Ancient corals reveal the secrets of the port of Acre

PUBLICATION — Mass, T., Drake, J., Martinez, S., Stolarski, J., Sharvit, J. 2025. Bridging archaeology and marine ecology: Coral archives of hellenistic coastal change. Sustainability 17, 8893, doi: 10.3390/su17198893

Figure: Among numerous Hellenistic-period artifacts recovered from the harbor sediments of Akko (bottom photo), remarkably well-preserved colonies of Cladocora sp. corals were recovered. Today, these corals are typically found in the deeper part of the photic zone (top photo).

Exceptionally well-preserved sub-fossil colonies of Cladocora sp. corals from the Hellenistic port of Acre (ca. 335–94 BCE) have made it possible to combine archaeological and modern data, providing a better understanding of climate variability and human influence on ancient coastal processes more than 2000 years ago. Analyses of micromorphology, stable isotopes, and ancient DNA allowed reconstructing the marine environment of the Acre harbour, characterized by high sunlight exposure, cooler waters than today, strong wave energy, and possible exposure to terrestrial pollution.