Caesarea Beneath the Sea

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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 seven centuries. For at least the next few years archaeologists can pursue their quest for the submerged port of Caesarea.

Scholars have long known that a unique record of human activity exists in the depths of the Mediterranean Sea. But until the development of SCUBA (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) during World War II, scientists could not effectively explore this repository of history and artifacts. SCUBA allowed divers, for the first time, to move about unencumbered by heavy helmets and by air lines attached to a ship on the surface.

From time to time before the development of SCUBA, fishermen and commercial or military hard-helmet divers made significant discoveries of art works and shipwrecks. These discoveries only confirmed the obvious, that the Mediterranean Sea is a museum of the history of human life on this planet. Still today chance finds are made, but such random salvage is not what is meant by underwater archaeology.

The year 1960 marked the beginning of modern underwater archaeology. That year at Cape Gelidonya, Turkey, Professor George Bass of Texas A & M University, utilizing SCUBA, undertook the first systematic exploration and excavation of what turned out to be a Phoenician shipwreck from about 1,200 B.C., the oldest ship excavated underwater to date.² In the same year, off the coast of Israel, Edwin Link, working in conjunction with Professors Charles Fritsch and I. Ben-Dor, began the underwater excavation of Caesarea Maritima, the Roman and Byzantine capital of Palestine, with a team of professional SCUBA divers operating from the research vessel, Sea Diver.³ Link’s expedition confirmed the site of Caesarea Maritima’s main harbor, previously thought to have been south of its actual location, and recovered evidence to suggest that it had been badly damaged by earthquakes early in its existence. More important, each project established that the techniques of stratigraphic land archaeology—the careful recording of all finds in relationship to each other and to the context in which they were discovered—could be employed in the sea.

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With these two excavations, a new branch of classical archaeology was defined. Underwater archaeology with its two divisions—shipwreck archaeology and the archaeology of submerged coastal sites—emerged as an exciting new frontier in the study of human history.

The search for ancient ships is the most publicized aspect of underwater archaeology. Some results have been spectacular, such as the discovery, excavation, lifting and restoration of a fourth century B.C. shipwreck off Kyrenia, Cyprus, by Michael Katzev.⁴ Since the zone of concern of a shipwreck is usually fairly compact and related to a single historic period, the archaeological problems associated with such sites are, as a rule, limited. Diving considerations, on the other hand, tend to be paramount. Because sport divers regularly loot the more accessible shipwreck sites in the Mediterranean, shipwreck archaeology is often conducted in deeper water. Here physiological limitations add a dimension of danger to the already romantic aura that surrounds the search for lost ships on the bottom of the sea. There can be little wonder why this type of underwater archaeology has captured popular fancy.

The underwater archaeological investigations of ancient coastal sites, such as submerged harbor installations, projects a much less romantic image. Yet coastal investigation holds greater promise than shipwreck archaeology for enhancing our understanding of the role of the sea in antiquity. Since Link’s work at Caesarea Maritima in 1960, numerous other similar sites throughout the Mediterranean have been systematically excavated. These projects, such as the explorations at Kenchreai and Halieis in Greece or at Populonia and Cosa in Italy, have all added substantially to our awareness of maritime activities in the ancient past. Most artifacts recovered are mundane, not adding greatly to our knowledge, but some finds have been extraordinary, such as the discovery of 120 glass panels in a submerged temple of the goddess Isis at Kenchreai.⁵ During the past two decades the techniques of excavation and exploration, as well as the tools employed, have improved significantly. For example, an inexpensive probe has been developed to detect ancient structures beneath the present ocean floor. The work of these twenty years has firmly established the legitimacy and importance of coastal site archaeology even 045if public awareness of it is still limited.

In 1979 the Caesarea Ancient Harbour Excavation Project (CAHEP) was formed by the Center of Maritime Studies of the University of Haifa to complete the work started at Caesarea in 1960 by Edwin Link. Professors Elisha Linder and Avner Raban of Haifa University were instrumental in the creation of CAHEP, an international scholarly consortium. Professor Raban and the author currently serve as co-directors of this project.⁶ In 1979, 1980 and 1981, surveys and excavations were undertaken at various locations within the submerged structures of the ancient port. At least two more major seasons of field work are scheduled for 1983 and 1985, with limited operations planned for 1982 and 1984.

The starting point for CAHEP’s explorations was the description by Josephus of the design and construction of the enormous harbor built by Herod the Great at the end of the first century B.C. Josephus’ account of the building of Sebastos, as he named the harbor of Caesarea Maritima, has long been thought to be lavishly extravagant. Who could believe that once, on this barren strip of coast, there was a harbor at whose mouth “stood colossal statues, three on either side, resting on columns; the columns on the left of vessels entering port were supported by a massive tower, those on the right by two upright blocks of stone clamped together, whose height exceeded that of the tower on the opposite side.”^a Could the ‘skeptical reader accept that 2,000 years ago Herod’s engineers performed seemingly 046impossible engineering feats to make a huge protected anchorage safe from fierce prevailing winds?

As CAHEP’s explorations have proceeded, it has become increasingly clear that Josephus’ description of the design and size of Caesarea Maritima’s harbor is substantially accurate. Sebastos was indeed one of the engineering marvels of the ancient world. Several architectural features mentioned by Josephus have been discovered, such as the remains of both the promenade on the inner face of the harbor and the towers that marked the entrance. His dimensions for the main components of Herod’s harbor approximate the actual measurements of extant structures. For example, he states that the width of the southern breakwater was 200 feet. Its actual size is 195 to 243 feet at the various points surveyed. He speaks of huge blocks of stone 50 by 9 by 10 feet that were lowered into the sea to build the main mole. In fact, blocks have been discovered even larger than those described. It also appears that Josephus omitted some distinct elements of Caesarea Maritima’s port facilities. Underwater investigation has revealed that the harbor Josephus described is but one component of a larger system of moorings and anchorages in use at the time of its construction.

We have also discovered on land a section of a seawall from an inner harbor to the east of the one described by Josephus but connected to it. Carved from sand dunes, this inner harbor provided a small but safer basin for the ships that were hauled into it by tugboats or stevedores. (The inner outer harbor concept employed at Caesarea Maritima would be used again by Roman engineers in the next century when work began on Ostia, the harbor constructed for Imperial Rome itself.) To the south of the inner-outer harbor was a secondary anchorage almost equal in size to the main port. Several stone anchors discovered to date suggest that this bay, formed by a small headland and a natural reef that were augmented over the centuries by man-made structures, was used by ancient mariners as far back as 1,200 B.C. To the north of Sebastos about a third of a mile, another small harbor has been discovered that antedates by several centuries Caesarea Maritima’s foundation and may be associated with the Phoenicians and a much earlier chapter of the history of Palestine. The forthcoming 1982 season will concentrate on land and underwater excavations in this location to learn more about this harbor and its role in Caesarea Maritima’s history. If all these facilities 047served the city during its early years, as is now suspected, then Caesarea Maritima did indeed have one of the greatest harbors in the Mediterranean in antiquity and perhaps the largest in terms of working space. An archaeological record of the life, vicissitudes and use of this complex has only begun to emerge in the past three years of excavation by the CAHEP underwater team.

In addition to finding structural features of Caesarea’s harbor not mentioned by Josephus, we were also surprised by the engineering skills and design employed in the harbor’s construction. Herod’s engineers showed a mastery of technology rivaling that of our own age. There are remains of a sluice system designed to enable sand-free water from the open sea to enter the enclosed harbors at several locations to facilitate circulation within the enclosed basins and thus inhibit silting. In addition, excavations have uncovered the remains of a subsidiary breakwater system. Employed for the first time at Caesarea Maritima, this subsidiary system was intended to reduce damage to the main enclosing arm of the harbor at its most vulnerable point. Also, the maritime engineers made extensive use of a new high quality concrete that hardened underwater and was practically impervious to the destructive action of the sea. Blocks of this hydraulic concrete weighing more than 50 tons and surpassing in size those mentioned by Josephus have been discovered. At the time of its construction, this harbor was the largest maritime facility to feature this building material. Although it was constructed in antiquity, we may be well-justified in calling Caesarea Maritima the first modern harbor.