2023 - Caesarea Maritima: Roman city, Islamic history
What goes on in the afterlife of a Roman city? Rather than Pluto and Cerberus, the city of Caesarea Maritima in Israel had a lively hereafter. Before this project, its archaeologiy showed a splendid array of Roman finds: harbours, baths, a temple, a palace, a hippodrome, a theatre: but virtually nothing was known of the early Islamic history. It was treated as if it had just died out.
This project, carried out by Dr Asa Eger, aimed to change that narrative. The excavation found things from settlements within a Crusader-era wall to harbourside debris from the 749 CE Dead Sea tsunami.
The city seems to have been a ribat, a type of outpost that was either a military-religious lookout station or a commercial waystation. More will be learnt as excavation continues, but it is a good reminder about the continuity of history that is treated as if it stopped.













