Some 350 rare pieces of marble and other items including gravestones that were collected from ancient buildings and were buried beneath the floor of a room from the Crusader period attest to the wealth of Akko 800 years ago.
Photographic credit: Howard Smithline,
courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority
This is "a unique find, the likes of which have never been discovered in the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the Crusader period (the capital of which was Akko)."
A cellar that was sealed by collapse comprised of building stones and charred beams was excavated and beneath the cellar floor a hoard of c. 350 marble items and colored stones was discovered, including two broken marble tombstones with Latin inscriptions (one belonging to a person by the name of Maratinus), flat marble slabs and marble tiles of various sizes and colors, etc. Some extraordinary items were also found, among them a large stone cross and a large fragment of porphyry (a rare precious purple stone, which has been the color of royalty from Roman times). The quality of the marble is excellent and it was undoubtedly imported from abroad.”
When was this?
“We can reasonably assume that the collapse that was found above the hoard is evidence of the building’s destruction in 1291 CE, when Crusader Akko was conquered by the Mamluks and was completely devastated”.
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