Stratum
Period
I
Modern
II
Late Ottoman (Bosnian)
IIIa
IIIb
Crusader (Louis IX)
Crusader (pre-Louis IX)
IV
Fatimid
V
Abbasid
VI
Umayyad
VII
Late Byzantine–Early Umayyad
VIII
Late Byzantine
IX
Early Byzantine
X
Late Roman
XI
Roman
XII
Early Roman
XIII
Herodian
 
Area D—The ‘Crusader Market’ and Tower 10 (Fig. 2)
Three subareas were opened: the northeastern corner of the temple podium, slightly east of Area TP (Porath, Raban and Patrich 1998: Fig. 1; Fig. 1); the area to the north (the ‘Crusader Market’); and the area between the temple podium and the Crusader city wall from the time of Louis IX. Tower 10 (based on Mesqui’s numbering of the towers; Mesqui 2014: Fig. 120) was also cleaned.  
Herodian Period (Stratum XII). An eastern section of the northern retaining wall and parts of the temple podium’s eastern retaining wall were exposed. The point where the walls met in the compound’s northeastern corner was destroyed when the reservoir was built in Stratum IV. The walls (min. width 1.2 m), some preserved to their full height (3 m or more), were built of well-dressed stones, some with drafted margins (Fig. 3). A narrow drainage channel was exposed near their inner face (on the southern and western sides).
Roman Period (Stratum XI). Probably in the second century CE, massive walls were built parallel to the Herodian retaining walls to enlarge the area of ​​the temple’s podium. A series of arches (diam. 6.6 m; Fig. 4) forming a covered passage of sorts—a portico—was constructed between the Herodian-period walls and these walls. A latrine (Fig. 5) was exposed in the northwest of the area, north of the portico’s northern wall. It included deep channels that flushed the sewage from the latrine, their walls treated with plaster and their floors paved with mosaic. Fresh water flowed through narrow channels that were hewn in the stone in the front of the deep channels. In the walls, at the back of the channels, were hewn depressions intended for marble seats. Numerous pieces of marble slabs, which had been used as seats, were discovered in the accumulations in the deep channels. The hall housing the latrine was paved with a mosaic decorated with geometric patterns. Entrance to the latrine was apparently via a room with a staircase in the northwestern part, which was canceled when the facility was expanded in the Byzantine period. The dimensions of the latrine (c. 7.5 × 12.5 m) show that it was a public installation. A stone-paved room connected to this complex was exposed east of the latrine.
Byzantine Period (Strata IX–VII). During the Byzantine period, the retaining walls of Stratum XI were restored, and three vaults were built in the southern part of the eastern wall that was exposed (Fig. 6). A mosaic pavement was uncovered in the eastern vault. The Roman-period portico was filled with soil, with lateral partition walls built across the passage to fill it in, and a series of rooms was constructed above it. It was probably connected to the octagonal church that was erected in the center of the podium, where the Temple of Augustus and Dea Roma stood in the past (Fig. 1). Three of the four rooms revealed above the passageway were paved with mosaics decorated with plain colorful geometric patterns. Sections of other walls from the Byzantine period, and possibly even the Roman period, were discovered in front of the podium’s eastern wall, below the floors of the Crusader (Stratum III) and the Abbasid periods (Stratum V). The latrine complex of Stratum XI was expanded northward. A new mosaic pavement consisting of larger tesserae and no decoration was installed above mosaic floor of the Roman period. To the east and west of the latrine were two rooms paved with mosaics; the eastern one may have been the entrance to the complex.
A pavement of large flagstones and an underlying drainage channel were exposed at the bottom of the section that was excavated in the Crusader street, just west of Tower 10. This was probably the cardo, that is, the main street of the Roman and Byzantine city. Much of this street as well as this level were discovered in A. Negev’s excavations, southwest of the eastern Crusader gate (below).
Abbasid Period (Stratum V). Extremely impressive remains from this period were discovered: a wall (width 3.3 m; Fig. 7), beneath the foundation of the tower dating to the time of Louis IX (Stratum IIIa—1251 CE). The wall’s foundation was set on top of the stone pavement of the Byzantine street, and other sections of this foundation were exposed in Area E, to the north (below). This was probably the city wall—the eastern fortification of Caesarea during the Abbasid period. A tamped-earth floor abutted the wall from the west. This was probably the surface of the road itself, of which another stone-paved section (c. 7 m) was exposed to the north. Two additional floors from this layer were exposed on this level to the west, below the Crusader building. Two cesspits were found in the upper area, west of the wall that enclosed the podium in the Byzantine period. The northern section of a drainage channel east of the cesspits had damaged and destroyed the Herodian- and Byzantine-period walls and its southeastern part damaged a mosaic floor.
Fatimid or Early Crusader Period—pre-Louis IX (Strata IV–IIIb; an exact date for the remains uncovered, most of them previously excavated by Negev, could not be determined). Two-story buildings were exposed in the layers west of the street. Only the first floors, used for work areas, commerce (shops) and storage were preserved. The second floors were apparently used for dwelling, as in the residential quarter excavated in ʽAkko (Syon and Tatcher 2000; Syon 2010). It is unclear whether the buildings were a single complex or two separate units with common external walls. The northern rooms on the ground floor of the buildings were arranged alongside courtyards and a corridor. Some of the walls survived to a height of two meters or more. The courtyards and corridor were paved with stone slabs and mosaic. Most of the rooms were stone-paved and pillars in the rooms’ corners indicate that they were covered by a cross vault. In the southern part was a system of rooms in which the six northern rooms (Nos. 13–18) were arranged in pairs (east–west)—a front room with an opening to the street and a rear room. Vaults in the wall from the Byzantine period were in use (Fig. 6: see above) in two of the rear rooms (14–15). 
Wells, water reservoirs and drainage channels were discovered beneath the courtyards and the rooms. Two staircases, which were discovered in the southern and northern courtyards, led to the residential level on the second floor. Architectural elements from previous periods (Fig. 8) were used extensively in the construction and fills below the floors of the Fatimid and Early Crusader periods. A large water reservoir (3.3 × 4.8 m) was discovered in the temple podium in the upper area, along the route of the robber trench of the eastern Herodian retaining wall. A large rectangular tower was erected just east of the Abbasid city wall, which continued to be used in this phase.
Crusader Period. A fortification system was built during the reign of Louis IX (Stratum IIIa), of which a city wall and a tower were exposed; they were constructed on top of the previous strata’s fortifications. A staircase, leading to another floor, was exposed on the southern side of the tower. Arches, attached to the city wall, to the roof and to the base of the second floor were built above the street. Evidently, the buildings to the west (Strata IV–IIIb) continued to be used during this period, albeit with the implementation of minor changes such as blocking openings, etc.
Late Ottoman Period (Bosnian). Two small sections of floors that were installed on the remains of the Crusader city wall south of the tower and on top of the wall that enclosed the excavation area from the north were exposed.
 
Area E (Fig. 9)
The earliest archaeological stratum, dating to the Roman period, was revealed in an area extending north of the Crusader street, beginning at the Eastern Gate, and west of the gatehouse and city wall from the time of Louis IX. A massive wall abutted by a stone pavement was exposed. Another stone pavement, probably of the Roman cardo maximus, was uncovered c. 5 m to its east. The pavement of the (Crusader) room in the southeastern corner of the area may have been of large flagstones that were also once part of the cardo pavement.
Byzantine Period (Strata IX–VII). A 10-m long section of the city’s cardo maximus (more than 6.5 m wide) was cleaned; it had been exposed in A. Negev’s excavation south of Area E (Fig. 10). To the north, in the southwestern part of Area E, fragments were discovered of a mosaic floor decorated with a pattern of black squares. The floor was damaged by construction during the Abbasid and modern periods, and based on its location, it seems to have served as the eastern sidewalk of the cardo. The wall, which apparently delimited the sidewalk from the west, was exposed nearby; however, a wall from the Abbasid period destroyed it and the mosaic floor. Another part of a mosaic floor was exposed c. 7 m north, above the Roman-period floor (Stratum XI), and it too may have been part of the sidewalk mosaic.
As in Area D to the south, the most impressive remain from the Abbasid period (Stratum V) was a city wall, exposed throughout the entire area (Fig. 11); it was a direct continuation of the city wall exposed below Tower 10 in Area D. A wall bordering the street to the east was built 6.5 m to the west of the city wall and parallel to it, along the route of the ancient cardo. Lateral walls and rooms of various widths between them adjoined the walls that delimited the street; two or three of these rooms were exposed. A row of rooms of different sizes was revealed west of the street, in the center of which was a drainage channel covered with stone slabs (Fig. 12). It should be noted that some of the walls were preserved to a height of more than two meters. Below one of the rooms to the west of the street was a vault, probably the ceiling of a reservoir that was not excavated. A caldarium with a hypocaust exposed in the northwestern corner of the area included a suspended floor founded on stone beams set on square stone columns (Fig. 13).
The Crusader-period gatehouse (IIIa; Fig. 14, marked in brown) was preceded by two towers that very likely date to the Abbasid period (Fig. 14; marked in green). Remains of the two towers were incorporated into the Crusader gate structure. The passage between them (width c. 6.7 m) was adapted to the remains of the Roman-period street (decamanus). By constructing doorposts, the passage was narrowed to a width of c. 4.5 m.
The southern tower (c. 7 × 9 m), built of dressed stones, was erected along the route of the Abbasid wall and protruded from it c. 2 m to the east and c. 4 m to the west. A section of a wall on its eastern facade survived to a height of five courses above the current ground level. Remains from the tower’s southern facade were preserved to a height of 12.5 m asl, including a section of a wall built of dressed building stones similar in size to those that survived in its eastern facade. The western facade of the tower survived only to the height of its foundation, which incorporated in its construction marble elements from the Late Roman period (Stratum X). The tower’s northern facade was integrated in the Crusader gatehouse (Stratum IIIa); nonetheless, the route of the wall and some of the doorpost stones used to narrow the passage between the two towers were visible. Similar stones in a parallel location were identified in the northern tower’s building (marked in Fig. 14). It was apparently necessary to make it narrow to close the gate by means of an iron portcullis. The Persian traveler Nasir Khusraw (ناصر خسرو قبادیانی, 1004–1088 CE), visiting Caesarea in 1047, described the city’s strong walls and an iron gate fixed in them (Nasir-i-Khusrau Diary: 474).
The eastern facade of the northern tower (7.0 × 8.5 m; Fig. 14, marked in green) survived to a height of five courses above the current floor level. These stone courses were from the early phase of the tower and served as a base for the construction of the western facade of the Crusader gate tower (Stratum IIIa; Fig. 14, marked in brown). Four courses of building stones were preserved in the southern facade above the foundation, where marble items were incorporated.
 
During the Fatimid or Early Crusader period, prior to Louis IX (Strata IV–IIIb), some of the lateral and longitudinal walls of the rooms on either side of the street were rebuilt, some on top of the wall foundations of Stratum V and others along a different route. At the same time, the floor level of the street, whose southern part was paved with large flagstones and marble, and of some of the rooms was raised. A wide east–west wall was built in the northern part of the Abbasid-period caldarium, and a stone pavement was set on top of the hypocaust. Several walls and floors that were difficult to date due to modern disturbances were exposed in the southwestern part of the area.
A fortification system was built in the eastern part during the Crusader period, during the reign of Louis IX (Stratum IIIa). Its remains in the excavation area included a gate and a gatehouse, a city wall and a glacis. At the northern end of the area, a secret passageway (postern; Fig. 15) leading to the moat was built in the city wall. Following the construction of the city wall, which was erected along the route of the Abbasid wall and was thickened (an addition of about 1.5 m; Fig. 11), some of the rooms situated east of the street ceased to be used. Secondary walls were built in two of the rooms from the earlier strata and the entrance thresholds were raised, as were the street levels.
 
The excavation exposed remains from most of the settlement phases of Caesarea, that is, from the Herodian period until the last phase of Crusader Caesarea during the reign of Louis IX and the subsequent Bosnian occupation. For the first time, parts of the northern and eastern retaining walls of the temple podium built by Herod, as well as large sections of covered passages adjacent to the northern and eastern sides of the podium in the Roman period (probably in the second century CE), were exposed. In addition, parts of the urban fabric of Roman and Byzantine Caesarea were revealed, including a street and sidewalk, a public latrine and system of rooms and buildings that were probably connected to the cardo in the eastern part of the excavation area. After exposing the ‘Abbasid-period wall, it could be ascertained that the eastern boundary of the city from the Early Islamic period was identical to that of the Crusader period. The street and the rooms flanking it from the Fatimid and Early Crusader periods were used for workshops, storage and commerce, and the staircases indicate the existence of a second story intended for residential use. Similar structures from this period were also found in ʽAkko. During the reign of Louis IX, after the construction of fortifications, based on the fortifications from the previous period, some of the rooms ceased to be used and the street was made narrower.