Deborah Cvikel

University of Haifa | haifa · The Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies (RIMS)

The reconstruction of the Serçe Limanı ship proposed a double-masted rig consisting of two sails with a total combined area of 100 m 2. That proposal considered provenance evidence and appraised hydrodynamic and hydrostatic conditions. The current paper proposes an alternative rig consisting of a single sail. By applying computational fluid analysi...

Field multi-focal metallography (FMM) is a development of field metallographic replication (FMR). It is an innovative minimally destructive technique that facilitates high-resolution metallographic observations of metallic object surfaces, regardless of their orientation to the optical axis of the microscope. Several artefacts retrieved during unde...

The force required to drag a stone anchor over several types of surfaces was measured, recorded, and analyzed. It was found that the force involved in the movement of the anchor over the various surfaces cannot be described just by the sliding solids theory, but it involves several additional physical processes, such as increasing the sand shear st...

Three scale models of a one-hole stone anchor found at the Uluburun shipwreck site were tested in the sea, with their dragging force history being monitored and recorded. It was found that on a sandy seabed the measured holding power of an anchor is about 37 % of its dry weight, and about 49 % of its dry weight on a rocky seabed. The results were a...

Four ferrous objects, a winch, a heart-shaped shackle, a deadeye strap with a futtock plate, and a stud-link chain controller, that were retrieved from the Akko Tower shipwreck were studied by different methods, including conventional metallography, light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive spectroscopy, optical emission...

The study of windward sailing in antiquity is subject to discord, misunderstandings and misinterpretations. This paper attempts to broaden the understanding of windward sailing by revisiting the theoretical basis of windward sailing, performing a critical review of previous works, reconstructing historic passages with new methods to re-evaluate the...

Recent excavations of Late Antiquity settlements in the Negev Highlands of southern Israel uncovered a society that established commercial-scale viticulture in an arid environment [D. Fuks et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 117, 19780-19791 (2020)]. We applied target-enriched genome-wide sequencing and radiocarbon dating to examine grapevine pip...

Ship rats (Rattus rattus) have successfully colonized six continents and 80% of islands worldwide by stowing-away on anthropogenic vessels. Numerous zooarchaeological and metagenomic studies have contributed to tracing the western dispersal of ship rats out of the Indian subcontinent and into the Mediterranean Basin, North Africa, and Europe. This...

The production and maritime trade of salted-fish products are well documented in the western Mediterranean during the Classical and Roman periods. Ichthyological remains found within amphorae in shipwrecks and other archaeological contexts provide evidence for long-distance exchange based on the biogeographical distributions of fish species. The Ma...

Thirteen Late Roman copper alloy coins with a dark concretion layer from the Early Islamic period Ma‘agan Mikhael B shipwreck were chosen to undergo an experimental chemical cleaning and polishing procedure for removing the concretion while limiting the damage to the surviving metal. These coins, and two more without concretion discovered on the be...

Ship rats (Rattus rattus) have successfully colonized six continents and 80% of islands worldwide by stowing-away on anthropogenic vessels. Numerous zooarchaeological and metagenomic studies have contributed to tracing the western dispersal of ship rats out of the Indian subcontinent and into the Mediterranean Basin, North Africa, and Europe. This...

During the 2016 underwater excavation season of the nineteenth-century Akko Tower shipwreck, a cylindrical powder chamber was retrieved from a trench 2 m north of the north-eastern end of the site. Powder chambers of similar design and composition were common in Mediterranean fleets during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The surface of the...

A comprehensive mapping of potential sailing mobility was performed for the eastern and central Mediterranean basins. The mapping is based on newly developed methods for measuring potential sailing mobility of merchant ships with a loose-footed square sail in Antiquity, both for direct passages and for coastal sailing. The metrics of the measured d...

Deposition in the marine environment subjects osteological materials to geochemical and taphic processes that do not occur in terrestrial archaeological sites. The effect of subaquatic diagenesis on bones and teeth challenges traditional interpretations of zooarchaeological remains and needs more scholarship. This is likely due in part to the pauci...

The Akko Tower shipwreck was found in 4.4 m of water, 35 m north of the Tower of Flies at the entrance to Akko harbour, on the Mediterranean coast of Israel. The hull remains were covered by a significant amount of stones, apparently used as ballast. It seems to have been a 25-m long merchantman, constructed in the mid-1850s using timber from fores...

Many one-hole stone anchors have been found around the eastern Mediterranean, in Kaş (Uluburun, Gelidonia), Antalya, Ugarit, Byblos, Kition, the Carmel coast, Caesarea, Ashkelon, Alexandria, etc. They are of varying sizes, weighing from a few to hundreds of kilograms. Apart from the single hole, they have another common attribute – they all fell wi...

Through investigation into a writing tablet made from a camel's shoulder bone found on the shipwreck Ma'agan Mikhael B, we explore how mariners kept accounts while conducting maritime trade, and postulate potential ethnic and cultural associations of the mariners onboard.

Measures of potential sailing mobility are essential for understanding the functioning of ancient maritime links. This requires measuring potential sailing mobility of coastal sailing runs, as well as direct passages in the open sea. Quantitative works attempting to measure potential sailing mobility have shortcomings related to the use of averaged...

Last Call for Registration, 2021—2022 Academic Year The University of Haifa’s International Master’s Degree in Maritime Civilizations is issuing a last call for registration to the academic year-2021-2022. The program offers students an exceptional opportunity to learn about the history and archaeology of maritime societies, as well as the natural...

The Maʻagan Mikhael B shipwreck is the remains of a 23-m-long merchantman found off the coast of Israel. A significant portion of the wooden hull survived in a good state of preservation, and over 870 glass fragments were found inside the hull remains. The finds included lumps of raw glass and fragments of glass vessels, which were probably intende...

The use of detailed meteorological data with sailing software, in conjunction with sailing the Ma'agan Mikhael II replica ship, has engendered the development of a method for examining maritime mobility of single-masted square sail Mediterranean merchantmen in the Graeco-Roman period, with the initial objective of mapping direct, open sea, return s...

3D recording of shipwrecks completely buried in seafloor sediments has great potential as an important aspect of maritime archaeological surveys and management. Buried shipwrecks have been recorded directly with seismic 3D Chirp sub-bottom profilers on an experimental basis. This method is, however, expensive, time-consuming and complicated. This a...

Acoustic response from lithics knapped by humans has been demonstrated to facilitate effective detection of submerged Stone Age sites exposed on the seafloor or embedded within its sediments. This phenomenon has recently enabled the non-invasive detection of several hitherto unknown submerged Stone Age sites, as well as the registration of acoustic...

Fragments of decorated floor tiles were retrieved from the Akko Tower shipwreck, Israel. Most tiles were made of bright brown fired clay with a white glaze decorated with colored stenciled motifs (Type A); and others consisted of a red-brown fired clay body, coated with a brown pigment covered with transparent brown glaze (Type B). This study aimed...

The 19th century was an era of increasing mechanization and globalization, which transformed maritime networks and shipbuilding in and beyond the Mediterranean. Shipwrecks offer valuable physical evidence of such maritime connectivity and evolving shipbuilding techniques but must be dated within a high-resolution timeframe to be synchronized with,...

The 4.4-m-long vessel designated as Molyneux’s boat was built in England in 1836. During its conservation in 2008, metal fastenings were retrieved, and 12 of them were examined by XRF, metallographic and multifocal light microscopy, microindentation hardness measurement, and SEM-EDS analysis. The results show the use of manufacturing techniques dev...

en During the 2019 underwater excavation season of the Ma‘agan Mikhael B shipwreck (mid‐7th–mid‐8th centuries AD), an unattached hook‐shaped masthead fitting with sheaves was discovered and retrieved. This remarkable and rare find is a type of fitting characteristic of lateen‐rigged vessels, and is an addition to the assembly of rigging elements, s...

Ongoing excavations of the Maʻagan Mikhael B shipwreck have revealed the largest maritime cargo assemblage of Byzantine and Early Islamic ceramics discovered along the Israeli coast to date. Dated between the mid-7th and the mid-8th century CE, the nearly 20-metre-long shipwreck has yielded a cargo of various types of amphorae, including the Late R...

In the 2016 excavation season of the Akko Tower shipwreck, a ferrous stud-link anchor chain and a rod, both covered with thick encrustation and concretion, were retrieved from the site. The chain links, studs, and rod were analyzed by metallurgical methods, including: radiographic testing, x-ray fluorescence, light microscopy, scanning electron mic...

The multifocal 3D digital light microscope (LM) is an advanced tool which allows the high resolution tracking of surface topographies, morphologies and colours, and offers real-time measurements of parameters such as length and roughness, as well as in-situ field microscopic scale documentation. The use of a multifocal digital LM, equipped with pow...

During the period between the 5th century BC and the 6th century AD, two ship construction technologies were prevalent around the Mediterranean Sea: shell-first and frame-based. The shell-first concept was of a strong rigid hull, comprising edge-joined strakes reinforced by transverse frames which were not joined to the keel. In the frame-based tec...

The Akko Tower Wreck is the remains of a 25-m-long merchant brig, dated to the first half of the 19th century, found in the ancient port of Akko in Israel. The ship's remains were covered with a significant amount of dark grey marlstones to argillaceous limestones with white calcite veins, apparently used as ballast. Petrographic studies of ballast...

The article “Finite Element Analysis of Shell-First and Longitudinally Reinforced Frame-Based Wooden Ships” written by Nathan Helfman, Boaz Nishri, and Deborah Cvikel was originally published electronically on the publisher’s Internet portal (currently SpringerLink) on May 20, 2019 without open access.

Three bow drills were discovered in the 400 BC Ma‘agan Mikhael ship. Radiography revealed a square cross-section recess for the bit in the wooden stock of one of the drills. Metal particles, remains of a bit, survived in the recess. The metal composition, microstructure and manufacturing technology of the bit were studied using non-destructive and...

The basic structural material for shipbuilding in antiquity was wood, which was easy to work and available in most civilizations. In order to install a wooden plank in a ship’s hull it had to be bent and/or twisted to fit the curvature dictated by the shape of the hull. To reduce the force required for flexion without breaking the plank, it was nec...

The Maʻagan Mikhael B shipwreck was found in 1.5m of water, beneath 1.5m of sand, 70m off the Mediterranean coast of Israel. The hull remains are in a good state of preservation, comprising the endposts, aprons, framing timbers, hull planks, stringers, and bulkheads. The finds comprise rigging elements, wooden artefacts, organic finds, animal bones...

After three excavation seasons the Ma‘agan Mikhael B shipwreck has revealed, among other objects, seven coins. The coins were found covered with a black concretion layer, which was carefully removed from five of them. Metallurgical methods were used in order to reveal the composition, microstructure, and manufacturing process of the coins and to de...

Seismic high-resolution Chirp profiles from the well-documented submerged Stone Age settlement Atlit-Yam, located off Israel’s Carmel coast, display systematic disturbances within the water column not related to sea-floor cavitation, vegetation, fish shoals, gas or salinity/temperature differences, where flint debitage from the Stone Age site had b...

Seven coins, covered with black concretion coating, found in the Byzantine-period Ma'agan Mikhael B shipwreck, were examined in this study. Metallurgical methods comprising visual testing, XRF, multi-focal light microscopy, SEM-EDS analysis and Raman spectroscopy, were used to determine the corrosion products and microstructure of the coins. The an...

The Akko Tower Wreck is the remains of a 25-m-long merchant brig dated to the first half of the 19th century. During the underwater excavations, 105 brass nails were retrieved from the shipwreck. The nails were divided into two groups based on their microstructure: Type A nails were characterized by Widmanstätten plates, while Type B nails by a den...

The history of maritime archaeology in Israel began in the 1950s. This article summarizes the emergence of the discipline and its evolution, the main institutions involved, the physical conditions and their influence on the nature of ancient maritime activity, the nature of the sites, site formation, post-deposition processes, and the associated me...

The 1st millennium AD experienced a significant change in ship construction. A slow transition evolved where ships built ‘shell-first’ were ultimately supplanted by ‘frame-based’ ships. Shell-first ships were constructed with strakes edge-jointed using pegged and later unpegged mortise-and-tenons joints, dowels or coaks, and at times, sewing, which...

The Akko Tower Wreck is the remains of a 25-m-long merchant brig, dated to the first half of the nineteenth century. During the 2015 underwater excavation, a piece of brass sheet was retrieved from the shipwreck and its surface and bulk were examined by metallurgical analyses. The examinations revealed a unique example of almost two hundred years’...

The Akko 1 shipwreck is the remains of a 26-metre-long Egyptian armed vessel or auxiliary naval brig built at the beginning of the 19th century. Remains of six flintlock muskets were retrieved from the shipwreck, and characterised by various metallurgical methods. The research aimed to study the composition and microstructure of the musket fittings...

The Akko Tower Wreck was found inside Akko harbour, Israel, in 1966, next to the Tower of Flies, after which it was named. The shipwreck was excavated in 2012 and 2013. During the underwater excavations, two metal concretions were retrieved, X-rayed, and on opening were found to contain three almost identical iron-bound deadeyes. An iron bolt was a...

A central problem for maritime archaeology has been to find survey methods that facilitate efficient and precise mapping of Stone Age sites on the seabed down to the lowest sea level (approximately - 140 m) during glacial periods, as well as sites embedded in sea-floor sediments. As predictive landscape modelling has proved to be inadequate for thi...

The Akko Tower shipwreck lies at the entrance to Akko harbour, Israel. It is apparently the remains of a 25-m-long merchant brig, dated to the first half of the 19th century. In four underwater excavation seasons dozens of fragments of decorated floor tiles were found in the shipwreck and retrieved. The tiles were originally about 20 cm square, cov...

The Akko Tower Wreck is the remains of a 25-m-long merchant brig, dated to the first half of the 19th century. A well preserved piece of brass sheathing was found in the shipwreck, retrieved and examined by non-destructive and destructive metallurgical methods, including visual testing, XRF, OES, light microscopy, SEM-EDS examination, microindentat...

The site of Atlit-Yam is one of the best preserved and most thoroughly investigated submerged prehistoric settlements in the world, with a wealth of finds of material culture and organic remains characteristic of a Pre-Pottery Neolithic village based on a mixed economy of farming and fishing 9000 years ago. Stone-lined water wells were also found,...

Various artillery and rigging artefacts were retrieved from the Megadim wreck-site, Israel. The present research is aimed at determining the composition, microstructure and manufacturing processes of the objects, as well as their dating. Therefore, a multidisciplinary testing approach was applied, based on typology, metallurgical criteria, archaeob...

The Dor C shipwreck is the remains of a 60-t schooner that plied the Mediterranean during the last decades of the nineteenth century. The various building materials and ceramic ware found inside the shipwreck suggest an established commercial route between southern France and the Holy Land. Three metal objects were found in the bow area of the ship...

Iron artefacts corrode severely in a marine environment, and require further conservation after retrieval. This research proposes a novel conservation method, based on a bi-layered concept: a thin silane self-assembled monolayer serving as nano-scale barrier, covered by a thicker waxlayer, which is applied by dipping the object into a suitable solu...

The Akko Tower Wreck is the remains of a 25-m-long merchant brig, which sank in Akko harbour during the second quarter of the nineteenth century. During underwater excavations, three iron-strapped deadeyes were retrieved from the shipwreck. Metallurgical investigation revealed information related to the manufacturing technologies of the objects. Th...

A shipwreck, designated as Ma‘agan Mikhael B, was discovered in 2005 by divers about 70 m from the shoreline and at a depth of 1 m, embedded in sandy seafloor sediments. Soon after, the shipwreck was lost in the sand. In May 2015, it was located in a survey with a chirp sub-bottom profiler, and a water-jetting survey in August 2015 confirmed its po...

The Ma‘agan Mikhael ship, dated to 400 BC, was built ‘shell-first’, with the planks first connected edge-to-edge by mortise-and-tenon joints, and then, the frames were fastened to the pre-existing shell by double-clenched copper nails. The construction of a sailing replica began in 2014. The aims of the project are to increase knowledge of ancient...

The maritime installation, sometimes called the ‘port’ or the ‘military harbour’ of Apollonia-Arsuf, is located at the foot of the cliff on which the Crusader castle of Arsur stands, about 37 km south of Caesarea, Israel. Opinions have differed as to the true nature of the site: was it a real port or harbour? Was it just a mooring basin for small c...

The shipwreck designated as the Akko Tower Wreck lies at the entrance of Akko harbour, Israel, 35 m north of the Tower of Flies, in 4.4 m of water. Following two seasons (2012 and 2013) of underwater excavation, it is suggested that it is the remains of a merchant brig of 200 tons, dated to the first half of the 19th century, and built under the in...

A flintlock musket and a brass case with two nails attached, were retrieved from the Akko 1 shipwreck, dated to the early 19th century, and studied using metallurgical analysis. Both artefacts were covered with encrustation and concretion. The iron musket barrel and the iron nails did not survive; only corrosion products and oxides were left of the...

The paper discusses the detection of shipwrecks embedded in sea-floor sediments using a Chirp sub-bottom profiler. From a methodological-historical perspective it presents four examples of recent chirp recordings of verified shipwrecks embedded in different types of sediment environments, from different geographical and geological areas and from di...

The Dor 2002/2 shipwreck provides evidence of a 15-m-long vessel built to a high standard, and adds essential information to our knowledge of the construction of small vessels that plied the Eastern Mediterranean during the late Ottoman period. During the underwater excavations of the shipwreck, two metal objects were retrieved: a wooden heart (rig...

An archeometallurgical and technical characterization of a Late Byzantine–Early Islamic fishing-spear (harpoon) and a fire basket, both made of iron, was performed. These fishing instruments, probably belonging to a fishing vessel dated to the seventh century AD, were retrieved from the Dor (Tantura) lagoon, Israel. The present research aimed at de...

Ships are depicted in two nautical scenes in the unique wall paintings discovered in the Royal Room next to the private small theatre of Herod the Great at Herodium near Jerusalem. The walls of the Royal Room were finely adorned with wall paintings and stucco decorations, dated to about 20-15 BC. The first scene, on a large fragment, is of sailing...

The shipwreck designated as the Akko Tower Wreck was discovered inside Akko harbor, Israel, in 1966. It was surveyed in 1975 and 1981, and excavated in 2012-2013. Hull planks were connected to the frames by brass nails, some of which were in situ, emerging vertically from the planking, where frames had disappeared, and others were detached. The 105...

The Akko 1 shipwreck was an Egyptian armed vessel, built at the beginning of the 19th century. A wooden saw handle and a box containing iron nails and two split pins were discovered towards the stern. Given their function, location and context, these were part of the ship's carpenter's tools and accessories. A methodology was developed for conducti...

The Dor 2006 Byzantine shipwreck was discovered in 2006, 800 m south of Dor (Tantura) lagoon, Israel, about 100 m offshore, in a water depth of 4 m, covered by sand. It was a large ship about 25 m long, and its timber remains spread over 10.5 m by 4.5 m. The shipwreck was dated between the mid-6th and the first quarter of the 7th centuries AD. Amon...

As told in a novel of the second century ad, the couple Leucippe and Clitophon boarded a ship sailing from Beirut to Alexandria. The ship, apparently a 20-metre-long coaster, set out on a SW course, driven by an easterly wind. On the third day the wind shifted abruptly to the south-west, and the sea rose. Despite the efforts to tack, balance the sh...

This article presents archaeometallurgical research of three types of metal objects excavated underwater from two shipwrecks in Israel: Tantura F (mid-7th–end of 8th centuries AD) and Akko 1 (first third of 19th century). Both non-destructive and destructive methods were employed. The finds were manufactured by joining processes; therefore the stud...

The Akko 1 shipwreck was a small Egyptian armed vessel or auxiliary naval brig built in the eastern Mediterranean at the beginning of the 19th century. During the underwater excavations, about 230 brass hook-and-eye closures were found, mainly in the bow area. In addition, 158 brass cases were found, mainly between midships and the aft extremity of...

HMS Pique bombarded Akko during the attack by a British–Austrian–Ottoman fleet on the Egyptian-held town on 3 November 1840. Three of her cannonballs were discovered during renovation of the El-Shazliya Mosque in Old Akko, embedded in an inner eastern wall facing the sea. Reduced scale experiments simulating the firing of cannonballs at this wall w...

The Akko 1 shipwreck is the remains of an eastern Mediterranean naval or auxiliary brig, which was found inside the ancient harbor of Akko, Israel. The shipwreck and finds were recorded underwater, and some of the ship components, along with the majority of the finds, were retrieved and analyzed. A Bayesian dating model, incorporating 14C wiggle-ma...

The Dor 2006 shipwreck was discovered in 2006, 100 m offshore, 800 m south of Dor (Tantura) lagoon. The wooden hull remains included sections of large frames, stringers and ceiling planks, a large number of strakes and wales, some with unpegged mortise-and-tenon joints. Among the finds were ceramic sherds, wooden objects, matting, ropes, food remai...

The Akko 1 shipwreck, discovered in Akko harbor, Israel, is the remains of an eastern Mediterranean brig built at the beginning of the 19th century. Among other finds, eleven cannonballs were found in the shipwreck and three of them were retrieved. Two of the cannonballs, the 9- and 24-pdrs, have been studied previously. The present study of the 12...

The Akko 1 shipwreck was found in 4 m of water inside the ancient harbour of Akko, Israel, and was fully recorded under water. Several hull-components were retrieved and documented on land, as well as all the finds. The results of the archaeological research and the study of the historical background suggest that the Akko 1 shipwreck is the remains...

The Akko 1 shipwreck, discovered in Akko harbor, Israel, is the remains of an eastern Mediterranean brig built at the beginning of the 19th century. Among other finds, eleven cannonballs were found in the shipwreck and three of them were retrieved. Two of the cannonballs, the 9- and 24-pdrs, have been studied previously. The present study of the 12...

Eleven cannonballs were found in the Akko 1 shipwreck; two of them, a 9-pdr and a 24-pdr, were retrieved and studied using archaeometallurgical methods. Findings are reported in the present work. The aim of this research was to study the manufacturing technologies of the two cannonballs, and if possible to determine their date and manufacturing loc...

This chapter reviews the archaeometallurgical investigations of ancient iron artifacts, which were retrieved from two different shipwrecks. The analysis is based on materials science and archaeological literature, as well as archaeometallurgical observations made by the authors. Various tools were used in the investigation process, such as radiogra...