National Museum of Beirut - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The National Museum of Beirut is the principal museum of archaeology

Archaeology

Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

in Lebanon. The collection was begun after World War I, and the museum was officially opened in 1942. The museum has collections totalling about 100,000 objects, most of which are antiquities

Antiquities

Antiquities, nearly always used in the plural in this sense, is a term for objects from Antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean: the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures...

and medieval finds from excavations undertaken by the Directorate General of Antiquities. About 1300 artifacts are exhibited, ranging in date from prehistoric times

History of ancient Lebanon

The history of ancient Lebanon traces the course of events in what is now known as Lebanon from the beginning of history to the beginning of Arab rule.- Prehistoric Times :The earliest known settlements in Lebanon date back to earlier than 5000 BC...

to the medieval Mamluk period

History of Lebanon under Arab rule

The history of Lebanon under Arab rule refers to the history of the region in West Asia that became Lebanon during the periods it was under Arab rule....

.

During the 1975 Lebanese Civil War

Lebanese Civil War

The Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted civil war in Lebanon. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 150,000 to 230,000 civilian fatalities. Another one million people were wounded, and today approximately 350,000 people remain displaced. There was also a mass exodus of...

, the museum stood on the front line that separated the warring factions. The museum's Egyptian Revival

Egyptian Revival architecture

Egyptian Revival is an architectural style that uses the motifs and imagery of ancient Egypt. It is attributed generally to the public awareness of ancient Egyptian monuments generated by Napoleon's conquest of Egypt and Admiral Nelson's defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of the Nile during 1798....

building and its collection suffered extensive damage in the war, but most of the artifacts were saved by last-minute pre-emptive measures.
Today, after a major renovation, the National Museum of Beirut has regained its former position, especially as a leading collector for ancient Phoenicia

Phoenicia

Phoenicia , was an ancient civilization in Canaan which covered most of the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent. Several major Phoenician cities were built on the coastline of the Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550...

n objects.

History

Origin

In 1919, a small group of ancient artifacts collected by Raymond Weill, a French officer

French Mandate of Lebanon

The state of Greater Lebanon, the predecessor of modern Lebanon, was created in 1920 as part of the French scheme of dividing the French Mandate of Syria into six states....

stationed in Lebanon, was exhibited at a provisional museum in the German Deaconess's building in Georges Picot

Georges Picot

Georges Marie René Picot was a French lawyer and historian.Born in Paris, son of Charles Picot and wife Henriette Bidois , his main work is Histoire des États généraux for which he twice gained the prize of the French Academy...

Street, Beirut

Beirut

Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

. Meanwhile, a forerunner of the Archaeological and Fine Arts Service began to assemble items from the region round Beirut. The initial collection was rapidly expanded under successive antiquity directors with the addition of finds from the excavations led by Dr. Georges Contenau at Saida

Sidon

Sidon or Saïda is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate of Lebanon, on the Mediterranean coast, about 40 km north of Tyre and 40 km south of the capital Beirut. In Genesis, Sidon is the son of Canaan the grandson of Noah...

and Ernest Renan

Ernest Renan

Ernest Renan was a French expert of Middle East ancient languages and civilizations, philosopher and writer, devoted to his native province of Brittany...

at Saida, Tyre and Byblos

Byblos

Byblos is the Greek name of the Phoenician city Gebal . It is a Mediterranean city in the Mount Lebanon Governorate of present-day Lebanon under the current Arabic name of Jubayl and was also referred to as Gibelet during the Crusades...

. Donations of private collections included those of Henry Seyrig

Henry Seyrig

Henri Arnold Seyrig ; , was a French Alsatian Archaeologist numismatist, and historian of Antiquity...

’s coin collection, General Weygand

Maxime Weygand

Maxime Weygand was a French military commander in World War I and World War II.Weygand initially fought against the Germans during the invasion of France in 1940, but then surrendered to and collaborated with the Germans as part of the Vichy France regime.-Early years:Weygand was born in Brussels...

in 1925 and Dr George Ford, the Director of the American Mission School of Sidon, in 1930.

Foundation

In 1923, the "Friends of the Museum Committee", headed by Bechara El Khoury

Bechara El Khoury

Bechara El Khoury was the first post-independence President of Lebanon, holding office from 21 September 1943 to 18 September 1952, apart from an 11-day interruption in 1943...

, then Prime Minister and minister of education and fine arts, was created to raise funds to build a national museum. The funding committee included: Alfred Sursok, Marios Hanimoglo, Albert Bassoul, Omar Daouk, Kamil Eddeh, Ali Jumblat, Henry Pharaoun

Henri Philippe Pharaoun

Henri Philippe Pharaoun , was a Lebanese art collector, sportsman, politician and businessman. He played a crucial role in securing Lebanon's independence from France and served as foreign minister and other Cabinet positions...

, George Faissy, Assad Younes, Hassan Makhzoumi, Joseph Farahi, George Korom, Jean Debs, Wafik Beydoun and Jack Tabet. The committee accepted the plans presented by architects Antoine Nahas and Pierre Leprince-Ringuet. Construction began in 1930 on a plot of land donated by the municipality near the Beirut Hippodrome

Beirut Hippodrome

The Beirut Hippodrome, officially called Hippodrome Du Parc De Beyrouth, is a horse-racing facility in Beirut, Lebanon. It was built in 1885 in Bir Hassan, a suburb of Beirut...

, and was completed in 1937. The opening of the museum was scheduled for 1938, but was postponed because of the political situation in the lead-up to World War II. The National Museum of Beirut was finally opened on May 27, 1942 by President Alfred Naqqache

Alfred Naqqache

Alfred Georges Naccache was a Lebanese statesman, prime minister and head of state during the French Mandate of Lebanon. He was serving as Prime Minister when he was appointed President by the French authorities after the resignation of Emile Edde. Pierre-Georges Arlabosse served as acting...

. Until 1928, the conservation of the Lebanese National Museum was put in the hands of Charles Virolleaud

Charles Virolleaud

Jean Charles Gabriel Virolleaud was a French archaeologist, one of the excavators of Ugarit.-References:* Bibliography and overviews of his publications by several writers appeared in Syria: Revue d’art oriental et d’archéologie, 33 .* Dupont-Sommer, André, “Notice sur la vie et les travaux de M...

, the director of the service of antiquities and Philippe de Tarazzi, the Lebanese conservator of the National Library. The collection continued to grow under the direction of Mir

Mir (title)

Mir is a title which is derived from the Arabic title Emir or Amir . It was adopted in many languages under Islamic influence, such as Persian , Pashto, Sindhi and Urdu, meaning leader of a group or tribe in Iran, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan.-Title:In Iran, mir has also been formally used as a...

Maurice Chehab, head curator for 33 years, until the start of the Lebanese Civil War

Lebanese Civil War

in 1975.

Closing and devastation

In 1975, with the outbreak of the Lebanese war, Beirut was split into two opposing areas. The national museum and the directorate general of antiquities were on the demarcation line known as “Museum alley” which separated the warring militias and armies. Conditions in the immediate vicinity of the museum rapidly worsened, as the museum endured shelling and bombing, and was turned into a barracks for combatants. "Museum alley" became a checkpoint controlled by various Lebanese militias, or the Syria

Military of Syria

The Syrian Armed Forces are the military forces of Syria. They consist of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Air Defense Force.-Manpower:The President of Syria is the commander in chief of the Syrian armed forces, comprising some 646,500 troops upon mobilization. The military is a conscripted force;...

n or Israeli armies, who opened and closed the road under short-lived truces. The authorities decided to close the museum. The first protective measures inside the museum were initiated by Mir Maurice Chehab and his wife during alternating fire-fights and moments of truce. The vulnerable small artifacts were removed from their showcases and hidden in storerooms in the basement, which was then walled up, banning any access to the lower floors. On the ground floor, mosaics which had been installed in the floor were covered with a layer of concrete. Statues and sarcophagi

Sarcophagus

A sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek σαρξ sarx meaning "flesh", and φαγειν phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos...

were protected by sandbags. When the situation reached its worst in 1982, the heavier artifacts were encased in wood and concrete.

When the final cease-fire was declared in 1991, the museum and the Directorate General of Antiquities were in a state of near-destruction. The museum was flooded with rainwater and the outer facade was badly marked by bullets and craters from shells. Militiamen who occupied the premises had covered the internal walls with graffiti. The state of the museum collection was also very serious: the small objects had been left in the storerooms for more than fifteen years in a totally inappropriate environment. The national museum had been built on a high water table, which caused a dangerous increase in humidity, and collection of water inside the storerooms. The large stone artifacts has been left in their emergency casings without any ventilation and traces of corrosion from salts were visible on the lower edges of the stone monuments. The wing adjacent to the Directorate General of Antiquities was devastated by shells which started a fire, destroying documents such as maps, photographs, and records, as well as 45 boxes containing archaeological objects. All of the laboratory equipment was lost. During the war, some items were looted and are now exhibited in Turkish

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

museums, whilst others have been auctioned. Ironically, these had been stolen from external stores, mainly in Byblos

Byblos

and Sidon

Sidon

, in which they were kept to avoid damage and looting.

Reopening and renovation

The first plans to restore the national museum came in 1992 from Michel Edde, then Minister of Culture and Higher Education. The proposal to tear down the concrete walls and cases which protected the national treasures was turned down by the general director of antiquities, Camille Asmar, since the museum still had no doors or windows to prevent further looting. Ghassan Tueni

Ghassan Tueni

Ghassan Tueni is a former Lebanese Ambassador to the United Nations and publisher of An-Nahar, the leading Lebanese newspaper.- Biography :...

donated the funds for the museum's massive new main door. Once the doors and windows were put in, the decision was made to pull down the concrete wall that protected the entrance to the basement. Restoration work started in 1995 and focused on the building itself, and the inventorying and restoration of the collection. The museum was officially inaugurated on November 25, 1997 by then president Elias Hrawi

Elias Hrawi

Elias Hrawi was a President of Lebanon, whose term of office ran from 1989 to 1998.He was a native of the Beqaa valley. He was elected on 24 November 1989, two days after the assassination of René Moawad, who had held office for just seventeen days...

but only parts of the ground floor and basement were made accessible since the remainder of the building was still under repair and important modifications were needed to meet the requirements of modern museology

Museology

Museology is the diachronic study of museums and how they have established and developed in their role as an educational mechanism under social and political pressures.-Overview:...

standards. The museum was again closed to the public in July 1998 to achieve restoration works. On October 8, 1999, the museum re-opened its doors to the public under the patronage of president Emile Lahoud

Émile Lahoud

General Émile Jamil Lahoud is a former President of Lebanon. Lahoud is a Maronite-Catholic, as is required for the Lebanese presidency. Under Lebanon's unwritten constitutional agreement, the National Pact, the presidency is earmarked for Maronite_Catholic, the parliament speaker's post for a Shia...

.

The rehabilitation of the National Museum was undertaken by the Ministry of Culture, the Directorate General of Antiquities and the National Heritage Foundation, to the plans of the French architect, urban planner and designer Jean-Michel Wilmotte.
In 1999 the Lebanese government started a massive campaign to recover antiquities that were stolen or traded during the civil war. Many artifacts were recovered from warehouses or private homes since Lebanese law dictates that any item more than 300 years old belongs to the state.

Basement reopening

Opening of the basement floor was scheduled for November 2010, but as of June 2011, only the ground and first floors are open to the public.

Architecture

The museum was designed in a French inspired Egyptian Revival style by the architects Antoine Nahas and Pierre Leprince Ringuet, and built with Lebanese ochre limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

. It comprises a basement, a ground floor, a mezzanine floor and a terrace; the central block is covered by a glass roof, above the mezzanine, giving natural overhead light.

The whole site is approximately 5500 square metres (59,201.5 sq ft), and the exhibition floor space totals 6000 square metres (64,583.5 sq ft). The immediately adjoining museum annexes and administrative offices occupy about 1000 square metres (10,763.9 sq ft).

Collections

The National Museum of Beirut currently exhibits 1300 artifacts from its collection of approximately 100,000 objects. The museum displays follow a chronological circuit beginning in Prehistory

Prehistory

Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...

and ending in the Ottoman

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

era. The circuit begins on the ground floor where 83 large objects are displayed, these include sarcophagi, mosaics statues and reliefs. The upper floor displays 1243 small and medium-sized artifacts arranged by chronological order and by theme in modern showcases with soft lighting and magnifying glasses that emphasize the aesthetic aspect of the artifacts.

Prehistory

The collection has prehistoric artifacts from early hunter-gatherer societies ranging from the Lower Paleolithic

Paleolithic

The Paleolithic Age, Era or Period, is a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of the most primitive stone tools discovered , and covers roughly 99% of human technological prehistory...

(1M.-150.000 BC) to the Neolithic

Neolithic

The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...

(9000–3200 BC), typically spearheads, flints, hooks and pottery.
These were found in caves and rock shelters all over Lebanese territory. Around five hundred prehistoric sites have been surveyed in Lebanon as a whole, and around fifty sites in Beirut itself.

Bronze age

The Bronze Age

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

(3200–1200 BC) saw the birth of Lebanon's first fortified villages, the development of commercial and maritime activities and the invention of the world's first alphabet

Phoenician alphabet

The Phoenician alphabet, called by convention the Proto-Canaanite alphabet for inscriptions older than around 1050 BC, was a non-pictographic consonantal alphabet, or abjad. It was used for the writing of Phoenician, a Northern Semitic language, used by the civilization of Phoenicia...

in Byblos

Byblos

. This collection includes the Museum's masterpiece: the sarcophagus of Ahiram

Ahiram

Ahiram or, more correctly, Ahirom was a Phoenician king of Byblos Ahirom is not attested in any other Ancient Oriental source. He became famous only by his Phoenician inscribed sarcophagus which was discovered in 1923 by the French excavator Pierre Montet in tomb V of the royal necropolis of Byblos...

, which holds the oldest text written in the Phoenician alphabet.

Collection highlights:

Sarcophagus of King Ahiram
Ahiram
Ahiram or, more correctly, Ahirom was a Phoenician king of Byblos Ahirom is not attested in any other Ancient Oriental source. He became famous only by his Phoenician inscribed sarcophagus which was discovered in 1923 by the French excavator Pierre Montet in tomb V of the royal necropolis of Byblos...

: limestone, Byblos royal cemetery, 10th century B.C.
Votive statuettes: gilded bronze, Obelisk temple – Byblos, 19-18th century B.C.
Decorated knife:gold and ivory, Obelisk temple – Byblos, 19-18th century B.C.
Fenestrated axes: gold, Obelisk temple – Byblos, 19-18th century B.C.
King Ip Shemu Abi's crown and scepter: gold and bronze, Royal cemetery, Byblos, 18th century B.C.
King Abi Shemu's jewelry collection: gold and precious stones, Royal cemetery, Byblos, 18th century B.C.
Statuette of Reshep: gilded bronze, Obelisk temple – Byblos, 19-18th century B.C.
Duck shaped cosmetic box: ivory, Sidon, 14^{th century B.C.}

Iron age

The Iron Age

Iron Age

The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...

(1200 – 333 BC) in Lebanon saw the climax of the Phoenicia

Phoenicia

n civilization, which culminated in its maritime expansion and the transmission to other cultures of the alphabet (which was attributed by the Greek legend to the Tyrian Cadmus

Cadmus

Cadmus or Kadmos , in Greek mythology was a Phoenician prince, the son of king Agenor and queen Telephassa of Tyre and the brother of Phoenix, Cilix and Europa. He was originally sent by his royal parents to seek out and escort his sister Europa back to Tyre after she was abducted from the shores...

). During this period, after an era of autonomy, the city-states of the area came under Assyria

Assyria

Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...

n, Babylonia

Babylonia

Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia , with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as a major power when Hammurabi Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as...

n and Persian hegemony. The occupying civilizations inflenced Phoenician ceramics, jewelry and ivory work, statues, and sarcophagi.

Key highlights of the collections include:

the Ford collection of anthropoid sarcophagi: marble, 4th century B.C.
votive statues from the Eshmun
Eshmun
Eshmun was a Phoenician god of healing and the tutelary god of Sidon.This god was known at least from the Iron Age period at Sidon and was worshipped also in Tyre, Beirut, Cyprus, Sardinia, and in Carthage where the site of Eshmun's temple is now occupied by the chapel of Saint Louis.According to...

temple: marble, Bustan esh Sheikh, 4th century B.C.
capital
Capital (architecture)
In architecture the capital forms the topmost member of a column . It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface...

with bull protome
Protome
Protome is an adornment on utensils or works of art in the form of a frontal view of an animal head or bust of a human. Protomes are often featured in ancient art....

s,: marble, Sidon
Sidon
Sidon or Saïda is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate of Lebanon, on the Mediterranean coast, about 40 km north of Tyre and 40 km south of the capital Beirut. In Genesis, Sidon is the son of Canaan the grandson of Noah...

, 5th century B.C.

Hellenistic period

The Hellenistic period (333 – 64 BC)
In 333 BC, the decisive victory won by Alexander the Great over the Persian king Darius III opened Phoenicia to the Greek conqueror.

After Alexander's death, Phoenicia first came under Ptolemaic

Ptolemaic dynasty

The Ptolemaic dynasty, was a Macedonian Greek royal family which ruled the Ptolemaic Empire in Egypt during the Hellenistic period. Their rule lasted for 275 years, from 305 BC to 30 BC...

rule from Egypt, then, after the Battle of Panium

Battle of Panium

The Battle of Panium was fought in 200 BC between Seleucid and Ptolemaic forces as part of the Syrian Wars. The Seleucids were led by Antiochus III the Great, while the Ptolemaic army was led by Scopas of Aetolia. The Seleucids won the battle...

, under the Seleucids based in modern Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

. The Seleucids abolished local monarchies, and appointed governors (bearing Greek names) to rule the Phoenician cities.

Greek influence, which had made its way to Phoenicia during the Persian period, now became stronger. Figurines found in Kharayeb show Aegea

Aegea

Aegea is a back-formation from "Aegean", the sea that was named for an eponymous Aegeus in early levels of Greek mythology. The Encyclopaedia Britannica mentioned an Aegea, queen of the Amazons, as an alternative eponym of the Aegean Sea, and Aegea was the name of the wife of the Roman proconsul...

n influence on local craftsmen. This spreading Hellenization

Hellenization

Hellenization is a term used to describe the spread of ancient Greek culture, and, to a lesser extent, language. It is mainly used to describe the spread of Hellenistic civilization during the Hellenistic period following the campaigns of Alexander the Great of Macedon...

interacted with the local Semitic

Semitic

In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages...

population substratum, which remained faithful to its gods and its language. It resulted in an artistic and architectural symbiosis best illustrated in the artifacts of Umm el 'Amed and Bustan esh Sheikh.

Collection highlights:

Sanctuary of Eshmun tribune: marble, Bustan esh Sheikh (near Sidon), ca. 350 B.C.
Statue of Aphrodite
Aphrodite
Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.Her Roman equivalent is the goddess .Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia....

: marble, Beirut
Greek gods figurines: terracotta, Kharayeb

Roman period

In 64 BC, the military expedition of the Roman general Pompey

Pompey

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...

put an end to the anarchy prevailing in the Seleucid Empire, and Phoenicia became part of the Roman world. But Roman civil wars continued to disrupt the region until 31 BC, after which, with the reign of Augustus

Augustus

Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...

, the pax romana

Pax Romana

Pax Romana was the long period of relative peace and minimal expansion by military force experienced by the Roman Empire in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. Since it was established by Caesar Augustus it is sometimes called Pax Augusta...

extended over the area. The pax romana favored international trade, and local industries in silversmith

Silversmith

A silversmith is a craftsperson who makes objects from silver or gold. The terms 'silversmith' and 'goldsmith' are not synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product varies greatly as does the scale of objects created.Silversmithing is the...

ing, glass, textiles and ceramics developed.

Roman

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

Period (64 BC – 395 AD) section collection highlights include:

Achilles
Achilles
In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.Plato named Achilles the handsomest of the heroes assembled against Troy....

sarcophagus
Sarcophagus
A sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek σαρξ sarx meaning "flesh", and φαγειν phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos...

: marble, Tyre, 2nd century A.D.
drunken Cupid
Cupid
In Roman mythology, Cupid is the god of desire, affection and erotic love. He is the son of the goddess Venus and the god Mars. His Greek counterpart is Eros...

s sarcophagus: marble, Tyre, 2nd century A.D.
Abduction of Europe
Europa (mythology)
In Greek mythology Europa was a Phoenician woman of high lineage, from whom the name of the continent Europe has ultimately been taken. The name Europa occurs in Hesiod's long list of daughters of primordial Oceanus and Tethys...

mosaic: Byblos
Byblos
Byblos is the Greek name of the Phoenician city Gebal . It is a Mediterranean city in the Mount Lebanon Governorate of present-day Lebanon under the current Arabic name of Jubayl and was also referred to as Gibelet during the Crusades...

, 3rd century A.D.
statue of Hygieia
Hygieia
In Greek and Roman mythology, Hygieia , was a daughter of the god of medicine, Asclepius. She was the goddess/personification of health , cleanliness and sanitation. She also played an important part in her father's cult...

: marble, Byblos
Byblos
Byblos is the Greek name of the Phoenician city Gebal . It is a Mediterranean city in the Mount Lebanon Governorate of present-day Lebanon under the current Arabic name of Jubayl and was also referred to as Gibelet during the Crusades...
Calliope
Calliope
In Greek mythology, Calliope was the muse of epic poetry, daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, and is now best known as Homer's muse, the inspiration for the Odyssey and the Iliad....

and the seven wise men
Seven Sages of Greece
The Seven Sages or Seven Wise Men was the title given by ancient Greek tradition to seven early 6th century BC philosophers, statesmen and law-givers who were renowned in the following centuries for their wisdom.-The Seven Sages:Traditionally, each of the seven sages represents an aspect of worldly...

mosaic: Baalbeck, 3rd century A.D.
Dionysus
Dionysus
Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...

bust: marble, Tyre, 3rd century A.D.

Byzantine period

After the death of Theodosius I

Theodosius I

Theodosius I , also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Theodosius was the last emperor to rule over both the eastern and the western halves of the Roman Empire. During his reign, the Goths secured control of Illyricum after the Gothic War, establishing their homeland...

in 395 AD, the Roman Empire was divided into a western

Western Roman Empire

The Western Roman Empire was the western half of the Roman Empire after its division by Diocletian in 285; the other half of the Roman Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire, commonly referred to today as the Byzantine Empire....

and an eastern empire. The Lebanese cities were attached to the latter, and converted to Christianity which became the state religion in 392. The emperor ordered the destruction of pagan

Paganism

Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....

temples, but cults like those of Adonis

Adonis

Adonis , in Greek mythology, the god of beauty and desire, is a figure with Northwest Semitic antecedents, where he is a central figure in various mystery religions. The Greek , Adōnis is a variation of the Semitic word Adonai, "lord", which is also one of the names used to refer to God in the Old...

and Jupiter

Jupiter

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...

Heliopolitanus were kept alive by the local population and survived in some form for centuries.

Artifacts from the Byzantine

Byzantine

Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...

period (395 – 636 AD) include:

the "Jealousy" mosaic: Beirut
elements of a church chancel
Chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...

: marble, Beirut
coins and jewelry collection

Arab conquest, Mamluk period

The Arab conquest of Lebanon

History of Lebanon under Arab rule

The history of Lebanon under Arab rule refers to the history of the region in West Asia that became Lebanon during the periods it was under Arab rule....

was completed in 637 AD. The expansion of the coastal cities, which had slowed down after earthquakes in the 6th century, revived during the Umayyad

Umayyad

The Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four major Arab caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. It was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, whose name derives from Umayya ibn Abd Shams, the great-grandfather of the first Umayyad caliph. Although the Umayyad family originally came from the...

period. Their harbors and shipyards showed renewed activity, and the hinterland saw extensive irrigation work for agriculture.

Lebanon was directly affected by the various dynastic changes which brought to power successively the Umayyads, Abbasid

Abbasid

The Abbasid Caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids , was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphate from all but the al-Andalus region....

s, Fatimid

Fatimid

The Fatimid Islamic Caliphate or al-Fāṭimiyyūn was a Berber Shia Muslim caliphate first centered in Tunisia and later in Egypt that ruled over varying areas of the Maghreb, Sudan, Sicily, the Levant, and Hijaz from 5 January 909 to 1171.The caliphate was ruled by the Fatimids, who established the...

s, Seljuk

Seljuq dynasty

The Seljuq ; were a Turco-Persian Sunni Muslim dynasty that ruled parts of Central Asia and the Middle East from the 11th to 14th centuries...

s, Ayyubids and Mamluk

Mamluk

A Mamluk was a soldier of slave origin, who were predominantly Cumans/Kipchaks The "mamluk phenomenon", as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior...

s. During this long period, Islam spread and Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

became the language of the administration, then progressively replaced local dialects among the population. Artifacts from the Mamluk period (636 – 1516 AD) include coins, gold jewelry, and glazed terracotta bowls.

Publications

Maurice Chehab initiated in 1936 the museum's first publication, the Bulletin du Musée de Beyrouth ("Beirut Museum Bulletin"), which reached 36 volumes before publication was stopped in 1986 by the civil war. The journal covered archaeological finds, sites and ancient civilizations. In 1995 the Museum and the Lebanese British Friends of the National Museum foundation resumed publication of a bi-annual journal entitled Archaeology and History in Lebanon (ISSN 1475-5564). BAAL ("Bulletin d’Archéologie et d’Architecture Libanaise" – Lebanese Archaeology and Architecture Bulletin) is an annual journal issued by the Directorate General of Antiquities in cooperation with the Lebanese Ministry of Culture in keeping in the tradition of the Beirut Museum Bulletin. The first volume of BAAL was issued in 1996; the journal publishes research papers, excavations and archaeological surveys and reports.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.