology Laboratory at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
A community venture
Ceramic petrography on ceramics from the 1970’s excavation: a jar imported from the Syrian Coast.
The question of the local ecosystem before human activities and before human intervention is very relevant for modern conservation and development plans of the area. The communities in nearby Kibbutz Ma’agan-Michael and Moshav Beit-Hanania embraced this expedition and joined as volunteers. We opened the excavation to families during the Sukkot holiday and the children of the area participated in all activities. This proved to be a very valuable learning experience for all who participated.
Summary and future investigation
The ancient environment at Tel Mevorakh has long been the subject of academic interest. In applying methods from different fields, we are exploring questions regarding the site’s function at the crossroad of land and sea trade routes. This will contribute to the understanding of the role of Tel Mevorakh along land and sea systems, and its connection to the immediate hinterland.
The analysis of the paleoenvironment based on well-dated archaeological remains, both on sediments, architecture and ceramics is a new, innovative approach. Hopefully this research leads to the formation of specific methodological tools and criteria to help in the identification of marine, wetland and riverine harbors in the Bronze Age―an identification so far elusive in the archaeological record.
2017 Tel Mevorahk excavation team
