Long-term landscape and settlement studies: The relationship between people, past and present, and their built and natural environment

Survey has been and continues to be one of the great archaeological strengths of CBRL with major survey projects such as research in Wadi Faynan in Jordan (which involved teams and staff from 15 UK universities), studying prehistoric settlement, the transition to sedentism, water management and agriculture, the changing natural environment, and the effects of pollution (ancient and modern) from copper mining and processing. Survey in the Homs region in Syria has developed a sophisticated and highly integrated use of high and low satellite data and ground truthing to examine long-term landscape change, with spin off projects studying landscape aspects such as Roman agriculture, and the dating of river terraces containing Palaeolithic remains. Recent multi-period survey in the Troodos mountains in Cyprus has also been looking at long-term land use and settlement patterns in an area away from the better known coastal fringes. A significant aspect of all these surveys has been their multi-disciplinary nature, involving archaeologists, geomorphologists, geologists, anthropologists and architects. This relationship is most directly expressed by the availability and use of water. It cross cuts many of the other themes and is as important to the present as it was to the past. In addition to environmental research, projects supported by CBRL are engaged in such issues as tourism and water management and the social and religious acceptability of the use of grey water as a resource. This topic has a close fit with current British and EU interests within the region.
CBRL has been supporting the following projects:

Badia Development Project
Jordanian Higher Council for Science and Technology
Royal Geographical Society (UK)
Durham University.
This is a long-term initiative (running for 10 years so far) where CBRL has supported a series of sub-projects and provided a base for visiting senior academics and postgraduate scholars.

Constructing landscapes of home: Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon
Adam Ramadan (UCL, PhD Project)

Crusader Churches Corpus
Prof Denys Pringle (Cardiff University)
Former BSAJ Project, compiling a detailed corpus of all the church buildings constructed or in use in the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th and 13th centuries. Vol III (Jerusalem) is now in pres with Cambridge UP and is due to appear in February 2007. Vol IV (Acre, Tyre with addenda) will go to press in spring/summer 2007 and is about to be submitted to Cambridge UP.

Dayr Mar Elian, Syria
Dr Emma Loosely University of Manchester
Examination of the archaeological record of this mudbrick monastery in an oasis village on the Palmyra-Damascus trade route and positioning of this monument within the wider sacred and social landscape of the region

Evaluation of Cerona imagery, case study in West Syria
Nikolaos Galiatsatos (University of Durham, PhD Research)

Evaluation of high and low resolution satellite imagery for aerial survey in Syria
Anthony Beck (University of Durham, PhD Research)

Excavations at Al-Andarin (Androna) Syria
Dr Marlia Mango (University of Oxford) with teams from Hama Museum, Syria and Heidelberg University
Work to distinguish and date developmental phases from Roman to Byzantine to Islamic and assess technological and financial resources. Use of survey, excavation and study to clarify the environmental position of the site regarding water management and agriculture, its defensive organization and settlement layout

From water every living thing: Perceptions and use of water in the Ayybid and Mamluk Levant
Charlotte Schriwer (St. Andrews University, PhD Research)
Water, mill technology and agriculture in Crusader-period Syria and Jordan

Identifying Ancient Land Use through the Functional Ecology of Crop Weeds
Dr Michael Charles (Sheffield University)
CBRL Affliliated project

Ramla
Prof Denys Pringle (Cardiff University)
Former BSAJ Project, producing an archaeological and historical assessment of the city of Ramla AC c715-1917

Ritual landscapes in the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age (4500-3000 BCE)
Dr Jaimie Lovell (CBRL Amman Research Officer)
Mortuary practice is a key element for understanding socio-political structures. In Jordan there are various Chalcolithic - EBA burial types: dolmen fields, cist tombs, grave circles and occasional intramural burials, but there are no known cave tombs is there are in Palestine. Recent discoveries west of the Jordan River at Nahal Qanah, Peqi'in, Kissufim Road, Givat Ha-Oranim, Horvat Castra, Shoham (Nth) and others have demonstrated clearly that the Chalcolithic ossuary cave sites can no longer been seen to be confined to the coastal plain. Our 2006 survey project will focus on Chalcolithic burial caves and investigate limestone formations in Jordan where karstic caves are likely to be found in the hope of identifying Chalcolithic use of these caves.

Settlement and Development in the Basalt Region of Homs, Syria
Dr Paul Newson (University of Durham)
A spin-off from the larger Durham survey project in the Homs region that is now funded by the BA and is an affiliated project

Settlement and Landscape Development in the Homs region, Syria (1999-2008)
Dr Graham Philip and Dr Paul Newson (University of Durham)
Dr Michel Maqdissi (DGAM Damascus)
Dr Maamoun Abdulkarim (University of Damascus)
Investigation of long-term trends in landscape development and diversity in Homs region using a combination of mapping from remotely sensed and ground data, surface collection, fieldwalking, and geomorphological investigations.
Team members: Dr Anthony Beck, Dr Stephen Bourke, Ms Maryam Bshesh (DGAM, Homs), Dr Anne Pirie, Dr Paul Reynolds, Mr Andy Shaw, Dr Keith Wilkinson

Settlement on the Syrian Littoral 11th-13th Centuries
Balazs Major (Cardiff University, PhD Research)

Troodos Archaeological and Environmental Survey (TAESP)
Dr Michael Given  and Prof Bernard Knapp (University of Glasgow)
Prof Jay Noller (Oregon State University)
Dr Vasiliki Kassianidou (University of Cyprus)
Interdisciplinary investigation of the relationship between people and their landscape in the northern foothills of the Troodos Mountains, from Neolithic to the present day. Now funded by AHRC. Investigated human activity across the landscape during all time periods, using intensive archaeological and geomorphological survey. A successful example of a project funding by CBRL followed by a major award from AHRC. Final report in preparation.

Umayyad settlements, Qasr Al-Hayr Al-Sharqi, Palmyrena, Syria
Denis Genequand (CBRL Research Fellow, Service cantonal d’archéologie, Genève, Walid al-As‘ad DGAM, Palmyra)
Part of a larger project researching the economic role of the Umayyad desert castles.
Team Members: Sophie Reynard (Paris, F), Marlu Kühn (IPNA-Basel, CH), Christian de Reynier (SPMS-Neuchâtel, CH), Cyril Achard (Université de Paris IV, F)

Wadi Faynan Survey, Jordan
Profs Graeme Barker (Cambridge University)
David Mattingly and David Gilbertson (University of Leicester and other UK universities)
Study of the environmental and landscape context of later prehistory and historical periods in Faynan, as part of CBRL's Faynan Flagship Project flagship project. Final report nearing completion
 
Water, Life and Civilisation
Prof Steven Mithen et al (Reading University)
Multi-disciplinary project developing climate models for the last 20,000 years and predictive models up to 2100AD and examining these in terms of past human activities and future development. A five-year Leverhulme Trust project commenced at the end of 2004.
The project's first newsletter (October 2006) can be found here.
 

Additional Activities:

• Workshop held in Durham University (connecting CBRL and BIAA survey projects).

• Major publications from the Faynan projects are in the process of publication with the Levant Supplementary Series.

Top