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Innovations in Ship Construction at Tantura Lagoon, Israel

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Innovations in Ship Construction at Tantura Lagoon, Israel 11. Jahrgang 2011 · Heft 1 83 Innovations in Ship Construction at Tantura Lagoon, Israel Results of the INA/CMS Joint Expeditions (1994-96) Shelley Wachsmann Abstract – From 1994 to 1996 the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) at Texas A&M University and Haifa University’s Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies (RIMS, previously the Centre for Maritime Studies, or CMS) joined forces to locate and to study shipwrecks buried in Tantura Lagoon, Israel. We located remains of seven shipwrecks during this exploration. Of these, we studied two in situ (Tantura A and B) and five others (Tantura C-G) were surveyed in part. This paper served as an introduction to a session at „In Poseidon’s Realm XV“ dedi- cated to shipwrecks found in Tantura Lagoon during the INA/CMS Joint Expeditions (1994-1996) and their signif- icance. Inhalt – Von 1994 bis 1996 arbeiteten das Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) der Texas A&M University und das Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies (RIMS, ehemals Centre for Maritime Studies [CMS]) der Haifa University zusammen, um Wracks in der Tantura-Lagune, Israel, zu lokalisieren und zu untersuchen. Bei dieser Suche stellten wir Reste von sieben Wracks fest. Davon untersuchten wir zwei (Tantura A und B) in situ und nah- men fünf weitere (Tantura C-G) teilweise auf. Dieser Beitrag diente im Rahmen der Tagung „In Poseidons Reich XV“ als Einführung in eine Sitzung, die den bei den gemeinsamen Expeditionen von INA und CMS 1994-96 gefundenen Wracks der Lagune und ihrer Bedeutung gewidmet war. Introduction Byblos in Lebanon to acquire wood for Tantura Lagoon lies Herihor’s rebuilding of on the Carmel Coast, a the Amunuserhet, the half-hour drive south cult ship of the god of the modern city of Amun5. Wenamun re- Haifa. It is one of the ports that in his time few natural harbors the site had been set- along Israel’s long tled by Sekels, one of Mediterranean coast Fig. 1: Tantura Lagoon and its environs. the groups of Sea and is situated next to the ancient Peoples known from Egyptian and mound (tel) of Dor, which con- The tel and the cove contain four Ugaritic texts6. Phoenicians ruled tains occupation levels 15 meters millennia of history and archaeo- this coast during the Persian period thick and is the second largest tel logy. Dor/Naphat Dor appears sev- (586-332 BC)7. For a short time in in Israel1. While the local geo- eral times in the Bible. The city joi- the mid-fifth century B.C. Dor may graphy has no doubt changed ned Jabin, the king of Hazor in have been absorbed into the Athe- dramatically over time, it is clear opposing Joshua2. Later, the Israe- nian empire8. that the cove served as an anchor- lites under Joshua killed the king of age for Dor and its immediate Dor3. The city itself, was not defeat- The lagoon could not compete environs: it was a significant, if ed, however, and it remained a Ca- with the great Herodian harbor at not the most significant, reason naanite enclave during the period Caesarea during the Roman period for the establishment of settle- of the Judges. Under Solomon, and by the mid-third century A.D. ment at this location, acting as a Naphat-Dor became an admin- the tel itself was abandoned, how- gateway between the cosmopo- istrative center4. ever, a century later a church arose litan Mediterranean Sea and the immediately adjacent to the tel that hinterland of the Carmel Mount- In 1075 BC Wenamun, an Egyptian attracted Christian pilgrims during ains. priest, visited Dor on his way to the Byzantine period9. 84 Innovations in Ship Construction · Sh. Wachsmann Inhabitation appears to have de- clined in this area after the seventh century. The Arab village of Tantu- ra, which gave its name to the cove, apparently sprang up opposite it in medieval times10. While Dor is not mentioned by Arab geographers of the ninth-twelfth centuries, an Arab graveyard dating to the eighth- fourteenth centuries in the vicinity of the Byzantine church testifies to continued occupation in the area at this time11. Subsequently, numer- ous travelers recorded visiting this location. The Chevalier d’Arvieux, who served as the French consul to Sidon, describes the wrecking of a Greek ship in the lagoon during a visit to Tantura in 166412. Undoubtedly, Napoleon Bonaparte was the most illustrious of these Fig. 2: Map of the vessels found in Tantura Lagoon by the INA/CMS Joint Expedition 13 (1994-1996). The ship remains lay in an extremely small area. As a reference, the visitors . He passed through Tan- superimposed rectangle represents the size of a single regulation basketball court tura during his benighted retreat (28.65 by 15.24 meters). Note that all the coherent hulls align roughly northwest to from his siege of Acco, arriving southeast. This is perhaps the result of the eastern part of each ship being buffeted there on May 21st, 1799. Bonaparte during its wrecking event by the cove’s powerful north-to-south current generated expected to liaison with his fleet in during storms. the cove, but it never arrived and he was forced to jettison a score of artillery pieces into the sea. A protective covering of sand. Thus, Subsequently, I assigned the wreck Turkish cannon and a Spanish the lagoon acts as a natural mecha- letter designations (Tantura A-G). mortar from among these have nism for trapping and preserving been retrieved from the lagoon14. the remains of hapless vessels and their related remains, as well as the Tantura A (Trenchs IV & VI) In the 19th century Tantura Lagoon regular jetsam and debris of a continued to function as a port fully-functioning anchorage. These The discovery of the Tantura A ship- trading mainly in watermelons and considerations, in addition to the wreck began in 1983 when, while charcoal. In the 1890s the Baron four millennia during which the serving as Inspector of Underwater Edmund de Rothschild founded a anchorage has been active, make Antiquities for the Israel Depart- short-lived glass factory at Tantura Tantura Lagoon an ideal location ment of Antiquities and Museums to manufacture bottles for the Zi- for the study of shipwrecks. (IDAM, now the Israel Antiquities chron Yaakov vineyards15. Settlement Authority), I conducted a routine continues with the Israeli commun- From 1994 to 1996 the Institute of survey with K. Raveh in the lagoon ities of Nahsholim and Dor: the Nautical Archaeology (INA) at following a winter storm. During cove is home to a small fleet of Texas A&M University and Haifa the dive my hand came to rest on Arab fishing boats and has also be- University’s Leon Recanati Institute something jutting from the seabed come a popular recreational beach16. for Maritime Studies (previously that felt „spongy“. Upon examina- the Centre for Maritime Studies, or tion, this turned out to be the Today Tantura Lagoon is closed on CMS) joined forces to locate and to extremity of a ship’s waterlogged the north by a sand tombolo con- study shipwrecks buried in the wooden frame that was otherwise nected to an unnamed rocky island cove17. During three seasons of ex- entirely buried in the sand. Hand and bordered to the west by a series ploration we located seven ship- fanning revealed additional strakes, of islands named from north to wrecks in an area about the size of frames and ceiling planking upon south: Shafit, Dor, Tafat and Hofa- a regulation basketball court (Fig. which lay intact „bag-shaped“ jars mi (Fig. 1). During storms water 2). Although the wrecks range in and copious quantities of sherds flows in between the islands result- date from the Roman period to re- dating to the Byzantine period, A.D. ing in a strong north to south cur- cent times, most of the vessels clus- 324-63818. Some of the timbers sho- rent, which constantly shifts the ter in the Late Roman to Medieval wed signs of charring. thick sand layer covering the lagoon. periods. In early publications the This process tends to rapidly bury wrecks were identified by the tren- It was not possible to expand the ships that wreck in the cover under a ches in which they were discovered. search area at that time as the same 11. Jahrgang 2011 · Heft 1 85 storm that uncovered these timbers rent had transported them during also revealed additional cargoes on the wrecking event. the Carmel coast that required im- mediate attention19. By the time this Employing a hydraulic probe we work was completed, the shifting began following the general line of sands of Tantura had buried the tim- the buried pottery flow north (Fig. bers again. In 1985 we returned to 3 A)21. Along the way we located two the site with CMS staff members S. lead-filled wooden anchor stocks Breitstein and Y. Tur-Caspa, as well under 2 meters of sand22. The stocks as a team of British divers from the were barely 20 centimeters across Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS) and about 2 meters in length. Find- led by Vallerie Fenwick. This at- ing these anchor stocks is arguably tempt, too, was stymied due to logis- the archaeological equivalent of tical problems and we, again, suc- finding a needle in a haystack and ceeded in uncovering only a small speaks volumes to the effectiveness area of the „hull“ and its cargo. of this search technique under the proper conditions. In 1994, I returned for a third time determined to excavate the „ship- Eventually, we found two adjacent wreck“ that had eluded me for so wood anomalies at the northern long.
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