Water saturated sand and a shallow bay: Combining coastal geophysics and underwater archaeology in the south bay of Tel Dor

The south bay of Tel Dor was examined during a detailed underwater archaeological expedition and through an onland, coastal Frequency Domain Electromagnetic (FDEM) geophysical survey. The aim was to find out if the bay situated adjacent to the southern edge of the tel, was used for maritime activity when the tel was inhabited. Results indicate that the FDEM method provides useful data in waterlogged coastal environments, where other more conventional methods are not satisfactory in terms of identifying archaeological remains. A number of linear features were detected on the FDEM maps, the most visible being a rectangular area facing the sea on the shoreline and an NW-SE trending near-linear feature. Distribution of underwater archaeological evidence for marine activity such as anchors and mooring stones also seems to be aligned in an NW-SE direction, parallel to the latter feature on shore. If indeed related to archaeology, the features detected by the FDEM method are probably located on the clay substrate, buried underneath thousands of years of sand accumulation. Given the sedimentary history of the bay, and the ages of the nearby coastal structures, it is possible that this is a maritime structure dating to the Bronze Age or even earlier.