Cultural Heritage in Lebanon

American Anthropologist, 2017

The article exposes the history of Heritage Management in Lebanon since the end of the 19th century. It shows the weaknesses and the success stories in relation to Heritage Management in Lebanon and presents orientations for a better future in this domain.

2015

An assessment of the state of archaeology in Lebanon

Proceedings of International Structural Engineering and Construction

Lebanon is a country with a complex multitude of historical events, a conflicting built environment and a wide range of specimen architectural projects and memorial structures that only partially reflected the intricate complexity of the country. Recently Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, has undergone several stages of profound transformations and urban expansions between 1840 and 1920, after the civil war (1975-1990) which was generated by many intricate dimensions, a vast rural to urban migration brought to Beirut, a numerous population in search of job opportunities. During the reconstruction, Beirut faced unprecedented economic growth and started to be recognized as an emerging city subjected to all the influences of the world globalization. Recently an evident conflict started to afflict the direction of the country development due to the urgent need to start recognizing the values of the neglected heritage that have been affected by massive demolition and abandonment. The debat...

Ancient History Magazine 27, 2020

Home to some of the Middle East’s most majestic ancient ruins, Lebanon has a rich and varied heritage with over 5,000 years of recorded history. Over the millennia, different conquering empires have left their footprints on the architecture and culture of the country. Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, and the various Arab dynasties have all populated its shores, leaving a stunningly rich archaeological history to explore. With its impressive archaeological sites at Baalbek, Byblos, Tyre, and Anjar, all given World Heritage Site status by UNESCO in 1984, Lebanon promises visitors a journey through the annals of some of the world’s greatest civilisations.

2015

Among the cultural production on borderlines in the Middle East, the Hizbullah Museum on the site of “Mleeta” drawn on several aspects that inscribes it as a borderscape as it links politics with aesthetics. Built in 2010 on the former frontline of the Israeli occupied zone in South Lebanon, Mleeta articulate heritage, memory, and leisure with politics, education and morality. As part of the resistance society building, the blurring of the boundaries between tourism, architecture and ideology is done through the specific using that is ordering the landscape and the natural environment of this southern borderland as a vantage ground for its vision of the world. This major transformation of the borderland into a borderscape was render possible because of the transformation of South Lebanon into a Hizbullah’s military stronghold since the end of the 1980s and thanks to a new political trade-off after the Syrian withdrawal of Lebanon (2005) that confirmed its influence over the Lebanese...

Antiquity, 2015

Archaeological and cultural heritage is always at risk of damage and destruction in areas of conflict. Despite legislation to protect sites and minimise the impact of war or civil unrest, much archaeological data is still being lost, not least in the Middle East. Careful research design and methodological recording strategies tailored to sites destroyed by conflict or looting can, however, provide much more information than previously imagined. This is illustrated by a case study focusing on the Roman settlement and temples at Hosn Niha in the Biqaʾ Valley, which were severely damaged in the 1980s during the Lebanese Civil War. Sufficient information was recovered to reconstruct many details, including the chronology and development of the site.

In J. Zeidler andJ. Kila (eds) Cultural Heritage in the Crosshairs: protecting cultural property during conflict. Amsterdam: Brill, 2013

Protecting cultural heritage during armed conflict tends to focus on key cultural properties: institutions such as museums and important historic or archaeological sites, especially World Heritage sites. While protecting these national institutions and sites is of utmost importance, cultural heritage also comes in other less obvious forms. In particular is that of any historic urban landscape: the buildings, places, streetscapes and monuments that define and represent a sense of place, history, memory and identity of that urban area and for the communities that inhabit it. Given the nature of urban warfare, urban cultural heritage is vulnerable to both collateral and intentional damage and destruction. This intentional destruction may, at its extreme, be part of urbicide. Protecting urban cultural heritage from both collateral and intentional destruction is extremely difficult, made more so by a lack of understanding of the broader concept of the historic urban landscape and, beyond major monuments, what may constitute urban cultural heritage. In addition, it would seem that the significance of the destruction of the historic urban landscape as part of the political violence of urbicide is not fully realised. Using Beirut during the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990) as the main case study, this chapter explores the broader concept of the historic urban landscape and its significance; its relationship to and destruction during armed conflict; the relationship of this destruction to urbicide and the destruction of community in time as well as space; and the issue of protecting urban cultural heritage during conflict.

E-International Relations , 2020

Beirut, the Mediterranean port city whose history includes multiple destructions and reconstructions since antiquity, was yet again destroyed on the 4th of August, 2020. The double explosion that originated in its seaport and rocked its capital traveled a 10 km radius east of Beirut, killing more than 200 people, injuring 7000, and damaging more than 8000 buildings. According to the Jordan Seismological Observatory, it was equivalent to a 4.5-magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale and is considered one of the most powerful non-nuclear explosions in history (Verma, 2020). The echo of the enormous blast was felt as far away as Cyprus, about 200 km from Beirut. Local and international media outlets rushed to cover the various aspects of the blast and its aftermath. The arts and culture scene were particularly highlighted because the neighborhoods suffering the greatest damage, Gemmayzeh and Mar Mikhael, are famous for their old historical buildings, and vibrant artistic and cultural scene. Indeed, preliminary damage assessments issued by UNESCO and the Ministry of Culture recorded 640 historical buildings damaged, 60 of which are at risk of collapse. While there has been a great deal of attention focused on the fate of private art galleries and museums like the Sursock museum, a semi-private modern and contemporary art museum, coverage of the effects of the blast on the archaeology museums in Beirut, which too have been damaged, were almost entirely absent. The goal of this piece is thus to focus attention on the effects of the explosion on the cultural heritage of Beirut, and in particular its archaeological museums, and to consider more broadly what the current lack of attention on this sector reveals the systemic issues facing the archaeology of Beirut that implicate local, national, and international policy alike.

Ocean & Coastal Management, 2008

Lebanon is a key region in understanding the development and evolution of seafaring infrastructure and shipping, providing one of the richest and most continuous maritime archaeological records in the Mediterranean. Recent geoarchaeological work at Beirut, Sidon and Tyre has underlined the significance of studying this historical archive and the importance of preserving archaeological resources for the future. All three sites have a rich cultural heritage, both on land and at sea, and the aim of this paper is to precisely outline these areas and propose a protection plan for the immediate future.