By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Remains from two shipwrecks -- one from the Byzantine period at the end of the 5th century CE and the other from the early Islamic period some 300 years later -- were excavated during the just-ended annual underwater archeological excavation at the Dor/Tantura lagoon below Zichron Ya'acov.
About 80 divers participated in the 2005 season, including about 50 volunteers, 10 from abroad (England, the US and the Netherlands), and about 30 students, the majority from the University of Haifa. The Dor/Tantura expedition is a combined venture of the Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies at the University of Haifa, K. Raveh, and the Nautical Archaeology Society of Great Britain (NAS), headed by Chris Brandon.