Archaeology Magazine - July/August 1996 - 110

Lebanese or foreigners - supported me. They did not
inexperienced students were hired, and backhoes were
used extensively. Three small teams from Germany and
even draw basic conclusions from the evidence they were
France came for a few weeks each. Kowatly was asked to
of
a
section
of
1994
such
as
the
discovery
July
gathering,
fill out the legal forms allowing the bulldozers to proceed.
Middle Bronze Age city wall, confirming the location of
In January 1995 bulldozers dug deep into the ancient tell,
Beirut's ancient tell, which should have been protected
and integrated into the Master Plan.
cutting through a Middle Bronze Age tomb. When
The incompetence of UNESCO's administration was
Kowatly protested, he was replaced by Hans Curvers, an
such that SOLIDERE, which wanted to hasten archaeoarchaeologist from the Netherlands.
Meanwhile bulldozers kept digging sewers that will not
in
it
called
the
old
a
sector
of
the
downtown
work
logical
be operative until they are linked to a purification plant
souks before constructing a giant underground parking
that will not be built for a few years; two parallel boulelot, contracted directly with archaeologists. A British
team started excavating in the old souks in June 1994
vards, separated by only a hundred yards, that will not
be linked to the metroand was joined for a
few weeks in the sumpolitan road network for
mer by two small teams
many years; and an unfrom the Netherlands,
derground parking lot
for 2,700 cars. These
and in October by a
are the altars on which
Lebanese team of one
were
sacrificed the old
a
and
few
archaeologist
students. The hiring of
souks, which preserved
Beirut's 2,500-year-old
archaeologists outside
urban grid, and the anthe UNESCO program
cient tell with its unique
was ratified by the Mintreasures.
of
Culture
on
NoBy May 1995
istry
more than 3.5 million
vember 9, 1994. Infra-
cubic feet of archaeologstructure
work was 5f
o
ical deposits had been
scheduled to begin at X
u<
lost. I described this in
the end of 1994, after 5
the daily newspaper
which the archaeologists §
bulldozerscut through this eighteenth-centuryB.c.tomb of a child.
would have to vacate
Dyar as the "greatest arthe area to make way
chaeological disaster of
the century. It was the last time the Lebanese press
for the bulldozers. By November 9 barely 3,588 square
would publish my views on the matter. The promoters
yards, out of a total area of 71,760 in the old souks area,
and the minister of culture stepped up their public relahad been studied, and none of the deposits had been extions campaign, denying that anything had been thrown
cavated to bedrock. The archaeologists had only seven
into the sea. Favorable reports soon appeared in Le
weeks to complete the excavation of the old souks.
Monde, L'Express, Archeologia
Work on the infrastructure began six weeks ahead of
, The Economist
, and Time.
UNESCO's secretary general, Federico Mayor, came
schedule. The bulldozers started their first trench on Noto Lebanon in July 1995 and declared Beirut to be
vember 15 and 16, 1994, scooping out 282,480 cubic
feet of the ancient tell, which was then thrown into the
"spectacular, unique in the world and a treasure of humankind." His words, however, did not stop the bulldozsea. The contractor had forgotten to notify Ibrahim
ers. Mayor proposed some minor improvements to the
Kowatly, the lone archaeologist UNESCO had hired to
monitor the bulldozers for Phase 3. Kowatly was not offiprogram, but by January 1996 these had still not been
implemented. Meanwhile more than 7 million cubic feet
cially notified that the work had begun until December
of Beirut's ancient past were gone forever. The bulldoz7, a week after he had gone to the site and found the
ers were still digging when SOLIDERE announced that
trench already dug.
month that the "archaeological excavations were nearly
My wife and I embarked on a month of frantic contacts with the minister of culture and SOLIDERE. When
completed." In a span of 14 months the bulldozers had
these efforts came to naught, I turned to the local press
utterly destroyed much of ancient Beirut. Soon nothing
will be left of it. No provision has yet been made for the
and the international news agencies, calling for a concerted and well-funded international rescue operation. Only
archaeological study of the private lots that SOLIDERE
has already started selling, and the Lebanese Antiquity
Rabbani, the parliamentarian who had organized the
Law is still being circumvented.
July 1993 workshop, backed us. The developers' reaction
was cosmetic. The British and Lebanese University teams
Albert F.H. Naccache, a native of Beirut, holds a Ph.D.
working in the old souks were given a few more months
but were asked, like the skeletal teams working elsewhere,
from the Universityof California, Berkeley,and teachesancient
to speed up their work and tackle larger areas. The side
Mashriqian(Semitic)languagesin the archaeology
departmentof the
LebaneseUniversityin Beirut.
sections of some bulldozed trenches were "studied." Many

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Archaeology Magazine - July/August 1996

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