NOTE: For the 2011 season website, please go to
http://digkabri2011.wordpress.com
Welcome to the Tel Kabri website, which was initially created for the 2009 season. Our next digging season will be during the Summer of 2011, so please mark that date in your calendars if you are interested in being a volunteer. In the meantime, please enjoy browsing through the pages of this website, especially the Blog which was kept by our participants during the 2009 field season and the links to our related publications and reports from previous field seasons.
Located in a quiet rural setting within the western Galilee of Israel, only a ten minute ride from the historical town of Acco, with its Medieval and Ottoman old city, fishing harbor and traditional market, and the modern resort town of Nahariya, the site of Tel Kabri has what may be the earliest-known Western art yet found in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Today the Tel and its surroundings are an agricultural land, with lush plantations of bananas and avocados overlying the ancient remains. During excavations conducted at the site from 1986-1993 by Professor Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier and the late Professor Aharon Kempinski, a floor and wall frescoes painted in an Aegean manner—probably by Cycladic or Minoan artists—were discovered within a building that they identified as a palace. Our preliminary excavations in 2005 indicated that this building, which dates to the Middle Bronze (MB) IIB period during the early second millennium BCE, is at least twice as large as previously thought, with much still remaining to be excavated.
During the 2008 season of excavations we were able to retrieve data from the entire history of the MB palace, from a pre-palatial period through to final destruction. We also found approximately 45 more fragments of wall plaster, at least some of which appear to be painted, and additional evidence for red paint on one of the plaster floors in the palace. Our 2009 season will focus on continued excavation of the palace, with the goal of investigating its life cycle, from humble beginnings to its destruction three centuries later.
Please click on the links at the top of the page for more information….
Dig Kabri 2009 
Poichè sono greco, nato all’isola di Creta, sono felice delle vostre ricerche! Sarò felice di confrontare le immagini degli affreschi scoperti con quelle di Santotini e di Creta. Sono molto curioso anche della struttura architettonica del sito: sono architetto. Complimenti e auguri per il vostro lavoro, che sottolinea il fatto che il mediterraneo è un UNICUM culturale. Auguri
Hi
Was lucky enough to have worked on 1992 excavations at Kabri, accommodation this year sounds a lot better than the tents we were in!
Happy digging!
I was a volunteer on this dig in 1992; it was an extraordinary experience. Looking forward to reading about the results of current and future excavations!