Lebanon
Tyre – 2015

Éveha International has participated in the Tyre project since 2011, by producing the site plans. Xavier Husson therefore went to the site from 5-25 October, where his role involved conducting the topographical and architectural surveys, as well as survey of the excavation trenches aimed at reconstructing and interpreting the site’s large structures. This work was carried out in conjunction with the project’s architects and archaeologists. As the site covers approximately 8.6 hectares and has a large density of structures, the survey required a considerable amount of fieldwork. The research questions of the 2015 study were spread across several zones of the archaeological site:

– The zone situated to the west of the cathedral in Sector 1

– The north-western corner of the tiered monument in Sector 2

– The zone to the west of the western palaestra in Sector 3

– The martyrium in Sector 4, for some final measurements

All of the work was undertaken in collaboration with architects Gérard Charpentier (USR Maison de l’Orient), Catherine Duvette (UMR Archimède, Strasbourg), Emmanuelle Devaux (IFPO Beirut), Hany Khawagi-Jahno (University of Kaslik) and Claudine Piaton (INHA), as well as archaeologists Patrick Feirrara (INRAP), Maha Hachem El-Masri (UL), Elsy Trad (Masters Student, UL) and Bilal Annan (Doctoral student, intern).

In Sector 1, survey of the area to the west of the cathedral continued, in particular as a result of the discovery of new remains, made visible by a decrease in vegetation this year. In Sector 2, an excavation trench was dug in the north-western part of the tiered building to explore its layout and chronology. Additional architectural survey was carried out to obtain a 1:50 scale plan of the area. In Sector 3, the study of the western palaestra continued with the digging of a new trench and a topographical survey at 1:25 scale.

Regarding the Sector 4 cluster with its central martyrium, the architectural study of the ensemble was already nearing completion, so only a small number of points were measured in order to refine the plans and to enable the repositioning of certain elements for illustrative purposes, using orthophotography.

One of the new developments this year, apart from the on-site work, was to use some of the time for post-excavation work, vectorisation and formatting of the surveys which formed the basis of the architectural study. This activity is set to increase as part of the publication currently being prepared, which is a review of the work carried out between 2008 and 2013.