From mujais@merle.acns.nwu.edu Mon Jun  5 21:20:00 1995
Date: Sun, 28 May 1995 16:25:39 +0200
From: mujais@merle.acns.nwu.edu
To: borrel@mashallah.ludvigsen.hiof.no
Subject: Ancient Beirut
Date: Wed, 21 Sep 1994 15:33:08 -0500
To: ane@mithra-orinst.uchicago.edu
From: mujais@merle.acns.nwu.edu
Subject: Ancient Beirut



The subject of recovering ancient Beirut has been dealt with without giving
adequate background of what has been achieved to date. In the last issue of
the American University of Beirut (AUB) Newsletter there is a report about
the work undertaken by the university museum team in collaboration with
teams from the Lebanese University, the Institut Francais d'Archeologie du
Proche Orient. The AUB group has uncovered structures from various periods
stretching back from the Ottoman to the Phoenician (the latter for the
first time in Beirut apparently???). A fragment from late bronze age
reportedly mentions "Birot". The French team has uncovered a Byzantine
mosaic floor, and the Lebanese university team is working at a Roman level.

The work has the support of an agreement between the Lebanese government
and UNESCO (signed April 27, 1993), and the Hariri Foundation provided one
million dollars of the funding so far (compared to 350 000 dollars from
UNESCO).

The article in the AUB Newsletter shows a picture of a terra cotta figurine
representing a fertility goddess and another of a male rider, both from the
Persian period.

Clearly, work is being done. More needs to be. Encouragement is what is needed.

Salim Mujais MD
Northwestern University Medical School
Chicago, IL

e mail : mujais@merle.acns.nwu.edu