Square 1. A layer of potsherds from the Persian period was uncovered 2.1 m below the surface. A coin minted in ‘Akko during the reign of Antiochus III (the ‘Great’; 198–187 BCE; IAA 141607) was discovered in this layer, which probably constituted erosion from the upper part of Tel Nahariyya.
Squares 2 and 3. A section of the Roman road, leading from ‘Akko to Tyre (length 5 m, width c. 9 m) and oriented north–south, was exposed 0.6 m below the surface. Overlying the road was a layer of sand mixed with fragments of pottery vessels from the Persian period. The full width of the road was revealed. The construction manner of the road was discerned in the section excavated along its western edge. A bedding of medium-sized fieldstones was placed in a foundation trench that was dug into natural sand. The fill placed on this bedding consisted of tamped earth, small stones and small stream pebbles (thickness 0.15 m); it was overlain with ground and compacted kurkar (thickness 0.5 m), which formed the roadbed. Other than one dressed curbstone, none of the road’s paving stones were preserved (Fig. 3). The eastern edge of the road was exposed in a trench that was dug by a backhoe east of Sq 3. The width of the road in this section was c. 9 m, from the curbstone on the western edge to the road’s foundation on the eastern edge. The part of the Roman ‘Akko–Tyre road is the northernmost section that was exposed to date within the precincts of Nahariyya.
Homogenous pottery from the Persian period (fifth–mid-fourth centuries BCE) was discovered in each of the excavation squares, including a bowl rim (Fig. 4:1), mortaria (Fig. 4:2–6), a cooking pot (Fig. 4:7), jars with a straight shoulder (Fig. 4:8–12), a jar base (Fig. 4:13), a juglet (Fig. 4:14) and a cup (Fig. 4:15). A body fragment decorated with a palmetto motif (?; Fig. 4:16), perhaps belonging to a mold-made bowl from the Hellenistic period, was discovered as well.