Project summary

The project aims at identifying traces of Bronze and Iron Age occupation along the Northern coast of Lebanon and to assess the nature of this occupation.

Project details

Location: Lebanon

Year(s): 2016

Project director(s): Jenny Bradbury

Lead institutions and funding:

• CBRL
• American University of Beirut (AUB)
• Direction Générale des Antiquités du Liban (DGA)

Project description

In 2016, thanks to a Pilot Study Grant awarded by the CBRL and in collaboration with the American University of Beirut (AUB) and the Direction Générale des Antiquités du Liban (DGA), I started a field and remote sensing survey on the Northern Coast of Lebanon. Whilst previous work in this region had revealed evidence for activity stretching back to the Palaeolithic our knowledge of settlement and activity in this area over the longue duree is still relatively poor. Moreover, from previous visits, and via my involvement with the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East & North Africa Project (EAMENA, University of Oxford), it was rapidly becoming apparent that this area, previously a zone of relatively well-preserved archaeology, was coming under increasing threat. 

Fieldwork in 2016 focused on an area surrounding the modern settlements of Batrun and Kūbbā, whilst more limited survey was undertaken on the Shikā Plateau. Over 80 archaeological sites and features were identified and recorded in the field, whilst collections from just over 80 transects have allowed us to determine the level of ‘off-site’ material, as well as to identify and map potential locales of archaeological significance, occupation and/or activity (Palaeolithic-Ottoman), now only visible as scatters of pottery and lithics. 

Project bibliography

Bradbury, Jenny. 2017. A threatened coast: Archaeology, heritage and development along the Northern coast of Lebanon. Bulletin of the Council for British Research in the Levant 2016-17, p 40-43.

Published:24 January 2022