Ancient Remotely-Operated Instruments Recovered Under Water off the Israeli Coast

Underwater archaeological investigations in Israel have recovered instruments intended to be operated under water from a vessel on the surface, at depths and times beyond the ability of free divers. Some of these remotely-operated devices, including salvaging-rings, coral-harvesting devices, and grapnels, are described, classified and discussed. These humble but efficient instruments, the prototypes of sophisticated modern instruments, fulfilled necessary tasks in antiquity and are still being used today by traditional fishermen.
© 2008 The Authors     

Lead Use on Roman Ships and its Environmental Effects

Underwater surveys along the Israeli coast have yielded numerous lead artefacts recovered from Roman shipwrecks, found due to sand shortage caused by nature and man. Unique site-formation processes resulted in intact and preserved assemblages of lead artefacts unaffected by prior salvage. These included hull sheathing, anchors, fishing gear, cooking equipment and containers. Most lead was in objects intended only for nautical use. The finds indicate that people on board ships were exposed to more lead than the general Roman population. Thus the Roman ship was a mobile source of lead pollution contaminating people and the marine environment.
© 2007 The Authors     

Restructuring of a metropolitan industrial park: case study in Herzeliyya, Israel

The nature and magnitude of the restructuring processes are unveiled in Herzeliyya Industrial Park, a satellite park of metropolitan Tel Aviv. The processes are explored in the context of Israel's recent entry into the post-industrial age and its swift integration into the "global" economy, using survey data of a sample of 104 firms. Since the mid-1980s the park has experienced functional upgrading in a process of "invasion and succession". Upgrading has been accompanied by high "mortality" rates of firms, and by large-scale renewal. Among the attributes reflecting the functional upgrading are the extended spatial reach of firms for clients and joint venturers, and of their organizational affiliations, expanding far beyond the metropolis into the world at large. The newly arriving firms tend to reveal a different set of locational factors than do the veteran ones. Future research avenues are set out.     

Symbolic engravings on Byzantine sounding leads from the Carmel coast of Israel

Two Byzantine sounding leads recovered from a shipwreck off the Israeli coast were identified and dated by associated coins and artefacts to the 5th–6th centuries AD. The leads are similarly shaped. A cross and a sign like a capital'P' mark both. They may be from a set including an inshore and a deep-sea lead. A depiction of the stellar constellation Cassiopeia is seen on top of the lug of the small lead. Interpretation of the sign is supported by the navigational role of the constellation as well as by a classical tradition associating it with Jaffa and by its symbolic, anti-storm role.     

Spatial Reach of Office Firms: Case Study in the Metropolitan CBD of Tel Aviv, Israel

This paper, using the CBD of metropolitan Tel Aviv, Israel, as a case study, discloses the spatial range of linkages of office firms, situated in newly built office towers. The linkages explored, from the results of a sample of 120 office firms, are those held by office firms with clients, suppliers of goods and services, and with other service firms as partners or as subcontractors. The magnitude of the linkages is revealed in the context of Israel's recent entry into the post-industrial age and its rapid affiliation with the global economy, accompanied by functional restructuring of the service economy. It is also visible in the built environment of Tel Aviv, with large-scale construction of over thirty Class A office tower buildings. Complex spatial interrelationships are found, extending from their immediate metropolitan environment toward the world's leading economic centres. Future avenues of research are explored.