Sidon excavations
Project leader: Sarah Collins
Department: Middle East
Project start: 1998
End date: 2009
External partners:
Project Director - Dr. Claude Doumet-Serhal Special Assistant
British Museum, Honorary Research Fellow University College London,
Editor of the journal Archaeology and History in Lebanon www.ahlebanon.com/ahl.htm
Dr. Alan Ogden, Department of Archaeological
Sciences University of Bradford (human bone analysis) www.brad.ac.uk/acad/archsci/
Dr. Dafydd Griffiths, University College
London (ceramic thin sections and fabric analysis) www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/profiles/griffiths.htm
Dr. Emmanuelle Vila, Maison de l’Orient et de
la Méditerranée, Lyon (animal bone analysis)
Project funded by:
The British Museum and various organisations
over the years including the British Academy as well as Lebanese
companies and individual sponsorship including - Nokia Lebanon,
Byblos Bank, Hariri Foundation, Cimenterie Nationale, Mr. Michael
Fares, Mr. Michel Klat, Mr. Namir Younis, Mr. Bassam Diab
Description:
Written records of the ancient Egyptians,
Babylonians, Assyrians and Greeks as well as numerous references in
the Old Testament reveal the significance of the ancient city of
Sidon (modern Saida), especially famous for being one of the most
important coastal city-states of the ancient Phoenicians. Almost
everything known about this ancient city has however, been revealed
through these written records of other peoples, as Sidon has
remained continuously inhabited up to the present day and the
ancient remains lie beneath the modern buildings.
In 1998, the Directorate General of
Antiquities of Lebanon authorized the British Museum to begin
excavations in the city of Saida on an area of land expropriated
for archaeological research. Under the directorship of Dr. Claude
Doumet-Serhal this excavation has for the first time been revealing
the continuous stages in the development of the city from the third
millennium to the first millennium BC.
Discoveries made so far include six phases of
Early Bronze Age domestic settlement (ca. 3000 – 2300 BC), 60
burials with grave goods, including warrior burials, and eight
phases within the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 2000 – 1550 BC),
monumental construction of the Middle and Late Bronze age (ca. 1550
– 1200 BC) and remains of the Iron Age (ca. 1200-539 BC) and later.
Associated with these, a remarkable range of material culture has
been uncovered including ancient writing. This excavation, as well
as bringing to light the urban development of the ancient city
itself, has also been revealing the importance of Sidon’s
interconnections with the surrounding regions, particularly the
Aegean, Canaan and Egypt.
Objectives:
This excavation represents a unique opportunity to
systematically excavate ancient Sidon, which is well known
historically from ancient texts but previously unexplored
archaeologically. Careful examination of the city’s stratified
layers through excavation will lead to an understanding of the
ancient history of Sidon. All aspects of the excavation and the
material culture discovered are being studied and published and the
results will be of great benefit to scholarship.
This project has many objectives but of particular note are the
studies being undertaken on the ceramics. A pottery typology for
the third, the second and the first millennium BC has not yet been
clearly determined for the Lebanon. A typology for the Early
Bronze Age at Sidon has already been established and published and
the intention is to do the same for the Middle Bronze Age and later
periods present at Sidon. This will also apply to the imported
wares discovered at the site. All Cypriote and Mycenaean
pottery found here will be catalogued and published in what will be
the first ever volume on Cypriot and Mycenaean pottery produced for
the Lebanon. Sidon is also a reference site for a statistical study
of the occurrence of Egyptian common ware on the Levantine coast in
the second millennium BC.
The excavation is
being carried out in collaboration with the Director General of
Antiquities, Lebanon, with Lebanese archaeology students receiving
training and participating in the project each year. The next
season of excavation will be undertaken in May and June
2007.
More information:
The excavation website is - www.sidonexcavation.org/ht/ht_excavation.html
Publications:
A full list of publications associated with the Sidon
Excavations project is available in pdf format
News:
The official launch of the documentary film “Sidon 5,000 Years”
(about the excavation and the history of the ancient city of Sidon)
is due to take place in Autumn 2007 in Beirut.
Preparations are underway for a symposium on Interconnections in
the Eastern Mediterranean due to be held in Beirut in 2008 with
many lectures on Sidon.
Images (from top):
- Revealing a plaster floor of the Iron Age.
- General view of the site from the north.
- Processing excavation finds
- Stone walls of the Early Bronze Age
settlement.