New Research

Three Shipwrecks Discovered Off the Coast of Israel Shed New Light on the History of Iron Age Maritime Trade

An anchor, basket handles, jars and other artifacts were found among the cargoes at the three sites, the oldest of which dates to the 11th century B.C.E.

Christian Thorsberg | Daily Correspondent

October 23, 2025

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Off the northern coast of Israel, archaeologists have discovered the remains of three shipwrecks and their cargoes that challenge historians’ understanding of Iron Age life and economies in the Mediterranean.

The wreckage was unearthed in the Dor Lagoon along the country’s Carmel Coast, just off the ancient city of Dor.

Historians know that this bustling port town was a strategic hub for trade thousands of years ago. But recent research—conducted by scholars at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and the University of Haifa—“provides rare and direct evidence of trade in a period previously understood largely through land-based discoveries,” as Popular Mechanics’ Tim Newcomb writes. 

“Tel Dor is one of the few Iron Age ports that have been discovered in the eastern Mediterranean,” Thomas Levy, an archaeologist at UCSD, tells the Times of Israel’s Rossella Tercatin. “A little bit to its south, the Dor Lagoon, or Tantura Lagoon, is very rich in ships.”

In a recent study published in the journal Antiquity, the researchers describe using a combination of traditional methods and cutting-edge techniques—such as 3D modeling, multispectral imaging and digital mapping—to explore the coastal waters in 2023 and 2024.

The team was able to excavate one-fourth of the sandbar off Dor—enough to identify three distinct wreckage sites and the artifacts buried within each.

“While the excavations to date have only uncovered the uppermost layers of the site’s sandbar, the findings already point to Dor as a dynamic maritime center whose fortunes rose and fell with geopolitical tides,” writes Phoebe Skok for UC San Diego Today.

The researchers call the oldest cargo Dor M. Dating to the 11th century B.C.E., these items included several storage jars and an anchor inscribed with Cypro-Minoan writing, which suggests “connections to Cyprus and Egypt,” write the researchers.

At Dor L1, the team found Phoenician-style jars and bowls dating to the late ninth or early eighth century B.C.E. These items are not connected to Egypt or Cyprus, potentially indicating a change in cultural or political dynamics.

The third collection of cargo, known as Dor L2, was the most complete—and the most recent. Dating to the late seventh or early sixth century B.C.E., these artifacts include Cypriot-style basket-handle amphorae, large stones and iron blooms (which are “porous masses of metallic iron and slag that are an intermediate product of an iron ore smelting method,” according to UC San Diego Today).

An anchor made of wood and lead was also found at this site. As the authors write in the study, “Iron Age anchors with both wood and lead components are rare but attested in the archaeological record.”

The researchers think that more storage jars and other artifacts remain at Dor L2. Parts of a wooden ship hull may also survive. However, much of the ancient ships’ wood has been lost to history.

“Because these ships went down in such shallow water, it was very easy for people to dive in and scavenge the good stuff,” Levy tells the Times of Israel. “Wood was very valuable. It was used again for other crafts.”

Christian Thorsberg | Read More

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer and photographer from Chicago. His work, which often centers on freshwater issues, climate change and subsistence, has appeared in Circle of Blue, Sierra magazine, Discover magazine and Alaska Sporting Journal.