Biblical Achzib was a Canaanite city on the Mediterranean coast about 11 miles north of Acco. As early as the Middle Bronze IIB period (1850-1750 B.C.E.), a strongly fortified city stood here. This slide shows an ordinary citizen’s burial from that period. The black-and-white stick at left is 1 meter long, equal to just over 39 inches. Unknown attackers destroyed Achzib at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, or about 1550 B.C.E. Eventually, at the beginning of the Iron Age, the city belonged to the Israelite tribe of Asher (Joshua 19:29). The Asherites, however, did not drive out the inhabitants of Achzib (Judges 1:31-32). The later, Israelite city of the tenth and ninth centuries B.C.E. expanded to a full 20 acres, a respectable size in the ancient world, and was only abandoned in the third century B.C.E. There is evidence of strong Phoenician (Punic) influence in the archaeological remains of Israelite Achzib, including in the burials. Under the Greeks and Romans it was known as Ecdippa. During this late period in the first century C.E., ancient Jewish literature mentions Ecdippa as the northern border of Israel.