Phoenician Atlit and Its Newly-Excavated Harbour: a Reassessment

During 2002-2003 underwater excavations, our team dated the artificial harbour at the ancient Phoenician settlement of Atlit to the first half of the Iron Age II. We accomplished this by 14C testing a number of wooden samples extracted from the submerged northern mole of the harbour. In this article we question why such an artificial harbour was constructed just a few miles north of the main port city of Dor. We suggest that no harbour facilities existed at Iron Age II Dor. The quays at the southern bay of Dor, which served during the Bronze Age and during the Iron Age L were blocked during the 10th century BCE and no alternative quay was built at Dor until the Persian period.