Regional Effect of River Silting on Maritime Trade in the Late Bronze / Iron Ages: The Haifa/Akko Bay as an Example

This article discusses geoarchaeological processes that affected coastal habitation patterns in two sites, barely 15 km apart on the extremes of the Haifa/Akko Bay during the Late Bronze Age. Both sites depended on rivers: the Na’aman (Belos) and the Qishon. Akko is mentioned as a harbor in the Amarna Letters, but there is no clear identification for Tell Abu Hawam. Tel Abu Hawam was abandoned around 1230 BCE, while Akko remained a maritime center. Abandonment and change in settlement patterns in the Late Bronze Age southern Levant are often attributed to the Egyptians or the “Sea Peoples”; however, other reasons should be considered, among them environmental vicissitudes. This study argues that gradual silting of the Na’aman River affected habitation patterns on Tel Akko in the second–first millennia BCE, while the Qishon estuary’s gradual silting affected maritime trade and the subsequent demise of Late Bronze IIB Tell Abu Hawam entrepôt.