Archaeologists Uncover 7,000 Years Old Seawall In Israel Intended To Protect Settlements

Wouldn’t it be a dream to live near a sea and bask in the glory of the salty breeze that rustles the leaves under your feet? Oh yes, but living near a sea comes with its own set of challenges, like rising waters and rare fishes being washed ashore. So while living near a sea is a magical experience, it requires you to constantly think of ways to be prepared for the worst. This is also what people in the prehistoric times thought when archaeologists uncovered a 7,000-years-old seawall in northern Israel’s Carmel coast.

Archaeologists stated that the seawall, which is approximately 100 meters long, was the oldest and biggest defense structure built to protect settlements, but it was only a temporary solution to the ever-rising water levels. According to archaeologists, the Carmel coast is home to a high number of submerged Neolithic villages, which are carefully protected by thick layers of sand. Nevertheless, strong winds, heavy seas, and storms occasionally manage to reveal new aspects of the hidden villages. It took archaeologists nearly three years to document the seawall because only a few days after being exposed, it would submerge, yet again, in changing seafloor sand.

Exposed stone-built features in shallow water at the archaeological site of Tel Hreiz. (Ehud Galili)

So in 2015, when the wall emerged again, archaeologist Ehud Galili of the University of Haifa and his team were quick to dive and document the seawall, which at that time, was approximately three meters below the surface. According to experts, the seawall, which was made up of big boulders and weighed more than 1,000 kg, was protecting a submerged village called Tel Hreiz that was first discovered in the 1960s by accident. Experts believe that Tel Hreiz originally stood at approximately three meters above sea level, but melting glaciers caused an unexpected rise in water levels, leaving the people with no choice, but to abandon their houses that the sea eventually engulfed.

Photographs of finds from the Tel Hreiz settlement: (a-b) exposure of stone-built features in shallow water. (c) wooden posts dug into the seabed. (d) bifacial flintadze. (e) in situ stone bowl made of sandstone. (f) in situ basalt grounding stone (scale = 20cm); (g) burial 1. (h) suspected stone-built cist grave – view from the east (scale = 20cm). (i) in situ antler of Mesopotamian fallow deer. (All photographs by E. Galili with the exception of Fig 3G by V. Eshed)

According to Galili, people back then must have realized that the water levels were rising faster than usual and that something had to be done to stop the rising water from destroying their settlement. Galili believes that what they have uncovered must have been a seawall aimed to protect Tel Hreiz and it’s people from being washed away. But did the seawall work? After all, from the way it was constructed, it looked like people of Tel Hreiz invested a lot of time and manpower to build it. Galili believes that people possibly got tired of adapting to the rising water levels and decided that maintaining the seawall wasn’t worth the effort.

A map of the eastern Mediterranean and the Israeli coast showing submerged Neolithic settlements off the Carmel coast, 2019. (John McCarthy after Galili et al.)

As a result, Tel Hreiz, which was home to people for about 250 years, was abandoned and left at the mercy of rising sea levels. Eventually, Tel Hreiz and other settlements near the sea became fully submerged, leaving archaeologists with a wealth of hidden information to uncover. Galili believes that sea levels will continue to rise even today, owing to climate change and that if the prediction of future sea levels is accurate, then by the year 2100, there will be an increase in sea level by one foot above 2000 levels.

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