Ancient warrior grave unearthed in Lebanese
port
ABC ONLINE 14/9/2002
Archaeologists have unearthed several Bronze Age graves, including that of an ancient
warrior interred with his axe, in the southern Lebanese port city of Sidon.
Excavation team director Claude Doumet Serhal said the excavations are "among the
most important archaeological projects in Lebanon as they are taking place in the centre
of the city of modern Sidon."
He also said the warrior's grave dated back to the Middle Bronze Age, around the second
millennium BC, and included an unusually well preserved bronze duck-bill axe with a wooden
handle.
The team from the British Museum also discovered four Middle Bronze Age children buried in
jars, two of them with Egyptian scarabs.
The archaeologists, in their fourth season of excavations at Sidon, said a Byzantine grave
marker with an engraved cross showed that the city was still occupied in modern times.
They said they also found a Phoenician inscription on a piece of pottery, the first such
inscription found in Sidon from the ancient seafarers.
The archaeologists said the Sidon dig was the first urban excavation in Lebanon since the
city of Beirut was excavated in the 1990s.
Archaeologists digging in central Beirut, during rebuilding after the country's 15 year
civil war, unearthed traces of successive civilisations going back 5,000 years.
END OF
REPORT
Back |
|
