Researchers discovered a huge fortification dating back to the Iron-Age in present day Israel.
The mud-brick wall surrounds an ancient Assyrian harbor, a Tel Aviv University press release reported. The wall is 15-feet-high, and once formed a crescent shape to protect an area that stretched for over 17 acres.
The team used digital technology called photogrammetry to create a 3D model of the ancient structures.
Layers of mud and sand cover the eight century B.C.E wall, and continue for several hundred feet on both sides.
"The fortifications appear to protect an artificial harbor," Dr. Alexander Fantalkin, of TAU's Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures and leader of the study, said. "If so, this would be a discovery of international significance, the first known harbor of this kind in our corner of the Levant."
The impressive fortifications were built in a time when the Assyrians reigned over the Southeastern Mediterranean.
"Yamani, the rebel king of Ashdod, led a rebellion against Sargon II, the king of the Assyrian Empire, "the press release stated.
The Assyrians didn't take the rebellion well and responded violently. Researchers believe the walls could be related to the Ashdod rebellions. It may have been built by concerned civilians, or ordered by the Assyrians.
Dr. Jacob Kaplan, of the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Museum of Antiquities, believes the wall was built by Ashdod rebels in hopes of warding off an attack. Fantalkin disagrees, and claimed the structures were too impressive to be built quickly and under such pressing circumstances.
"An amazing amount of time and energy was invested in building the wall and glacis [embankments]," Fantalkin said. Younger ruins were found on top of the Iron-Age wall. The buildings were built sometime before the late second century B.C.E, and were most likely appeared after the wall was long-abandoned. The structures are believed to have been destroyed by an earthquake.
The research team found valuable artifacts among the later ruins, including weights and coins.
