Apollonia Arsuf Day 1

Day one of excavations and already the archaeology at Apollonia Arsuf is proving to be quite exciting and complex. My team from the WKAT has been given responsibility over AREA L which is found in the south east corner of the city. It contains the largest of the defensive towers built along the curtain wall and overlooks the large city moat. Other attendees are found at the northern tip of the national park, outside of the curtain wall.

After removing the topsoil, already three solid walls are beginning to appear. Two walls run almost in parallel and are W7203 and W7205. The third wall is believed to also be party of W7205 but its early days.

Ive created a 5x5 square and placed a "bulk" through the centre to give a proper understanding of the context layers found within the area. This has created three different contexts already that are assigned L7203, L7202 and L7201. L7203 has a small quantity of Byzantine pottery but already some crusader glass has been found. Also discovered are several animal remains and burning within the soil.

Within five minutes of digging, we discovered a coin in L7202, but as yet this has not been identified to which period. The area includes several byzantine amphora handles along with blue and green Crusader pottery sherds.

L7201 has the most amount of pottery with an entire bucket full of byzantine pottery and some examples of brown glossed crusader pottery. So.... with day one out the way, its an evening of swimming in the warm mediteranean sea to ease those aching muscles and relax the mind.... ready for another day of heavy digging for all those WKATs... I should point out, that the excavation is made all that easier thanks to Ilan and the picnic hamper of chilled Goldstar he's bringing to the dig site :)