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Caesarea Beneath the Sea

By Robert L. Hohlfelder

Of all the great seaports of antiquity, Caesarea Maritima is the only one readily accessible to underwater archaeologists.1 Many ancient ports, like Piraeus, the port of Athens, cannot be carefully examined because they are still in use. Other harbors of antiquity have silted in over the centuries and today serve a variety of purposes that preclude archaeological investigation. Such has been the fate of Ostia, the ancient port of Rome, where modern Rome’s airport now sits. But Caesarea Maritima lies partially submerged along a section of Mediterranean coast that has seen no significant development or use for the past […]

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Footnotes

1.

Jewish War, I, 413.

Endnotes

1.

An expanded version of this article was presented as a public lecture at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, D.C. January 5, 1982.

2.

George F. Bass, Cape Gelidonya: A Bronze Age Shipwreck, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 57, Pt. 8, Philadelphia, 1967.

3.

C. Fritsch and I. Ben-Dor, “The Link Expedition to Israel,” Biblical Archaeologist 24 (1961), pp. 50–56.

4.

Although Professor Katzev has written extensively about the Kyrenia ship, the most enjoyable introduction to this project for readers of BAR would be a viewing of his excellent documentary, “With Captain Sailors Three—The ancient Ship of Kyrenia,” co-produced by the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation and the National Geographic Society (1978). This film is the best ever made of shipwreck archaeology in the Mediterranean.

5.

Robert L. Scranton, “Glass Pictures from the Sea,” Archaeology 20 (1967), pp. 163–173 and Leila Ibrahim, Robert Scranton and Robert Brill, Kenchreai, Eastern Port of Corinth, vol. II: The Panels of Opus Sectile in Glass, Leiden, 1976.

6.

CAHEP’s field work has been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Rothschild Foundation, the University of Colorado Foundation, the University of Haifa, and numerous private donors. This article was completed during the tenure of a faculty fellowship awarded by the Council on Research and Creative Work, the University of Colorado. I wish to thank these agencies, institutions and individuals for their generous support. Other senior staff members include Professor John P. Olsen, University of Victoria, B.C., senior underwater archaeologist; Professor R. Lindley Vann, architect; and Mr. Harry Wadsworth, underwater photographer. For a preliminary report on CAHEP’s activities, see Robert L. Hohlfelder and Avner Raban,“The Ancient Harbors of Caesarea Maritima,” Archaeology 34 (1981), pp. 56–60.