The earthquake cut the palace in two - which caused the residents of Kabri to lose faith in the ruling dynasty and to abandon the entire city, which has not been inhabited since then," said Prof. Assaf Yassur Landau of the Reknatti Institute for Maritime Studies and the Department of Maritime Civilizations at the University of Haifa, one of the leaders of the excavation.
In recent years, researchers from the University of Haifa and the George Washington University in Tel Kabri have uncovered a magnificent Canaanite palace from about 3800 years ago: magnificent halls, wine cellars with dozens of jars and evidence of magnificent feasts - which was suddenly destroyed and abandoned. In a new study, funded by the Israel Science Foundation and National Geographic, and published in the journal PlosOne They say that the cause of the destruction and abandonment was most likely an earthquake, one of the earliest ever recorded at an archaeological site. "We wondered for several years what caused the sudden destruction and abandonment of the palace and the site, after hundreds of years of prosperity. Apparently, the earthquake cut the palace in two - which caused the residents of Kabri to lose faith in the ruling dynasty and abandon the entire city, which has not been inhabited since then," said Prof. Assaf Yassur Landau from the Reknatti Institute for Maritime Studies and the Department of Maritime Civilizations at the University of Haifa, one of the leaders of the excavation.
The magnificent Canaanite palace at Tel Kabari, on the territory of Kibbutz Kabari, was first excavated in the 80s of the last century, but it was the excavations in recent years led by Prof. Yassur Landau from the University of Haifa and Prof. Eric Klein from the George Washington University, that revealed the enormous splendor of the palace which flourished in the years 1900-1700 BC: magnificent halls, evidence of lavish banquets and meat consumption that testified to enormous wealth, wall paintings that testified to trade and cultural ties with Minoan Crete and the islands of the Aegean Sea and most importantly: huge wine warehouses where dozens of large wine jars were discovered, which contained Red wine to which resin and plant extracts have been added.
It also became clear to the researchers that the palace, and the city that surrounded it, were abandoned around 1700 BC, and have not been inhabited since. "Already from the first sight in 2013, my initial assumption was that it was an earthquake, but of course we had to find evidence of this and rule out many other explanations that would have caused the slow abandonment of the place and the creation of the destruction we saw in a slow and not sudden manner. For example, a climate crisis, overexploitation of the environment or even violent occupation and destruction of the site," said Dr. Michael Lazar from the Department of Geomarine Sciences at the University of Haifa, who led the current study.
A discovery made in the excavation of 2019 tipped the scales in favor of the explanation of an earthquake. A few seasons ago, researchers discovered a canal that ran through part of the palace, but they initially thought that it was a modern canal, from recent years, perhaps dug as part of the agricultural activity in the area. When they opened and started digging in a new section in 2019 they discovered that the canal continued for at least another 30 meters and most importantly, they discovered that parts of the palace walls had fallen into the canal. "It looked like the ground had opened up and the floor just fell into the ditch. In addition, we found no evidence of an attack: no arrows, no signs of burning, no evidence of unburied bodies. Now we could connect this evidence with the previous evidence of the ruined walls and the ruined jugs in the wine cellar", said Prof. Klein.
But still, before determining that an earthquake is the most likely possibility, the researchers wanted to rule out other possibilities. To this end, Dr. Lazar, Prof. Ruth Shakh-Gross, along with research student Roy Nickelsberg from the Department of Maritime Civilizations at the University of Haifa, joined the excavation team. Thus, for example, they examined the accumulation of the mud bricks that fell into the ditch, as well as the accumulation of animal bones and saw that they were piled up and covered with one. Also the fact that the wine jugs were found smashed in place, with evidence that the wine had been poured into the sewers was found in the sewers of the cellars, strengthened the belief that a traumatic, sudden and quick event led to the destruction. "Previous studies found that local residents did not take advantage of the environment and natural resources," said Prof. Shakh-Gross. "It was a company that took care of the environment and did not exploit it more than necessary. All the evidence indicated a strong earthquake" said Prof. Yassur-Landau.
"When you add to all this evidence the geology of the area: the fact that the place is on a Kabri fault, that there are four springs on the same line, which can testify to an active fault, and other geological findings, the explanation of an earthquake is greatly strengthened," said Dr. Lazar and added, " We in Israel talk all the time in the context of earthquakes on the Dead Sea rift. And here, we have evidence of what was apparently an earthquake in a completely different area and on a different fault. In the follow-up studies, I hope we will be able to calculate how strong that earthquake was."
"From all the evidence it appears that a palace was cut - almost literally - in two. After the earthquake, the palace was abandoned and the city around it was abandoned. Apparently, the traumatic event resulted in the legitimacy of the royal dynasty being lost among the residents, which caused the disintegration of the community and the fact that the palace has not been rebuilt since then to this day," concluded Prof. Yassur Landau.
Archaeologists discovered the oldest and largest wine cellar in Kibbutz Kabri: 3,700 years old
