Epilogue: Toward Late Antiquity
The fourth century ce turns out to be a transition period in Phoenicia as in the rest of the Roman world (Gatier 2012). By founding a second Rome in Byzantium, the emperor Constantine (306–337 ce) accelerated the process of partition of the empire launched in the late third century ce. The eastern provinces were grouped in a diocese of Oriens and placed under the authority of a vicarius of the praetorian prefect, the count of the East (comes Orientis), fixed at Antioch. According to the overall tendency of creating increasingly smaller administrative units, Syria Phoenice was divided into two provinces in the late fourth century ce: the first, to the west, was Phoenicia Prima or Foenice, also known as Phoenicia Maritima (Paralia); the second, to the east, Phoenicia Secunda or Foenice Libani—that is, Lebanese Phoenicia. As regards religion, even though one sees the early installation of Christian communities in the coastal towns, the first days of Christianity have left little evidence in the area, compared with the situation of Antioch and northern Syria. The persecution of Christians, which reached a peak under the Tetrarchy, stopped between 311 and 324 ce. Constantine played an essential role in the development of the new religion, which he firmly encouraged. He also initiated a policy of repression against the traditional cults. The destruction and closure of pagan sanctuaries remained very casual under his reign. Such operations happened in 333 ce at Aphaca and Heliopolis, where licentious practices would have shocked him. This certainly helped fix the image of Phoenicia as a stronghold of paganism for centuries. Yet, the heartland of the country, far away from the eastern borders of the empire, enjoyed a long period of peace and economic growth that can be considered as another golden age.
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Chapter 10
The Archaeology of Phoenician Cities
Hélène Sader
According to the Periplus of Pseudo-Skylax (Müller 1965: 78), who was writing in the early fourth century bce, historic Phoenicia consisted of four kingdoms: Arwad, Byblos, Sidon, and Tyre. These four kingdoms are attested since the ninth century bce in both Phoenician and neo-Assyrian sources. In terms of modern geography, their territories extended from Tell Sukas in North Syria to Mount Carmel on the northern Palestinian coast. However, in the Persian period, the territory of the Phoenician cities extended south of Mount Carmel to include the cities of Dor and Jaffa, as well as the Plain of Sharon (KAI 14) (cf. chapter 7, this volume). In addition to this territorial stretch, Pseudo-Skylax ascribes the northern city of Myriandros and the southern city of Ashkelon to the city of Tyre. Three of these Phoenician kingdoms—Byblos, Sidon, and Tyre—occupied the entire Lebanese coast and its immediate hinterland, as well as the northern Palestinian coast.
The Phoenician period in the Levant corresponds to the Iron Age in that area. Conventionally, this period extends from the end of the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1200 bce) to the coming of Alexander the Great (ca. 332 bce), which ushered a new era in the history of the region leading progressively to the disappearance of the independent kingdoms of Phoenicia. This event did not mean the end of Phoenician culture, which survived largely unchanged for several centuries in spite of the radical shifts in its political and administrative structure.
Chronology and Periodization of the Iron Age
The chronology and periodization of the Iron Age in Lebanon and North Syria cannot be defined with certainty. Given the small number of well-stratified materials from excavated sites, only a few attempts to establish such periodization and chronology have been made (Núñez 2004; Aubet 2014b). The chronology used to date the strata in the coastal sites was based traditionally on Cypriot and/or Palestinian sequences, which have changed in some cases in light of new evidence. Except for one 14C date from Tyre Al-Bass dating the end of Iron Age II to 600 bce, no other 14C dates are available for the whole Iron Age period in Lebanon. In spite of individual attempts, more evidence from well-stratified sequences is needed before a full periodization of the period in Syria and Lebanon can be reached.
In the present state of the evidence, the Iron Age in Lebanon can be subdivided grosso modo, and more or less arbitrarily, based on the historical sources. Iron Age I (ca. 1200–ca. 900 bce) ends with the rise of the neo-Assyrian empire and
the beginning of its expansion to the west, Iron Age II (ca. 900–539 bce) extends slightly beyond the fall of the neo-Babylonian empire, and Iron Age III (539–332 bce) begins with the rise of the Achaemenid Empire and ends with the conquest of Alexander the Great in 332 bce.
The State of the Archaeological Evidence
The investigation of the Phoenician cities in Syria and Lebanon started in the nineteenth century, with the launching of Ernest Renan’s Mission de Phénicie (1864). Arwad, Byblos, Sidon, and Tyre, the famed cities of the Phoenicians, were visited and large-scale excavations took place there in the twentieth century. Strangely enough, in none of these sites was the Phoenician settlement clearly identified.
Surveys
Little is known about the number, settlement pattern, and distribution of the Phoenician sites on the Lebanese coast and the neighboring mountains because they were not systematically surveyed. Maurice Chéhab had initiated in the mid-1960s a systematic survey of archaeological sites in the whole country, but it was never completed and the results of what has been achieved were never published. Since then, only a few surveys have been undertaken. The Lebanese Akkar Valley was surveyed in 1968 by an Italian team of the University of Rome who visited fifteen tells, only two of which had Iron Age remains. More recently, Karin Bartl undertook a new survey of the Akkar Valley and spotted six sites with Iron Age remains (Bartl 2002, 29, Tab.1; see also Thalmann 2006: 210–11). James. B. Pritchard visited several coastal settlements before choosing Sarepta, although he mentions only three by name: Tell Sheikh Zennad in the Akkar Valley, Tell Mirhan in Shekka, and Tell el-Burak near Sidon (Pritchard 1975: 11). In 2012, a survey was started in Enfe and in 2016, two survey permits were granted by the Lebanese authorities to survey the area between Madfun and Enfe, an important portion of the northern Phoenician coast. For the first time also a survey of the land of Tyre was started in the summer of 2016. These surveys will, it is hoped, fill a major gap in the archaeological evidence relating to Phoenicia.
In Syria, the plain of Jablé was surveyed by the Danish expedition who excavated and published the Phoenician site of Tell Sukas (Riis 1979; Lund 1986). Jean Sapin (1978–1979 and 1980) and Jean-Paul Thalmann (2000a) surveyed the Syrian Akkar and spotted several sites dating to the Iron Age. One has to mention in this context the work of Jean-Paul Rey-Coquais (1974), who carefully studied the territory of Arwad.
In Palestine, on the other hand, the upper and the lower Galilee were intensively surveyed, and several Iron Age sites satellites of the Phoenician coastal settlements have been identified (for example, Gal 1992; Lehmann 2001; see also chapter 30, this volume).
Excavations
Phoenician cities belonging to the kingdom of Arwad, such as Amrit, Tell Sukas, and Tell Kazel, were investigated in North Syria. Recent archaeological work in the Jablé Plain (Al-Maqdissi 2007b), as well as in Amrit (al-Maqdissi 2007a) and Tell Kazel (Badre et al. 1990 and 1999–2000), has contributed new evidence on Phoenician cities. Only very short preliminary reports have been published on these sites, and they focus almost exclusively on religious architecture.
In Lebanon, only a few Iron Age sites have been regularly excavated on the coast. Tell Arqa has Iron Age II levels represented by Phase H, Level 10 (Thalmann 2006: 15, fig. 3) published only in preliminary reports (Thalmann 2000b). In Byblos, Maurice Dunand’s excavations have exposed substantial Iron Age III structures but have not found the Iron Age I and II cities (Dunand 1968). In Yanuh, evidence for an Iron Age settlement in the mountains of Byblos was excavated on Tell Kharayeb (Monchambert et al. 2010), and in Beirut, Iron Age II and III remains were exposed in the upper and lower city (see preliminary reports in BAAL 2 [1997]; Finkbeiner 2001–2002: 27–36; Curvers 2001–2002: 51–72; Curvers and Stuart 2007: 189–222; Elayi and Sayegh 2000). In Khalde, a very large necropolis with both inhumation and cremation burials was excavated but only partly published (Saidah 1966). In Tell Khan Khalde soundings were dug on the southern slopes of the site and they have exposed stone foundations dating to Iron Age II (eighth–seventh centuries bce), which were never published (Saidah 1969: 134). In Jiyyé, limited soundings yielded evidence for Late Iron Age walls built in the “pier-and-rubble” technique (personal communication from Tomasz Waliszewski). In Sidon, the British Museum’s ongoing excavations at the “College Site” have exposed Iron II and substantial Iron Age III layers, which await publication. In Chhim, scanty evidence for an Iron Age occupation of this important Roman and Byzantine settlement was retrieved by the Polish mission (Waliszewski and Ortali-Tarazi 2002: 35). At Tell el-Burak, substantial remains from Iron Age II and III were found on the southern slope of the site (Kamlah and Sader 2004: 64–67; Kamlah et al. 2016). Sarepta, modern Sarafand, had a continuous occupation from Iron Age I through Iron Age III (Anderson 1988: 423; Khalife 1988: 160). In Tyre, only limited evidence for the Iron Age I and II settlement proper came from Bikai’s sounding on the island (Bikai 1978: 66–68). Recent excavations on the site of the later Romano-Byzantine city have exposed a Persian-period temple (Badre 2015).
Additional evidence relating to Phoenician cities was provided by north Palestinian sites, which were located north of Mount Carmel, a territory that historically belonged to the Phoenician kingdom of Tyre. Thus, Athlit, Akhziv, Acco, Tell Keisan, Tell Abu Hawam, and Ḥorbat Rosh Zayit have contributed important information on the material culture of Phoenician cities. Worthy of mention are the results of the excavations at Dor, a site Eshmunazar II annexed to the territory of Sidon at the end of the sixth–early fifth century bce. According to Ephraim Stern, Dor was a Phoenician settlement as early as the tenth century bce (Stern 1990; see also Gilboa 2005: 52), although this opinion has not been unanimously accepted (for more on Phoenician settlements in Palestine, see chapter 29, this volume).
The Physical Characteristics of the Phoenician Cities
The identified coastal sites between Tell Sukas and Mount Carmel share basic features. They are located on the seashore, some on islands (e.g., Tyre, Arwad, Sidon), some on a promontory (e.g., Beirut, Sarepta), and others at a very short distance from the shore (e.g., Tell Keisan, Tell Arqa). Almost all coastal settlements were located near a natural harbor protected by lines of reef and islets. A large number of maritime investigations have tried to understand the physical characteristics and building techniques of these Phoenician harbors (mainly Raban 1997, 1998, and a series of articles in Morhange and Saghieh-Beydoun 2005). Unfortunately, little survives of the harbor installations of the great Phoenician cities on the Lebanese coast, and when preserved, the structures belong to later, mainly Hellenistic and Roman periods. Avner Raban’s investigation of the Phoenician harbors on the Palestinian coast shed light on some of their characteristics: use of big ashlars placed as headers for quays and jetties, which is also a characteristic of the Beirut harbor (Elayi and Sayegh 2000: 247); natural or man-made breaches in the line of reefs to allow the flushing of the harbor basin and prevent siltation, a feature found also in the Sidonian harbor (Poidebard and Lauffray 1951); and slipways for the repair of the vessels. Some of these harbors were within the fortification walls and others were located outside the stronghold.
The available evidence shows that the Phoenician settlements on the Lebanese coast and in the Syrian Akkar are very small, with sizes ranging between around 3 hectares for the smallest (Beirut, Tell el-Burak) and 16 hectares for the largest (the island of Tyre). It also suggests that the Phoenician city was composed in some cases of an upper (fortified) city and a lower city. The extension of the latter can be determined by the necropolis, usually located at the edge of the settlement, as is the case in Beirut (Stuart 2001–2002), Sidon (Lembke 2001: map 1), and Tyre (Aubet 2004). Upper and lower cities are clearly attested in Tell Arqa, Beirut, Tell el-Burak, and Byblos. Regarding the site distribution, both written and archaeological records indicate that the southern Phoenician coast was very densely settled (Sader 2000: fig. 7).
The Phoenician city was subdivided into areas or districts with different
functions. Residential areas with domestic buildings were identified in the southwestern part of the city of Sarepta and in Beirut around the harbor northwest of the settlement (Curvers 2001–2002; Elayi and Sayegh 2000: 157–224 and figs. 36–37). Industrial quarters were also identified in Sarepta: pottery kilns, metal workshops, and crushed murex shells were excavated in Sounding X northwest of the settlement (Anderson 1978). Beirut also produced evidence for industrial areas at the southern edge of the lower city (Curvers 2001–2002; Curvers and Stuart 2007), and more recently, at Tell el-Burak, an industrial installation was exposed at the foot of the mound, outside the enclosure wall (Kamlah and Sader 2008: fig. 4). Other parts of the city were residential in character. Domestic buildings were identified in the southwestern part of the city of Sarepta, in Sounding Y, and in Beirut around the harbor northwest of the settlement. In contrast, hardly any evidence is available about the areas dedicated to administrative and religious buildings within the settlement.
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