In May 2013, an excavation was conducted in the fields east of Kibbutz ‘Evron (Permit No. A-6803; map ref. 210873–9/766706–15), following the discovery of a section of an aqueduct along the route of the main water line leading to the southern neighborhoods of Nahariya (Fig. 1). The excavation, undertaken on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and financed by the Mekorot Company, was directed by R. Abu Raya (photography), with the assistance of Y. Ya‘aqobi (administration), R. Mishayev and M. Kahan (surveying) and A. Shapiro (GPS).
A rectangular excavation area (3.1 × 7.3 m; Fig. 2, 3) was opened. A section of the aqueduct—a channel set on alluvium and aligned in a north–south direction—was unearthed in the middle of the excavated area. Its two walls, which are not equal in width (inner height c. 0.9 m, inner width 0.18–0.20 m, outer exposed height c. 0.5 m, outer width 0.45–0.60 m), were built of irregularly shaped kurkar and limestone and small fieldstones bonded with especially hard gray mortar. The aqueduct was covered with soil on the outside, and treated with hydraulic plaster on the inside. For most of its length it was covered with kurkar and limestone slabs (length 0.4–0.6 m; Fig. 4). The western wall had buckled, apparently due to pressure exerted by the soil; this pressure probably also caused the cover stones to settle (Figs. 4, 5). A small concrete wall built in the southern section of the aqueduct and running along the middle of the channel is evidence of the installation’s late phases of use (Fig. 6). The excavation did not reveal any indication of an earlier aqueduct, and no pottery vessels or other finds were discovered in it.
Frankel R., Getzov N. and Friedman (Syon) D. 1989. The Aqueducts of Acre and the Western Galilee. In D. Amit, Y. Hirschfeld and J. Patrich eds. The Aqueducts of Ancient Palestine: Collected Essays. Jerusalem. Pp. 81–96 (Hebrew).
Stern E. 1990. ‘Akko: the Ottoman Aqueduct. HA 75:17–18 (Hebrew).
El-‘Urah S. 1936. Tarikh Welayet Suleiman Basha el-‘Adel. Sayda (Arabic).