VI.3 Lebanon: Ceramics from the Islamic Period at the Ifpo
p. 131-136
Texte intégral
The Project “Between Land and Sea”
1One of the main ceramic projects currently carried out by the Ifpo focuses on ceramics from the Islamic period, and more particularly on the reconstruction of the ceramic repertoire from Lebanon.
2The project “Between land and sea: material culture and human landscape during the Islamic period in Lebanon”, aims to reconstruct the history of settlement in Lebanon during the Medieval period by questioning material culture and, more specifically, ceramic evidence.
3The region of present-day Lebanon plays a strategic role in the history of Bilad al-Sham during the Islamic period. It is a region with a complex natural landscape, crossed by high mountain ranges, and rich in crops and pastures. It is located on an important road axis connecting northern Syria to southern Bilad al-Sham, passing through the Beqaa Valley (which hosts major urban centres of the period, i.e. Anjar and Baalbek), and includes coastal urban sites, which are gateways to the Mediterranean (Beirut, Tyre, Tripoli, Byblos). Conquered by the Muslim armies right after their victory against the Byzantines in Yarmouk (636 ad), Lebanon also experienced, in Medieval times, the Crusaders invasion, being partly occupied by the County of Tripoli (1102-1289 ad) and the Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099-1291 ad) until the Mamluk reconquest in 1291 ad. It was englobed in the Ottoman Empire in 1516 ad.
4Despite such a rich past, the region has never been the subject of a systematic study of human occupation and material culture in the Medieval period. This is not only the case of Lebanon, but also of other regions of the medieval Islamic world, which have rarely been the subject of a general analysis of settlement patterns and, as far as we are concerned here, of the spread and production of ceramics. Most of the archaeological works related to ceramic evidence of this period have been mainly focused on assemblages from specific sites or areas (several examples can be mentioned for Lebanon or neighbouring regions, such as Syria, Israel/Palestine, Jordan).
5The reason why synthetic works on production and diffusion of ceramics in the Islamic period are still missing is that much still needs to be done in the typological and chronological understanding of this repertoire, before being able to provide a more global picture. Although there are some sites that present a chrono-typology of reference, some regions and some historical periods remain completely underrepresented. Thinking more specifically about Lebanon, where some sites or areas offer interesting sequences, such as the Tripoli region (Salamé-Sarkis 1980) or Baalbek (Sarre 1925; Daiber 2006; Vezzoli 2015) (fig. 75), much still remains to be done to understand the diversity of the territory. Specifically, rural and mountain areas are largely underrepresented. Moreover, the complex variety of ceramic productions (especially common wares) of the Ottoman period would need to be largely investigated.
Figure 75. Fine glazed wares from archaeological investigations in the area of Bustan Nassif (Baalbek)

Vezzoli 2015.
6Nevertheless, some recent regional studies have brought to light a very rich archaeological and ceramic documentation, which testifies of an intense occupation of the territory during this period: research on the site of Ej-Jaouzé and its region have highlighted the nature of the occupation and its related material culture in the medieval period (Nacouzi et al. 2018); archaeological investigations on the medieval citadels of Jbeil and Tripoli have brought to light aspects of military installations (Chaaya 2018); the role of the coastal city of Tyre has been questioned (Gatier et al. 2011; Rousset 2016); and several ceramic assemblages have enriched the knowledge on the ceramic horizon (Haidar Vela, Pieri 2012; Homsy-Gottwalles 2016; Homsy-Gottwalles 2017; Shaddoud 2018), trying to approach, even if still quite rarely, the Ottoman period too. Moreover, several regional surveys have enabled to draw up a broader picture of the long term human landscape in Lebanon, for example in the Akkar plain (Bartl 1999), in the Nahr Ibrahim Valley (Gatier et al. 2005), and in the Beeka Valley (Fischer-Genz, Ehrig 2005; Newson 2016).
7Taking advantage of this acquired data and to involvement in several on-going projects, this research aims to provide a primary reconstruction of the history of the occupation of the region during different periods of the Islamic era and to determine the production and circulation of ceramics. The main challenge is to lay the foundations for a broader reflection on the medieval period in Lebanon, highlighting its complex regional and chronological varieties and placing this region in a wider historical framework, between the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia.
8The in-depth study of the ceramic evidence will allow to question, more specifically, three major issues:
The definition of the main features in the management of the territory, determining the nature of the relationships between major and secondary sites and between hinterland and coastal sites;
The distribution of ceramic types and the identification, whether possible, of production centres;
The reconstruction of the conditions of more recent settlements (Ottoman period), which, although well documented by the administrative archives, remains largely unknown by archaeological research.
9One of the principle limitations faced by this project remains the poor sampling for petrographic and archaeometric analysis of medieval ceramic assemblages (Waksman 2002; François et al. 2003), so it is still unclear where the areas and centres of production were located. One of the objectives of the research is therefore to strengthen this aspect and enrich the documentation.
10The project, debuted in September 2018, targets significant areas of the territory located in the hinterland, the mountains and the coast. Its initial ambition was to take into account the whole Islamic period but, given the nature of the ceramic assemblages analysed and the complexity of the repertoire, it essentially concerns the Middle Islamic and Ottoman period (from the late 11th century to the early 20th century); the latter, as we already mentioned, is still poorly studied.
11Since its initiation, the project has been enriched by new collaborations and is now able to cover different geographical, economic and chronological contexts. Among the ceramic materials included in this study are (fig. 76): from the region of the Beqaa Valley, the ceramic material from archaeological investigations carried out in the city of Baalbek (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut and Lebanese University) and from the regional survey in the Central Bekaa (American University of Beirut); from the coast, the assemblages from major sites such as Jbeil and Tripoli (Lebanese University) as well as Tyre (French Ministry of European and Foreign Affairs); from the mountain areas, the ceramic assemblages from Ej-Jaouzé (French Ministry of European and Foreign Affairs); from Northern Lebanon, the material from the survey program Northern Lebanon Archaeological Project (Università degli studi di Udine and Lebanese University). All these projects benefit from the support of the General Directorate of Antiquities of Lebanon.
Figure 76. Provenance of the ceramic assemblages studied within the framework of Ifpo’s project “Between land and sea: material culture and human landscape during the Islamic period in Lebanon”

12More concretely, the project focuses on the study of assemblages from different archaeological contexts (mainly excavations and surveys); for this reason, a diversified approach was necessary. Survey material is particularly problematic to identify and date, as it is not always possible to rely on comparative assemblages. This is even more complex in the case of more recent (Ottoman era) ceramic productions, for which the association with better-known glazed material (such as Çannakale ware or Didymoteicon ware) has been necessary to identify common types.
13At the present state of research, it has not yet been possible to establish a chrono-typology for the Lebanon in its whole (and actually, this is not the purpose), but rather to opt for building chrono-typologies with a regional character, which will be compared and commented in order to create a broader picture and highlight similarities and differences.
14The preliminary study of such a rich repertoire has demonstrated how ceramic evidence can represent a precious tool, not only to determine the dating of the investigated sites, but also their nature, their social and economic function. The study of such variegated assemblages will also render the understanding of the distribution of common ceramic types (tableware, kitchen and storage wares) possible, by determining the networks of influence (at a local or inter-regional level) as well as the trade routes. Excavations of major sites, including Baalbek, Beirut and Damascus, provide references for this study and show important differences in the distribution of ceramics, between coastal and hinterland zones; this has been also proven by data issued from surveys.
Ceramic Studies at the Ifpo
In recent years, the Ifpo has promoted a number of activities related to the study of ceramic materials and has primarily encouraged training activities, organized by the Département d’Archéologie et Histoirede l’Antiquité (DAHA) and the Départementd’Études Arabes, Médiévales et Modernes (DEAMM) in collaboration with universities and national directorates of antiquities. Research programs on ceramic assemblages are today one of the priorities at the Ifpo, as demonstrated by several ongoing projects in Iraqi Kurdistan, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories and Lebanon. This dynamic is reflected in the ongoing project on medieval ceramics in Lebanon, mentioned above, but also in the presence of a specific research axis Culture Matérielle et archéologie des techniques at the Département d’Archéologie et Histoire de l’Antiquité (DAHA), which supports various activities developed around ceramic evidence: fieldwork, petrographic and archaeometric analyses, and research on the connection between material culture and society.
It is probably in Lebanon that ceramic studies are undergoing an important development. Until the 1990s, our knowledge of Lebanese ceramics was limited to vases and utensils found along the maritime fringe. Excavations carried out for nearly a century on large coastal sites such as Tyre, Saida, Byblos or Tell Arqa have indeed made it possible to establish a general panorama of the ceramics produced in Phoenicia during Antiquity. But it is from the excavations carried out in downtown Beirut since 1993, in the framework of the reconstruction of the neighborhoods damaged by the civil war, that significant progress has been made through specialized studies on the production, distribution and marketing of ceramics from the Bronze Age to the Ottoman period. Today, research is focused on the inland and mountain zones of Lebanon, long neglected by archaeologists. Thus, recent archaeological surveys and excavations have revealed numerous sites often occupied discontinuously between the ancient and medieval periods, very active in commercial exchanges (Yanouh, Jaouzé), and even involved in the production of pottery (Chhîm).
In order to maintain a high level of training in ceramology, Ifpo has been organising several workshops since 2018 that would be regularly repeated within each of its branches (Beirut, Amman, Erbil). The workshop “Training on the study of archaeological ceramics. From the field to the publication” aims at introducing students to the different stages of the study of ceramic material from different archaeological contexts (excavations, surveys, trenches) thus providing the basis for an all-round analysis of this evidence (from the processing of data in the field, to digital documentation, to the interpretation of data for publication). The workshop “Training to ceramic drawing in archaeology” provides a more practical, exercise-based training for drawing ceramic in an archaeological context, both by hand and digitally.
Figure 77. Rachelle Antonios explaining the drawing of a ceramic as part of the training courses organized at Ifpo

15Lebanon cannot be considered as a separate and unique entity, as portrayed by its historical and economic connections with the rest of the Mediterranean as well as with other regions of Bilad al-Sham, all of which emerge through the analysis of ceramic evidence and evolve and modify through the centuries.
Auteurs
Researcher, Institut français du Proche-Orient, Beyrouth, Lebanon.
Professor, université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Collège de France, UMR 8167 Orient & Méditerranée. Head of the department of Archaeology and History of Antiquity, Institut français du Proche-Orient, Beyrouth, Lebanon.

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