Archaeological Surveys of Jebel Bishri, The Preliminary Report of the Finnish Mission to Syria, 2005-2006, KASKAL, Vol. 6, pp. 1-42. Minna Lönnqvist with the contributions by Markus Törmä, Kenneth Lönnqvist, Jari Okkonen, Michael Herles, Markus Königsdorfer. (original) (raw)
When the prospected and spotted Roman sites in the central eastern areas of Jebel Bishri near Ash-Shujiri are added, the seasons 2005 and 2006 resulted in the discovery of 50 sites. Of the 50 sites, 34 sites belonged to the systematically surveyed stretch covering 7.5 km at the northeastern edge on the Euphrates side between the villages of Ayyash and El Kharita. The others were Tell Tibne, Tell Kharita and the possible graveyard J 22: they were studied as separate entities. The categories of the 34 sites and their numbers are presented as a column chart below (Table 1). Most of the sites were open accumulated ones on old fluvial terraces at the mountain edge. Of the finds recovered at the terraces and edges the majority date from the Palaeolithic era, whereas some sites provide Bronze Age and Roman pottery. In the graveyard categories there are cairn/tumulus tombs, clay bulb type tombs and Islamic graves. The first two grave types generally offered Early Bronze Age and Middle Bronze Age pottery. What strikes the eye here is the scarcity of ancient structural remains at the edges facing the Euphrates. However, one has to take into account the fact that we passed the village of Ayyash that provides a tell and the Roman fort of Qreiye which have been under the study of a German mission. In the years 2000-2004 surveys concentrated on Tar al-Sbai: the western edge and Nadra in the central eastern area of the steppe had provided more visible ancient structures than the edges at the Euphrates. The reason for the scarcity of the visible structural remains at the edge of the Euphrates seems to be due to flooding and sedimentation that have buried possible structures, but also rebuilding at old sites which hinders studies at courtyards of private houses. However, as expected the variety of the types of the sites on the Euphrates side of Jebel Bishri is more manifold than on the mountain as the ridges along the river are providing different degrees of mobility and sedentism from hunter-gatherer sites to semi-sedentary and sedentary types of sites including monumental structures.
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The Finnish mission has identified and recorded all together ca. 150 sites in the region of Jebel Bishri so far. 73 were found during the year 2000 field survey, and 77 in the years 2003-2004 during the prospections and field surveys. According to our experimental field surveys, tombs, mainly cairns/tumuli, and curvilinear stone enclosures, including corrals and megalithic circles, form the majority of the site types in inner desert-steppe and steppe regions of Jebel Bishri. From those the tombs and cemeteries clearly form the largest category. The tombs as well as complexes with large stone enclosures and tombs of megalithic nature indicate ritual ideas that did not directly have to be associated with animal husbandry. However, they typically belong to the pastoral technocomplex of the Greater Southwest Asian Arid Zone extending to the Negev and Sinai (cf. Zarins 1992). There were clear indications that high places, such as hilltops and mountain edges, were preferred for burying deceased in cairns/tumuli all over Jebel Bishri. For cairn burials, especially during the Bronze Age, high places have been globally preferred. Landscape, visibility and beliefs in heights seem to have affected in the choice of locations around Jebel Bishri, but also the territorial tribal marking by graves have to be taken into account. In this instance it is relevant to remind that Tar al-Sbai is nowadays the border zone of two Bedouin tribes, and tombs bearing the signs of the Feda"an tribe were allocated at the edge to mark the border of the Sba"a and the Feda"an tribes.
Results of the Nordic Research Training Seminar held in Syria, May 2004, are presented. The international team also participated in the Finnish Archaeological Mission to Syria, SYGIS, in 2004, in the surveying, mapping and exploration of Jebel Bishri at the Euphrates (see, p. v).
Neo-Lithics 1/07: 9-13
Editorial Dunand M. 1973 L'architecture, les tombes, le matériel domestique, des origines néolithiques à l'avènement urbain, Fouilles de Byblos, tome V. Paris: Librairie d'Amérique et d'Orient, Adrien Maisonneuve. Garfinkel Y.
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