Coastal Development in the Holy Land

Before the development of the aqualung, historians typically believed that the Holy Land had little maritime tradition. The misconception dates back to the 1st century AD, when Josephus Flavius described Palestine as “not a maritime country, neither commerce nor the intercourse which it promotes with the outside world has any attraction for us…” (Against Apion 1.60). 

The stereotype was enhanced by the lack of natural anchoring facilities along the 230 kilometre-long coastline, such as large riverine estuaries, sheltered coves and gulfs. Little wonder that the pioneering 19th-century historical geographer Adam Smith denounced the linear shore as “merely a shelf for the casting of wreckage and the roosting of sea-birds” (The Historical Geography of the Holy Land, 1894). Further bolstered by the presumed necessity for Jews to observe the laws of ritual purity (halachah) by keeping a close eye on the production of local pottery and all produce rather than distant exports, ancient Israel was assumed to be economically introverted and reliant on subsistence farming and small-scale local industry. 

Shipwreck archaeology emerged in Israel following large-scale coastal development for the building industry, which triggered massive erosion of beaches and offshore sediments. Up to 1964, beach sand was quarried at an annual rate of 10-20 times greater than was naturally replenished by longshore sediment transport deposition. The result has been a huge sand deficit along Israel’s central coastline, causing accelerated erosion of beaches and coastal cliffs. This quarrying stripped Israel’s beaches of one-third of its total sand reserves. 

Since 1965 over 30 structures – detached breakwaters, groynes, sea-walls, marinas, small ports – have been built along the shores, mainly for recreational purposes. Little account was taken of this development’s impact on the environment. The Carmel beaches almost completely disappeared following the construction of a detached breakwater at Haifa. The modern port of Ashdod interrupted 80-90% of the annual northward sand transport, estimated at 50,000-100,000 cubic metres yearly. To the immediate north the sand-starved beaches of Yavne Yam (Byzantine Iamnia Paralios) have withdrawn by 50 metres over the last 50 years. 

The accompanying thinning of offshore sand blankets has exposed over 200 shipwrecks in depths of 1-6 metres, 60-200 metres offshore. Estimates suggest that one wreck is located every 25-50 metres along the coast. Sites range widely in date and character from Late Bronze age copper and tin ingot cargoes to a vast 35 metre-long Roman ‘supertanker’ off Caesarea. At least 23 wrecks of the 12th century BC to the Ottoman period lie inside Dor harbour. Israel is today one of the hot-spots for shipwreck studies, particularly for research of a series of excellently preserved wooden hulls of Phoenician, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic ships.  

Looting is a major problem off Israel. The Israel Antiquities Authority estimates that 60% of all archaeological material offshore has already been plundered from the easily accessible shallows of the country and that within 10-20 years very little shipwreck heritage will survive underwater. Coastal development, of course, is an essential industry for the social and economic vitality of a high-profile tourist Mediterranean destination like Israel, but for maritime heritage has proven to be a double-edged sword. In this dynamic environment, preservation in situ just is not a realistic option.

Y. Nir, ‘Twenty-Five Years of Development along the Israeli Mediterranean Coast: Goals and Achievements’. In P. Fabbri (d.), Recreational Uses of Coastal Areas (Netherlands), 211-18. 

S. Kingsley, Shipwreck Archaeology of the Holy Land (Duckworth, 2004).