TEL AKKO TOTAL ARCHAEOLOGY PROJECT (TATAP): 2010 – 2019

For over five millennia, Akko served as a major urban and maritime center located  onthe Mediterranean’s Levantine coast. The tell, situated east of the modern city of Akko, dominated the Plain of Akko and was inhabited from the Early Bronze Age into the Hellenistic period (ca. 3000 – 100 BCE). By the middle of the Hellenistic period, however, settlement had shifted from the mound towards the natural Bay of Akko, under what is now the UNESCO World Heritage site of Old Acre and the adjacent modern city. Today, Tel Akko is a municipal park.

The first series of excavations under the direction of Moshe Dothan (1973 – 1989), which remain largely unpublished, uncovered an impressive Canaanite city fortified by massive ramparts and a Phoenician town that served as an important regional industrial center.

Renewed excavations on Tel Akko commenced in 2010 under the co-direction of Ann E. Killebrew (Pennsylvania State University) and Michal Artzy (University of Haifa). The 2010 – 2019 project incorporates an integrated, ‘total archaeology’ approach to the region’s heritage, past and present. The goals included:

  • An intensive survey of the mound and documentation of previous unpublished excavations conducted by Dothan.
  • The investigation of Bronze and Iron Age Akko and its role as the major Canaanite and Phoenician urban center in the Plain of Akko.
  • Investigating the development of Akko/Ptolemais and the impact of Neo-Assyrian, Persian and Hellenistic empires during the first millennium BCE..
  • The development of new documentation technologies
  • Establishment of a state-of-the-art field school to train future archaeologists, which incorporated excavation, survey, GIS, on-site conservation, underwater archaeology, and community outreach.

TOTAL ARCHAEOLOGY

To realize the project’s short and long-term research goals, we use a holistic approach to the past that we’ve termed “Total Archaeology”. It integrates archaeological survey, systematic excavation, a robust conservation plan, a public outreach program and the incorporation of the largely unpublished results from earlier expeditions to address a practical research agenda, all of which has necessitated the development of a cutting edge multi-dimensional recording system.

TOTAL ARCHAEOLOGY

EXCAVATION

ARCHAEO SCIENCES

3D DOCUMENTATION

CONSERVATION

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

FIELD SCHOOL

OUR TEAM

PUBLICATIONS

Click here to see Publications from the 2010 – 2019 Seasons

OUR TEAM

Click here to see the Academic Team, Specialists and Staff

PAST AND PRESENT SPONSORING INSTITUTIONS

Tel Akko Total Archaeology has been supported and sponsored by a dedicated group of leading universities and organizations. Many thanks to all who have given their time and resources to the project over the years.

Baker University

Basonova

Claremont Graduate University

Claremont McKenna University

Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies

Miami University of Ohio

Pennsylvania State University

Trinity College

University of Haifa

University of Warsaw

BLOGS