YEAR 2005

A second Early Bronze Age building consisting of at least 4 rooms was excavated this year. These rooms contained a large amount of pottery, grinding stones and large beams of carbonized wood that had fallen on the floor. Room 1 rectangular in shape, had a doorway 55 cm along its western wall leading to room 4 that will be further excavated in 2006. To the south of room 1, an east west wall was found on the floor indicating an earlier stage to this room with a different wall alignment. This will also be further investigated in the next season. To the south of room 2, there was also another wall on the floor made of small stones randomly coursed indicating once again an earlier use to the building. Room 3 partially excavated will require further investigation.

The Middle Bronze Age

A further ten Middle Bronze Age burials were discovered this year bringing the total of burials to 60 so far. A constructed grave lined with mud brick contained the remains of an individual of approximately 10-15 years old buried with pottery vessels. In addition two silver rings were found on the second and third fingers of the deceased’s left hand with an amethyst scarab held within the palm. Another burial of an 8 to 12 years old individual revealed a Cypriote jug. (Sidon’s contacts with Egypt and with Crete during the 18th century BC have already been underlined in previous reports). One other adult grave was found in addition to six jar burials of neonates and children buried with pottery vessels, beads and scarabs. One burial was a layer of disarticulated remains with around 13 adults and three sub adults lying on the ground. Six scarabs were recovered in this layer with many pots, a bronze pin and a stone bowl.

The remains of a monumental building originally found in the 2000-2001 seasons, were exposed in 2004 and further excavated in 2005. This impressive building has stone walls of excellent quality measuring 1.09 m wide with large boulders on top, reaching 1.22 m in height in the North West corner. The monumental structure and size of this wall (42. 66 m) indicate an important public building which in size is comparable to the Syrian palaces of Ras Shamra. A whole series of thin chalky clay layers (floors) were found in the north-west corner with a large rectangular block of dark clay on the floor of the eastern face of the wall.

The entrance:

The building’s entrance way consisted of a stone floor mainly composed of limestone but with some sandstone blocks of varying sizes. Whilst most of the stones consisted of nodules with a flat side forming the surface, others were roughly hewn into slabs. Three of these, two large round flint stones and a square limestone stone had been placed in a row with equidistant gaps in between. This area may have formed part of a portico with the stones acting as pads for columns. The entrance is intersected from the north east by what may have been a little pathway.  The east-to- west cut of a possible beam slot was found in front of the portico. The purpose of this beam in the entrance could be for a threshold or may have had other structural or ornamental purposes. A wall outlined the entrance-way into the building. A more elaborate entrance way with dressed stones is presumed to have been there with two walls on either side.  A bench that survived to its original height might have been part of a waiting room in the entrance way.

The bench consisted of random courses of varying sizes of limestone blocks and was bonded to this entrance wall immediately inside the eastern side of the building. 

This important building of to the Middle Bronze Age was also used during the Late Bronze Age period. The material uncovered so far contained many oil lamps, a kernos, scarabs, the head of a gold duck and many plates and jugs. The presence of such specific material with very few sherds of cooking pots for example could point toward a more specific use of certain rooms in the building. Further excavations will be needed to clarify these issues.

As well as the remains of a cella or “holy of holies” found below-ground at Sidon which is comparable to Syrian temples namely Alalakh further Late Bronze Age material was uncovered. Two large tannurs were found adjacent to spread of baked mud bricks. The bricks, around 40 in total vary in size and thickness. Large amounts of pottery were found interspersed among the bricks as well as fragments of a faience bowl. This vessel, an Egyptian import, was decorated in black with a frieze of lotus petals. Bearing, in ‘cartouches’, the throne- and birth-names of Queen Tawosret, this is a rare attestation of the queen outside the borders of Egypt. Tawosret ruled independently as the last pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty, around 1188-1186 BC, and used the full titulary of a king.

On one fragment the inscription reads ‘[…], who repels the foreign lands, Sovereign of Upper and Lower Egypt, Lady [i.e. ‘possessor’] of Lands, Lady of Strength’. The adjoining second fragment reads ‘Lady of Action, Satra-Meryt-Amun [lit. ‘Daughter of Ra, Beloved of Amun’], and a third completes this with ‘[Ta]wosret [lit. ‘She of the (goddess) Wosret’], chosen one of [Ra]’. Following this final name is part of the same name but written in reverse orientation, showing that the two halves of the cup were decorated with antithetically arranged inscriptions of parallel content. Above this line of text there are traces of another, much effaced and mostly broken away, but including remnants of the same queen’s cartouches. We owe the reading of these fragments to Marcel Marée, curator at the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum.

The Iron Age at Sidon has been excavated since 2003 and was found to be relatively well preserved in one area. Fifth century pits as well as fourth century floors associated with walls were found. No coherent architectural outline could be discerned from the mid-8th century. Instead a series of four plaster floors with a mortar layer underneath were found. Cypriote sherds and one Euboean skyphos of the sub-protogeometric type with pendant semi-circles were found on the floors. In each case every floor level by its very nature had accumulated these remains over a period of time. The assessment however at this stage of the time span between each occupation remains very difficult. Open forms are the most common type of vessel found. The Cypriot pottery points to 9th to 8th century BC. The local pottery shows comparisons to Tyre and Sarepta.