Ramla Project

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Project summary

The British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem (BSAJ)/CBRL Ramla Project was a multi-disciplinary project comprising of a number of elements: 1. Historical research; 2. Topographical survey of the site; 3. Architectural survey of the surviving medieval and Ottoman buildings; 4. Archaeological archive research; 5. Epigraphic survey; 6. Excavation of a series of archaeological sondages to answer questions relating to the towns topography.


Project details

Location: Ramla (Israel)

Year(s): 1997-1999

Project Directors: Andrew Petersen and Denys Pringle

Lead institutions and funding:

  • British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem (BSAJ)
  • Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL)
  • The British Academy
  • Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF)
  • Mackintosh School of Architecture in Glasgow

Project bibliography

Petersen A. 1995. Preliminary Report on an Architectural Survey of Historic Buildings in Ramla. Levant 27: 75–101.

Petersen, A., 2000. Preliminary Report on the Topographic Survey of Ramla 1997 and 1999. Levant 32, 97–99.

Petersen, A. 2001. Ramla after the Crusades. In Vermeulen and Van Steenbergen Egypt and Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk Eras, iii. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, cii. Leuven: Peeters,  345–58.

Petersen, A. 2004. Palestine’s Forgotten Capital. History Today (May): 5–6.

Petersen, A. 1999. Architectural Survey of Historic Buildings in Ramla. In Gibson and Vitto Gibson (eds) Ramla: The Development of a Town from the Early Islamic to Ottoman Periods. Israel Antiquities Authority, booklet no. iv. Jerusalem: 19–21.

Petersen, A and Pringle, D. (eds) 2021. Ramla. A City of Muslim Palestine, c.715-1917: Studies in History, Architecture and Archaeology. Archaeopress.

Petersen, A. & R. Wardill, 2001. Interim Report on a Geophysical and Surface Survey of Ramla. Levant 33, 1–6.

Pringle, D., 1999. Research Reports British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem. Levant 31, 318.


Project media gallery

View of the western part of the old city of Ramla from the minaret of Jami’ al-Kabir (after Petersen, A., Levant 27(1), 77, Fig. 2)