Achzib
THE NORTHERN CEMETERY
During the Iron Age II and Persian period, three cemeteries were in simultaneous use around Tel Achzib. They are located to the north, east, and south of the tell. The northern cemetery is on the seashore some 50 m north of the tell and has been excavated over eight short seasons: three directed by M. Prausnitz (1979–1982), a joint season directed by M. Prausnitz and E. Mazar (1984), and four seasons under the direction of E. Mazar (1992–2004).
The earliest remains at the northern cemetery site are of a built installation that included a platform and a pool with a settling pit, covered in layers of high-quality plaster. The purpose of this installation is not yet understood. It may have been related to the production of purple dye from mollusks. The installation went out of use when an ashlar-built tomb chamber was constructed next to it. The pool filled up with sherds dated to the tenth century BCE; at its uppermost level was found a complete jug of that period. Upon the surface of the platform were several isolated child inhumation burials, apparently related to the individuals buried in the adjacent ashlar-built tomb (TN1). Similar child inhumation burials outside ashlar-built chamber tombs and adjacent to them were also discovered inside pottery vessels in the southern cemetery.

Towards the end of the tenth century BCE or the beginning of the ninth, a circular structure, apparently a crematorium was built, cutting into the plastered installation and overlying the child burials. A passage with many floor layers of high-quality plaster leads to the entrance of this structure. The doorposts at the entrance were built of trapezoidal stone drums. The diameter of the structure is 4.20 m and it was preserved to a height of 2.40 m. Its walls slant towards the narrow floor and are coated with numerous layers of plaster. Upon the floor is an open, built channel running east–west and leading to a built opening in the western wall of the structure. On the other side of this opening was a plastered wind-shaft that circulated fresh air from the sea into the structure. At the bottom of the structure were found sludges, attesting to the burning of wood, but no direct evidence of cremation.

In the ground around the circular structure were discovered dozens of urn burials. Most of the urns were placed separately, though they were occasionally grouped in twos and threes. Each was covered with an upside-down bowl, often Samaria bowls. In each urn was found a single cremation burial without burial offerings. All of the identifiable cremation burials were adult men and women. The cremated bones occasionally preserved their original form, shrunken in size by the heat, making them appear to be of children. Reconstruction of the cremated skeletons revealed that the ossilegium was carried out with great care, with even the smallest bones retrieved. Next to each urn was usually found a dipper juglet and a pair of jugs, one with a trefoil mouth and the other with a mushroom-shaped mouth. Above the burial place of these urns were a stone stela and the remains of a hearth. Among the dozens of stelae found in the cemetery, only a few remained in situ. Most are of local sandstone and are naturally somewhat pointed in shape, although several were cut to rectangular shapes. They have no remains of paint or plaster, but a small number bear simple engraved symbols, the most common being a circle appearing alone at the center. A number of lines were sometimes engraved, both together with the circle and without it. The symbols appear to represent the god and goddess: the circle symbolizing the main Phoenician deity Ba‘al; the lines added to the circle a stylized image of the main Phoenician goddess Astarte, also known as Tanit Pnei Ba‘al (the face of Ba‘al). One of the stelae bears a stylized engraving of a temple façade.
Cremation burial ceased in the sixth century BCE, at which point the circular structure was no longer used for cremations. During the Persian period, ordinary burials were inhumed around the structure, though not in it.
Some 12 m south of the circular structure an ashlar-built burial chamber was exposed. It is dated to the tenth century BCE and remained in use during the period of the cremation cult and afterwards, until the mid-sixth century BCE. At the eastern side of the tomb was a round dromos, through which one entered the rectangular 2.38 by 1.86 m burial chamber, skillfully constructed of ashlars. The gabled roof of the burial chamber attains a height of 1.76 m above the floor. At the center of the ceiling, an opening was cut for the pouring of libations.

Except for its gabled roof, the tomb is very similar to two flat-roofed ashlar tombs discovered in the southern cemetery at Achzib and dated to the tenth century BCE. It also closely resembles the ashlar chamber tombs with gabled roofs discovered at Ugarit and dated from the Middle Bronze Age to the fourteenth–thirteenth centuries BCE. On the basis of this similarity, the Ugaritic ashlar tomb-type is a likely prototype for the Achzib ashlar chambers.
The remains of dozens of burials and hundreds of burial gifts were found in the tomb. The earliest level of burials is dated to the tenth century BCE. At this level, small pilgrim flasks were the most common pottery vessel. Afterwards, these are entirely absent from the burial assemblages, which continue to the sixth century BCE. Among the burial gifts were dozens of pottery vessels, mostly jugs with trefoil and mushroom-shaped mouths, 50 scarabs, 2 clay figurines—a donkey, and a monkey seated upon a chair. There was also a clay model of a boat; a clay mask depicting a woman’s face; high quality silver and gold jewelry with inlays of a variety of polished precious stones; and two pairs of delicate bronze scales, perhaps evidence that one of the interred individuals was a jeweler. A complete iron sword, a dagger, an axe, and many arrowheads were found in the earliest burial phase of the tomb, perhaps indicating that a warrior of high status was entombed here.

The burials in the ashlar-built chamber tomb and the cremation burials around the circular structure represent two different types of burial and reflect the complexities of Phoenician religion during the Iron Age II.
EILAT MAZAR
THE NORTHERN CEMETERY
During the Iron Age II and Persian period, three cemeteries were in simultaneous use around Tel Achzib. They are located to the north, east, and south of the tell. The northern cemetery is on the seashore some 50 m north of the tell and has been excavated over eight short seasons: three directed by M. Prausnitz (1979–1982), a joint season directed by M. Prausnitz and E. Mazar (1984), and four seasons under the direction of E. Mazar (1992–2004).
The earliest remains at the northern cemetery site are of a built installation that included a platform and a pool with a settling pit, covered in layers of high-quality plaster. The purpose of this installation is not yet understood. It may have been related to the production of purple dye from mollusks. The installation went out of use when an ashlar-built tomb chamber was constructed next to it. The pool filled up with sherds dated to the tenth century BCE; at its uppermost level was found a complete jug of that period. Upon the surface of the platform were several isolated child inhumation burials, apparently related to the individuals buried in the adjacent ashlar-built tomb (TN1). Similar child inhumation burials outside ashlar-built chamber tombs and adjacent to them were also discovered inside pottery vessels in the southern cemetery.