The 1993 field season was a big one for excavation areas on the North Tell. In Grids 3/10 on the northern slope of the North Tell, excavation uncovered a 22 line Fatimid imperial inscription. The piece commemorated the building of a tower in 1150 on the orders of the Grand Vizier in Cairo. Three years later after a seven month siege Ashkelon fell to the Crusaders. Almost a century later a knight named Sir Hugh Wake, traveling to Ashkelon with Richard of Cornwall, inscribed his shields over the earlier Fatimid inscription providing the latest direct evidence for the Crusaders in Ashkelon.
In another area on the summit of the North Tell excavation uncovered the remains of a small bath.
Bath
Elsewhere on the North Tell, more of the gate complex was uncovered and in another area an Islamic and Crusader period workshop was excavated. On the South Tell, excavation continued in Grids 38 and 50 where there were a few more dogs to excavate.
