For over five millennia, Akko served as a major urban and maritime center located on the Mediterranean’s Levantine coast. The tell, located east of the modern city of Akko was inhabited from the Early Bronze Age into the Hellenistic period. 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.

The first series of excavations under the direction of Moshe Dothan (1973 –1989), which remain largely unpublished, revealed remains dating to the Early Bronze Age through Hellenistic periods.

Today, Tel Akko is a municipal park. Renewed excavations on Tel Akko commenced in 2010 under the co-direction of Ann E. Killebrew and Michal Artzy.

The 2010 – 2019 project incorporated an integrated, ‘total archaeology’ approach to the region’s heritage,  past and present.