Ships and harbors

Ships, shipping, and harbors were an essential part of Phoenician city life. For understanding ship types, pictorial imagery can be helpful. A relief from the Palace of Sargon II at Dur-Sharrukin (Khorsabad) shows the small commercial boats called a hippos (“horse”), named for the horse-headed prows, transporting logs (Figure 11.3 and Figure 11.4). Other types of ships used included the gaulos (“tub”), a larger ship used for long-distance shipping of cargo, and war galleys, equipped with a ram, a sail, and rowers (Figure 11.4). Such warships, valued by the Assyrian and Persian overlords, are a favorite device on coins issued by Sidon, Byblos, and Arwad, beginning in the mid-fifth century BC.

Good evidence for the Phoenicians’ careful construction of harbors comes from Atlit, 25km south of Haifa on Israel’s northern coast (Figure 11.5). The harbor installations were first noted in the 1960s, later explored in detail during the 1970s and since 2002 by teams from the Institute of Maritime Studies, University of Haifa. Because the strongest winds blow from the south-west, the best location for a harbor on the Levantine coast is on the north side of a protecting promontory, with some additional barriers added against north winds. Such is the case here, as at Tyre

Figure 11.3 Phoenicians transporting logs by sea, in an Assyrian relief sculpture, from Dar-Sharrukin (Khorsabad), late eighth century BC. Louvre Museum, Paris

And Sidon. The appealing sandy beach of the southern side could be used for small boats, or when the weather was favorable.

Figure 11.4 Phoenician ships: warship (above) and hippos (below)

The north harbor was defined on its south side by the promontory and on its west by two small islands. Sea currents flowed from the west through the gaps between the islands into the harbor, then out through its northeast entrance, ensuring that silt and sand were automatically swept away, never building up. Two moles, one ca. 130m long, the other 100m long, on the north and the east respectively, were set at right angles to each other, enclosing the sheltered harbor, creating a harbor entrance 150m wide. The moles were connected with quays, one on the northernmost islet, the second on the mainland. The longer mole, on the north, lies in deeper water, useful for larger ships.

The moles were solidly constructed to resist damaging effects of waves and currents below sea level and at the surface. First, a foundation of flat and round river pebbles was laid on the sea

Figure 11.5 Plan, harbor and promontory, Atlit

Bottom. The pebbles are not local stones, but imported probably from northern Syria and Cyprus, used as ship ballast, evidence for the long-distance connections of shipping here. The mole’s foundation course was laid next; it consisted of two parallel rows of ashlar headers, that is, rectangular blocks 2m—3m long with their long sides touching, their narrow ends facing the sea. Rubble and medium-sized field stones filled the space in between. Wooden wedges were used to level the stone courses; radiocarbon analysis on three samples gave dates of late ninth or early eighth centuries BC.