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Abstract
The maritime installation, sometimes called the ‘port’ or the ‘military harbour’ of Apollonia-Arsuf, is located at the foot of the cliff on which the Crusader castle of Arsur stands, about 37 km south of Caesarea, Israel. Opinions have differed as to the true nature of the site: was it a real port or harbour? Was it just a mooring basin for small craft? Or was it just an installation designed to prevent an approach from the coast to the cliff on which the castle itself stood? In an attempt to elucidate these questions various investigations have been carried out in the course of the last five years, within the ‘harbour’ itself, as well as outside.
Acknowledgements
The underwater excavation (IAA permit G-83/2013) and research of the marine installation site were supported by the Honor Frost Foundation to whom the authors are grateful. The authors are indebted to N. Liphschitz, Tel Aviv University, for identifying the wood remains and providing valuable insights; Y. Goren, Laboratory for Comparative Microarchaeology, Tel Aviv University, Institute of Archaeology, for the petrographic analysis; E. Galili, Israel Antiquities Authority, for allowing the presentation of the Apollonia-Arsuf survey finds; L. Lazzarini, Applied Petrography Department, University IUAV of Venice, for the analysis of the marble; and A. Yurman and M. Bachar, the maritime workshop, Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies, University of Haifa, for their valuable assistance.
Notes
* This paper is based on Part II of Dan Mirkin's Ph.D. Dissertation (Tel Aviv University, 2016), titled: Aspects of Inter-relations between Land and Sea during the Crusader Period: Crusader Seamanship in the Southern Levant, carried out under the co-supervision of O. Tal and Y. Kahanov.
1 Translation (after CitationHubert 1941): He sent word thereof to the King / and that fleet, which was to bring / his barons to him still remained / at Tyre, because it was detained / by what is called the Arsur wind.
2 A historical analysis of Crusader Arsur is found in CitationRoll (1999, 11–18), and Tal and Roll (2011, [13]–[20]).
3 For Arsur as an important urban centre, see CitationKedar (2009); for the burgess court see CitationPringle (1997, 3–4); for the church of St. Mary situated in the burgus, see CitationPringle (1993, 60).
4 This was Johannes of Arsur, presumably the male heir of the pre-1187 Lord of Arsur of the same name, killed in a hunting accident in 1198.
5 Wilbrand von Oldenburg (1211–1212) and Thietmar (1217–1218).
6 Seventeen seasons of excavations carried out during 1977–2004 were directed by the late I. Roll and six more carried out during 2009–2015 were directed by O. Tal. The eighteenth 2006 season was co-directed, when directorship and responsibility over the future excavations at the site were transferred from Roll to Tal. During these 24 seasons of excavations, focus was fairly equally shared between the classical and medieval period sites.
7 These were made on behalf of two different bodies: E. Grossmann in the framework of a Ph.D. research in Macquarie University, and E. Galili et al. while heading an underwater inspection team of the Israel Antiquities Authority. For a detailed description, see CitationGrossmann (1995a, 67–176). For accounts on the surveys, see CitationGrossmann (1991; Citation1992; Citation1995b; Citation1995c; Citation1997); and CitationGalili, Dahari and Sharvit (1992; Citation1993, 63–64).
8 Its four cardinal points are: northwest corner: 32°11'45.18″ N; 34°48'21.12″ E; southwest corner: 32°11'42.45″ N; 34°48'22.35″ E; northeast corner: 32°11'44.52″ N; 34°48'22.27″ E; southeast corner: 32°11'42.04″ N; 34°48'21.53″ E.
9 A more thorough examination was made by E. Grossmann who investigated the installation in her Ph.D. dissertation (1995a) which was later published as a monograph (2001); During Grossmann's survey, mortar samples from the walls were subjected to chemical tests and analysed. According to Grossmann, these tests show that, although the walls proper date to the Crusader period, their foundations were laid much earlier, in Byzantine times [5th–6th centuries?]. Moreover, the foundation of the northern wall seems to have been built in a way similar to the harbour building method described by Vitruvius (V, 12, 2–6; ed. CitationFensterbusch 1964, 250–51). It should be added that during our work in the installation we found no support for Grossmann's observations for an earlier, Byzantine-period construction dating.
10 For example CitationHohlfelder (1996, 81–83) regards the very existence of such desilting systems in Antiquity as problematic.
11 Interview with D. Jacobson, Tel Aviv University, who says that he used to climb through the tunnel in his early teens, which was considered as an act of bravado.
12 It is not clear whether the buza is a craft known in the Middle Ages as buzza, bucia or bucius, developed from the Viking long ships. Ray Martin refers to buzo nave, buzus and buzusnavis (CitationMartin 2001, 175) as merchant or transport ships current in the thirteenth century.
13 Albert of Aix, Historia Hierosolymitana, Liber IX, Cap. IX. Translation: After the passage of seven days, the King exited from Assur and boarded a boat called buza, with Godericus a pirate of the kingdom of England.
14 Work was carried out by Klaus Storch (SoSo) and Hanz Günter Martin (Abatonos). The survey was performed between September 30 and October 6, 2010, mainly around the installation, partly close to the shore, the ‘inner area’ (Fig. , the area between Nos. 3–4) and the area located more to seaward to the north, the ‘outer area’ (Fig. , the area around Nos. 7–8). Very little work could be done within the installation itself, since its bottom was almost completely covered with stones and debris that had fallen from the fortress, and effectively blocked the penetrating capacity of the sonar.
15 A regular GPS which uses an additional (‘differential’) antenna emitting a signal, located at some distance from the GPS itself and, in our case, on the cliff top. This allows for more precise GPS data.
16 Water-jetting is a method used to locate archaeological artefacts beneath the seabed. Water is forced under pressure through a metal pipe (about 2.5 cm in diameter), which is pushed into the seabed as far as possible. Objects located under the sand, such as fragments of wood, olive pits or other delicate materials are driven upwards by the water pressure, and either collected underwater or floating on the surface, and then brought to land to be studied and analyzed. Three attempts were made on three different days. The first, on June 19, 2011, failed to reveal any finds. The second and third, a year later, on June 11, 2012, and June 18, 2012, were more successful.
17 Although plotting on marine charts is usually done using the degrees, minutes and seconds system, the readout in the GPS was converted to the decimal system to conform to the Abatonos report, and avoid conversion mistakes, using the international in WGS 84 datum used by GPS.
18 Protection work on the cliff against erosion by sea waves (carried out in the winter of 2009) involved dumping limestone boulders on the narrow sandy beach to the north and south of the maritime installation, and at the foot and to the west of the castle, making approach by vehicle from the north and south impossible. Transport of excavation equipment (water-pump, dredgers, and some dive gear) was thus made to the site by boat from Herzliya Marina. This was done early in the morning when the sea was relatively calm, as the boat, being top-heavy, was not designed for such work. Shallow rocks at the entrance to the area of the maritime installation required that the boat's outboard engine be raised, and it was rowed in. The rest of the equipment—air-tanks, fire hoses, pipes, dive gear, office supplies, food etc.—was transported on a flat-bottomed motorboat that was walked into the installation through the narrow entrance in the reef which forms the maritime installation's western, seaward ‘breakwater’. A camp was established on a small beach at the foot of the cliff. Electricity and water were brought down by hoses and cables from the Apollonia National Park, located at the top of the cliff, and a tent was erected for a guard who remained on the site during the entire operation, which lasted five days, from November 3 to November 7, 2013. More than 30 divers were recruited, and were supervised by dive officers A. Yurman and M. Bachar of the Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies, University of Haifa. Work was supervised by Y. Kahanov, D. Cvikel and D. Mirkin with the assistance of O. Tal. Participants were divided into shifts, each consisting of three divers working under water, one safety diver supervising the pump boat (to be able to stop it in case of emergency), and one person on shore maintaining the dive log. In addition, several divers performed water-jetting, and two made drawings of architectural remains under and above the water.
19 A dredger is typically a 6m-long, 15 cm diameter tube made of aluminum with a narrow venturi section into which sea water is pumped at high pressure through a fire hose from a portable pump installed on a boat. Water flow through the venturi causes suction. A suction hose attached at the low pressure venturi section enables the excavator to dredge sediments and uncover archaeological objects.
20 Similar construction in larger and smaller stones is evident in the castle itself.
21 Building in the ‘headers’ style was a well-known method for building sea walls because this method exposes a smaller surface of each stone to attack by waves, and it is thus more solidly anchored in a wall. The existence of ashlars built in the ‘headers’ style suggests that the builders were aware of this form of construction, though there is no explanation why this method was not used for the entire construction.
22 Compass bearing of the northern wall from the shore seaward is 317°, and that of the southern structure is 259°.
23 Obviously during excavations we found it difficult to distinguish whether sunken building stones in the shallow water originated from upper courses from the castle or the maritime installation's sea walls.
24 The water depth measurements were carried out at low tide. However, in this part of the world, the difference between high and low tide rarely exceeds 40 cm, and that only during the Proxigean Spring Tide, which occurs once every one and a half years. The difference between high and low tide during the research period was approximately 40 cm.
25 In Acre and Dor it is customary to measure the depth of the water and disregard the depth of the sand on the seabed.
26 The entrance seems to have been designed to remain open: no closing or locking apparatus was detected in our survey and measurements.
27 The items were stored in cardboard boxes in the Israel Antiquities Authority's compound in Caesarea, meticulously numbered and classified.