ACCO ăk’ ō (עַכֹּ֔ו, LXX ̓Ακχω; KJV ACCHO; for other forms cf. below); NT PTOLEMAIS tŏl’ ə mā ĭs (Πτολεμα̈́ις). Canaanite-Phoenician coastal city in the territory of Asher.
A. Location. In OT times the city was located at Tell el-Fukhkhâr, one of the most impressive mounds in Pal. The site stands at a natural dividing line between the southern and northern halves of the coastal plain, between the Carmel headland and the “Ladder of Tyre” (Râs en-Nāqûrah). To the S there is a sandy beach which extends for quite a distance inland; in classical tradition, this was the source of an excellent type of sand used in the manufacture of glass (Strabo, XVI. 2. 25; Jos. War, II. x. 2. [188-191]; Pliny, Nat. Hist., V, 75, XXXVI, 191; Tacitus, Hist. V. 7). The N shore line is rocky and rugged down to the water’s edge. The northern cove of the Haifa bay has served as Acco’s seaport, prob. from time immemorial. There was prob. a small town on the shore even in the Israelite period, but during the Hel. age the town spread from its tell to the site of the present town (Ptol. V. 15. 5).
B. History.
1. Bronze Age. Acco was an important Canaanite city state in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages. Its first recorded appearance is in the Egypt. execration texts of the 19th cent. b.c. where it is written cky (Posener, No. E 49) and its prince is T3cmw.
It was conquered by Thutmose III (mid-15th cent. b.c.) apparently during his first campaign (No. 47 on his list, c-k-3).
During the next cent. Acco continued to play a major role in the affairs of Canaan, mentioned repeatedly in the Amarna letters. The names of its two known rulers are evidently non-Sem., perhaps Indo-Aryan.
During the 13th cent. b.c. Acco was again of key importance to the pharaohs of the 19th dynasty. Seti I was there on his first campaign to Canaan. One of Ramses II’s wall reliefs depicts the conquest of Acco. A school text (Papyrus Anastasi I) records Acco as one of the principal towns on the coastal route.
2. Iron Age. The only sure mention of Acco in the OT (unless the suggested reading of “Acco” in some Gr. MSS of Joshua 19:30 be accepted) is to the effect that “Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Acco...but the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites....” (Judg 1:31, 32).
The city of Acco, therefore, became an integral part of the Israelite monarchy only under David; sometime in Solomon’s reign its region (called after Cabul, q.v., modern Kābûl) was transferred to Tyrian control (1 Kings 9:12, 13; 2 Chron 8:1, 2). Thus it remained Phoen. territory throughout the rest of the OT period. When Sennacherib, king of Assyria, made his punitive expedition to Pal. (701 b.c.) his forces took Acco (uruak-ku-ú) along with the other fortified towns belonging to the king of Sidon at that time (ANET, p. 287).
On the return march from his campaign against the Arabs (c. 660 b.c.), Ashurbanipal found it necessary to punish severely the towns of Ushu and Acco (ANET, p. 300).
3. Persian, Hellenistic and Roman periods. Acco always remained a Phoenician-Hellenistic city. It figured largely in the Maccabean wars, but was never joined to a Jewish kingdom under the Hasmonaeans or the Herods.
Under Emperor Claudius (a.d. 52-54) Ptolemais was raised to the status of a colonia (Pliny, Nat. Hist., V, 17), and the veterans of various legions settled there. The pagan deities worshiped during the Hel. and Rom. periods were known under nearly a dozen Gr. names, but recent evidence suggests that most of these were epithets for the two main Syrian deities, Hadad and Atargatis.
Because of its pagan influences, the Jewish rabbis disputed as to whether Ptolemais should be included in the “Holy Land.” That is, they did not feel that the commandments incumbent upon a person dwelling in “Israel” were in effect for a resident of Acco.
Sometime during this period a small Christian community had developed at Ptolemais, because at the end of Paul’s third missionary journey (a.d. 57), the apostle and his traveling companions stopped over there for one day en route from Tyre to Caesarea (Acts 21:7). The local fellowship had doubtless sprung up among the Jews living in Ptolemais (cf. Acts 11:19 which marked the beginning of the movement there), but the Hellenic nature of the city itself was also a probable factor in the reception of Christianity. By this time the Rom. coastal highway from Tyre to Ptolemais was prob. completed.
Bibliography G. T. Newell, The Dated Alexander of Sidon and Ake (1916); A. J. Rustam, “Akka (Acre) and its Defences,” PEF. QSt (1926), 143-157; A. H. M. Jones, Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces (1937), 241, 242, 251, 257, 281; G. T. Newell, Late Seleucid Mints in Ake—Ptolemais and Damascus (1939); A. B. Brett, “Seleucid Coins of Ake-Ptolemais in Phoenicia. Selucus IV to Tryphon,” American Numismatic Society Museum Notes, I (1945), 17-35; N. Makhouly and C. N. Johns, Guide to Acre (2nd ed. 1946); G. Orshan, “A Vegetation Map of the Sand Dunes in the Southern Acre Plain,” IEJ, V (1955), 109-113; M. Avi-Yonah, “Syrian Gods at Ptolemais-Accho,” IEJ, IX (1959), 1-12; S. Applebaum, “Accho,” IEJ, IX (1959), 274; L. Kadman, The Coins of Akko Ptolemais (Corpus Numorum Palestinensium, IV, Jerusalem, 1961); Y. H. Landau, “A Greek Inscription from Acre,” IEJ, XI (1961), 118-126; Govt. of Israel, Prime Minister’s Office, Dept. for Landscaping and the Preservation of Historic Sites, Acre, The Old City, Survey and Planning (1962); Z. Goldmann, “The Refectory of the Order of St. John in Acre,” CNFI, XII, No. 4 (Jan., 1962), 13-17; J. Schwartz, “Note complémentaire (à propos d’une inscription grecque de St. Jen d’Arce),” IEJ, XII (1962), 135, 136; E. F. Campbell, The Chronology of the Amarna Letters (1963), 49, 53, 80, 84, 104, 109, 110, 115, 125, 132, 134, 135; L. Kadman, “Coins at Akko as Illustrations to Passages in Mishna and Talmud,” Israel Numismatic Journal (1963), 52-54; A. F. Rainey, “Merchants at Ugarit and the Patriarchal Narratives,” CNFI, XIV, No. 2 (July, 1963), 24; I. L. Merkr, “Notes on Abdalonymos and the Dated Alexander Coinage of Sidon and Ake,” American Numismatic Society Museum Notes, XI (1964), 13-20; Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible (1966), 21, 22, 358, 359, et passim; M. Avi-Yonah, The Holy Land (1966), 14, 27-29, 39; A. F. Rainey, “Gath-padalla,” IEJ, XVII (1967).