From e.d.wardini@easteur-orient.uio.no Mon Jun 5 21:17:45 1995 Date: Sun, 28 May 1995 16:11:24 +0200 Subject: Ancient Beirut vs Beirut development To: ANE@oi.uchicago.edu Subject: Ancient Beirut vs Beirut development Back from a trip to Lebanon. Here are some information bits that I can share. First that have been many new archelogical finds in Lebanon this summer. I hear that a Swedish team has uncovered a Roman temple in the North near Tripoli. I could not confirm the information. In the news papers were several articles about "spectacular Phoenician" finds. The reason they say they are spectacular, is that even if the identity of present Beirut as the ancient Phoenician Beirut is not controversial, no Phoenician finds have yet been made. I could not get first hand information either. Among these finds is a wall, which is claimed to be an ancient wall that faced the sea and some sarcophogi. These news reports claim, in the name of the Lebanese archelogists mainly from AUB, that the finds are Phoenician. Yet nothing in the scetchy articles indicate that they are factually so. We will have to wait and see that scholarly publications. Maybe somebody else has some information? Most important, though, is the construction program of that the Solidere company. Note what Prof. E. Lipinski says a certain place*: "Le Pseaudo-Skylax mentionne, au IVe siecle av. J.C., son port 'ouvet vers le nord', Borinos [in Greek characters], et devoile anisi l'emplacement de la cite antique que l'on doit point chercher sur le Raas Beyrouth, a l'extremite occidentale de la ville modern, mais autor du port". (* "Le Royaume de Sidon au VIIe Siecle av.J.C.", in Eretz-Isreal, Archeological, Historical and Geographical Studies, vol. 24, Malamat Volume, 1993 pp. 158-163, p.159) After getting all these laws through (and Solidere is working very fast, they want, it seems to impose a faite accompli, before owners and other opponents of the project get to do something, or even before the political situation changes and they may have to scrap the whole project) Solidere has blasted away the majority of the houses in the Souk of Beirut. We have an area from Beirut Centre to the sea/ the port an area with no buildings at all. THIS IS PRECISELY THE AREA DESIGNATED BY Prof. Lipinski!!!!! It is an archeologist's paradise: Midieval-Arab, Byzantine, Roman, Greek and Phoenician Beirut waiting to reveal their secrets! But not so. Solidere has given archeologists to the end of the present season (end of September) to finsih up their work. A couple of stamp-size plots have been excavated. The finds are speak clearly, HERE LIES ANCIENT BEIRUT. Yet they have been covered and after a grand scale concert end September on the open space, Buldozers will start their DEVELOPMENT/ DESTRUCTION (?). The old houses, of Ottoman/ pre-war Beirut did not have very deep foundations (2-3 meters deep). The modern Buildings will have several stories underground. I hate to think of what is going to happen!#"#$"#"! The Minister of Culture and Higher Education seems to be genuinly interested in preserving the ancient heritage. "a people without a memory", he says, "is a people without a future". "We will have inspectors at all building sights, if we find anything, all builng projects in the site will stop". Yet who will gain at the end, The BIG BUCKS or the desire to preserve the past? The Minister of Culture says, "if we find for example, the school of law, that is an international heritage, it has to be preserved", but we already know that the area under question is the site of ancient Beirut! A couple of seasons on miniature sites (that have revealed a lot by the way, confirming the site of the ancient city) are all archeologists got. Who is to say that they will ever get a better chance? Some of the major Lebanese archeologhists in Lebanon have been "employed" by Solidere, who is to say the inspectors will not also be "employed". When I visited, too late by the way, the sites in Beirut Centre where archeological digs were taking place, one Solidere foreman on the site told me "they found nothing!", the sites are now covered with rubble! Elie Wardini Department for East-European and Oriental Studies Semitic languages Post Box 1030 Blindern 0315 Oslo Norway tel. off.: +47 - 22 85 71 21 home: +47 - 22 19 03 49 fax: +47 - 22 85 41 40 e-mail: e.d.wardini@easteur-orient.uio.no