Tell el-Burak: 2011 Excavation Season

Funding of the Eighth Season in 2011 within the German-Lebanese „Tell el-Burak Project“

Jens Kamlah (Tübingen); Hélène Sader (Beirut)

Tell el-Burak is located on the southern Lebanese coast, 9 km south of Sidon. Since 2001 a Lebanese- German cooperation project under the direction of Hélène Sader (American University of Beirut) and Jens Kamlah (University of Tübingen) has been investigating the site. The Oriental Department of the German Archaeological Institute (represented by Margarete van Ess) funded several sub-projects. Since 2013 the University of Mainz (represented by Aaron Schmitt) has taken part in the project. Major funds for the project have come from the Gerda Henkel Stiftung and the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung.

Funding from the Deutscher Palästina-Verein supported the eighth season of excavations (10.7. – 7.8.2011). The main goal of this season was to continue the excavations in the Iron Age area, which were interrupted during the years 2005- 2010. During these years a unique Middle Bronze Age palace was investigated intensively at Tell el-Burak.
With the continuation of the excavations in the Iron Age area the project constitutes an important contribution to the archaeology of Lebanon. The aim of this research is to investigate a Phoenician coastal settlement, which existed here – between Sidon and Sarepta – from ca. 700-400 BCE. Excavation results include Phoenician domestic buildings with various building phases, an Iron Age fortification wall and well stratified pottery findings, especially Phoenician as well as imported pottery vessels.

Further Information

J. Kamlah / H. Sader, Deutsch-libanesische Ausgrabungen auf Tell el-Burak südlich von Sidon. Vorbericht nach Abschluss der siebten Kampagne 2010, ZDPV 126/2 (2010), 93 – 115.