Ancient Citadel Finds New Home in Apartment Building

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a photo from above the citadel during excavation
A photo from above the citadel, taken during the excavation. (Image credit: Guy Fitoussi, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority)

A 3,400-year-old citadel near Israel's Mediterranean coast will soon be part of a modern, high-rise apartment building, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).

Archaeologists uncovered the citadel during a recent excavation in the coastal city of Nahariya in northern Israel. [See Photos of the Citadel Remains and Excavation]

The IAA partnered with youth groups during the excavation, working with students from Shchakim High School in Nahariya. The authority also worked with the Kochav Company, an engineering group, so a residential high-rise with underground parking — and the citadel — could be built on the spot.

"It seems that the citadel which we uncovered was used as an administrative center that served the mariners who sailed along the Mediterranean coast 3,400 years ago," said Nimrod Getzov, Yair Amitzur and Ron Be'eri, excavation directors on behalf of the IAA.

During the Bronze Age, the citadel likely had a dock, they added.

The excavators, both the high-school students and the professionals, found artifacts in the various rooms of the fortress. These included ceramic figurines that were shaped like humans and animals, and "bronze weapons and imported pottery vessels that attest to the extensive commercial and cultural relations that existed at that time with Cyprus and the rest of the lands in the Mediterranean basin," the excavation directors said.

Intense fires destroyed the citadel at least four times in the past, but ancient people rebuilt the structure every time, evidence shows.

Researchers also found plenty of cereal, legumes and grape seeds among the burnt layers, suggesting that the citadel held provisions sailors could purchase, the IAA said.

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Laura Geggel
Laura Geggel
Managing Editor

Laura is the managing editor at Live Science. She also runs the archaeology section and the Life's Little Mysteries series. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Scholastic, Popular Science and Spectrum, a site on autism research. She has won multiple awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association for her reporting at a weekly newspaper near Seattle. Laura holds a bachelor's degree in English literature and psychology from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in science writing from NYU.