Current Research Projects
CBRL supports the following projects:
Ancient Jerusalem (1961-present)
CBRL Publication ProjectDr Kay Prag (University of Manchester)
Project Website
Publication Team members: Dr Helen Brown, Dr Kevin Butcher, Dr G. Clarke, Pre B. Couroyer OP, Mr A. Dimoulinis. Dr C. Grigson, Dr John Hayes, Professor C. Koehler, Dr P. Mattheson, Professor Michael Metcalf, Dr M. al-Moreikhi, Dr K. Prag, Professor Richard Reece, Dr David S. Reese, Dr St J. Simpson, Ms D. Snow
Volumes I to V published.
Aqaba Castle, Jordan (2000-present)
Research Award, Affiliated ProjectProf Denys Pringle (University of Cardiff) and Prof Johnny De Meulemeester (Heritage Dept Walloon Government and Ghent University), Department of Antiquities, Jodan
Post-excavation work forming part of an archaeological assessment to characterize and date the late Mamluk castle’s phases of structural development and investigate the remains of earlier structures beneath it. The aims of the 2003 project were: to finish the survey and analysis of the standing structure; to determine whether there was any direct structural connection between the earlier excavated phases and the present building by excavating a larger area in the north-western part of the castle; and to attempt to broaden our knowledge of the pottery and material culture of Ayla/al-‘Aqaba from the end of the Fatimid period onwards.
The Azraq Basin Project
Dr Andrew Garrard (University College London)
The Barqa Landscape Survey Project
Affiliated Project, Research AwardProf John Grattan (University of Wales, Aberystwyth) and Dr Russell Adams (McMaster University)
Beidha Conservation and Presentation
CBRL Staff ProjectProf Bill Finlayson (CBRL), University of Edinburgh and the Department of Antiquities, Jordan
A joint project with Dr Mohammed Najjar (Dept of Antiquities) and Samantha Dennis (PhD student) to protect the important Neolithic site of Beidha and demonstrate how sites of this period may be presented to the public. This is also supported by the British Embassy (Amman) and has now developed EU links (Germany and Denmark) in the development of small-scale tourism with direct economic gains for the local population.
Beyond a landscape of tells: subsistence, society and interaction within the basalt environs of Homs, Syria
Junior Visiting FellowshipJennie Bradbury (University of Durham)
Borders of Arabia and Palaestina
Affiliated ProjectDr Kate Da Costa (University of Sydney)
Project Website
Developing a new archaeological methodology to more accurately detect the lines of Roman provincial borders. Although the Roman Empire was divided into some 50 provinces by the reign of Diocletian, and 100 provinces by 400 AD, we do not know the actual lines of the borders between them. Luckily, there is abundant archaeological evidence in the form of local ceramics. Trade in these ceramics was limited and distorted by customs duty on major provincial borders. Our case-study will sample sites, and determine whether their ceramics are Palaestinian or Arabian. The border of the provinces must lie between them.
Bronze Age ceramics, NW Syria
Travel grantSilvia Perini (University of Edinburgh)
The Citadel of Jerusalem: an archaeological and architectural study
Affiliated ProjectDr Mahmoud Hawari (University of Oxford)
Contextualising Late Neolithic Cyprus
Research AwardDr Joanne Clarke (University of East Anglia)
Crop growing and burial experiments to determine the effect of irrigation and diagenesis on the carbon and nitrogen stable isotope composition of cereals
Travel grantPascal Flohr (University of Reading)
Crusader period settlements, Jordan
Junior Visiting Research FellowshipMicaela Sinibaldi (Cardiff University)
Dating framework for Levantine Rivers
Research Award, Affiliated ProjectDr David Bridgland (University of Durham)
Project Website
Project to provide a new framework for Lower and Middle Palaeolithic archaeology in the Levant by obtaining age estimates from fluvial terrace deposits that are repositories of archaeological material. Sequences in the rivers Orontes and Euphrates will be targeted using luminescence, uranium series, and potassium/argon dating techniques.
Dhra’ Excavation
CBRL Staff projectProf Bill Finlayson (CBRL) and Ian Kuijt (University of Notre Dame)
Project Website
Multi-disciplinary project that seeks to recover data on the transition from foraging to farming. Dhra’ is the only known apparently sedentary village from the PPNA outside the Mediterranean woodland zone and contains data critical to the PPNA social and economic adaptations. Final field season completed 2005.
Ecological change in Levantine uplands, Syria
Travel grantDarren Jeffers (University of Oxford)
Epipalaeolithic Foragers in Azraq Project
Affiliated Project, Research AwardDr Jay Stock (Cambridge), Dr Lisa Maher (Cambridge), and Dr Tobias Richter (Copenhagen and Cambridge)
The End of Mamluk Dhiban
Affiliated ProjectDr Bruce Routledge (University of Liverpool)
A study of the abandonment of a Mamluk village and its use in the Ottoman period, representative of an important phenomenon in the shaping of modern Jordan. The project will integrate archaeological research, sustainable site development and direct community engagement in heritage interpretation, management and presentation .
Excavations at Al-Andarin (Androna) Syria
Research AwardDr 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
Frankish and Muslim urban fortifications, Levant
Travel grantAmanda Charland (University of Glasgow)
The funerary topography of Petra
Junior Visiting Research FellowshipDr Lucy Wadeson (University of Oxford)
Geographies of Apartment dwelling in Ramallah
Pilot fundingDr Christopher Harker (Durham University)
Impact and value of Neolithic trail, Jordan
Travel grantPaul Burtenshaw (University College London)
Iraqi refugees in Syria: what can they us about state sovereignty?
Junior Visiting Research FellowshipSophia Hoffman (SOAS)
Iraqi refugees repatriation from Jordan and Syria
Travel grantVanessa Iaria (University of Sussex)
The Israeli prison as Palestinian university
Senior Visiting Research FellowshipDr Thomas Hill (INALCO)
Jerablus-Tahtani
Affiliated ProjectProf Edgar Peltenburg (University of Edinburgh)
Inter-disciplinary primary research programme designed to investigate the precocious expansion of the Uruk civilization, secondary state formation in Early Bronze Age Syria, environmental and political reasons for widespread urban recession in the late 3rd millennium BC in the Near East and the early history of archaeologically inaccessible Carchemish.
Final manuscripts now being produced.
Khirbat Faris Post Excavation and Publication Project
CBRL Publication ProjectAlison McQuitty (CBRL Honorary Fellow)
Project Website
The Khirbet al-Mafjar Archaeological Project
Research AwardDr Mahmoud Hawari (Birzeit University, University of Oxford)
Institutionalising gender (Jordan)
Junior Visiting Research FellowshipMarta Pietrobelli (SOAS)
Integration of immigrants from Soviet Union to Israel
Junior Visiting Research FellowshipEduard Reitenbach (SOAS)
Land of Carchemish
Research AwardProf Tony Wilkinson (University of Durham), Prof Eddie Peltenburg (University of Edinburgh)
Sub-surface investigation of the buried landscape of the area around Carcemish in Syria.
Levant Company records, Jerusalem
Travel grantDr Simon Mills
Lithic procurement strategies, Cyprus
Travel grantSandra Rosendahl (University of Leicester)
Music and Music Policy (Cyprus)
Research AwardProf Thomas James Samson (Royal Holloway)
Nationalism, Heritage and Tourism: the case of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
Travel grantSuleiman Farajat (Leeds Metropolitan University)
National Identity and Foreign Policy, Jordan
Research AwardDr Lars Berger (Salford University)
Necropolis at Kissonerga, Cyprus
Travel grantLisa Graham (University of Edinburgh)
The Palestinian reform and development plan: promoting development in a conflict-country context
Research GrantDr Mandy Turner (University of Bradford)
Peace interventions and East-West interface (Cyprus)
Pilot fundingDr Audra Mitchell (St Andrews University)
Political mobilization of Shi’ite community, Lebanon
Travel grantJehan Saleh (CBRL)
Publication of Jarash Hippodrome Excavations 1984-1996
CBRL Honorary Fellowship ProjectDr Antoni Ostrasz (d.1996) (DoA [1983-1996], University of Warsaw) and Dr Ina Kehrberg (CBRL Honorary Fellow, DoA [1983-1998], University of Sydney)
The importance of the publications of the Jarash Hippodrome lies in its unique architectural components, their study and the complete material history of the site from pre-construction, to planning and building, to chariot racing and industrial occupancy allowing a rare and complex insight into workshop organizations and mass production of ceramics in the first seven centuries AD. Unlike most monuments at Jerash and other Jordanian Decapolis cities, the hippodrome encapsulates an uninterrupted and integer sequence of commercial enterprises, political events, cultural trends, and natural disasters which befell and shaped the townships of Roman Gerasa and Byzantine Jarash from the Early Roman period to the Umayyads .
The Qadisha Valley Project (Lebanon)
Research Award, Affiliated ProjectDr Andrew Garrard (University College London) & Dr Corine Yazbeck (St.
Joseph's University Beirut)
Team Members: Dr Martin Bates (University of Wales, Lampeter), Dr
Gassia Artin (University of Lyon)
The Qadisha Valley Project was initiated to explore the adaptations of Palaeolithic and Neolithic communities to the highly mesic forested environments of the north Lebanese Mountains. Following a first season of survey, three seasons of excavations were undertaken at two adjacent cave sites at Moghr el Ahwal. These revealed a well preserved Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic sequence extending back to the last glacial maximum (see project website).
Rebranding the Levant
Affiliated Project
Prof Claudio Minca and Dr Jessica Jacobs (Royal Holloway)
Project Website
Reconciliation, integration and right of return (Lebanon/Palestine)
Pilot fundingDr Ruba Salih (University of Exeter)
Religious inscriptions during the period of Islamic expansion
Travel grantJessica Ehinger (Oxford University)
Ramla Publication Project
Affiliated ProjectProf 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)
CBRL Staff ProjectDr Jaimie Lovell (CBRL)
Project Website
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.
Safaitic Database, Syria
Research AwardDr Michael Macdonald (University of Oxford), with the DGAM of Syria
The Safaitic inscriptions are graffiti carved by nomads on the rocks of the desert in southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia from 1st-4th Century AD. They are the only first-hand source for information about the history, way of life and language of these nomads. This project will create an electronic database of all known Safaitic inscriptions (about 30,000) making it possible to produce new editions of the inscriptions as well as indexes and concordances of their content.
Safaitic Epigraphic Survey Project
Research AwardDr Michael Macdonald (University of Oxford), with the DGAM of Syria
Its aims are to (a) identify the sites in southern Syria where Safaitic inscriptions were discovered in the 19th and 20th centuries and to record them accurately on maps. (b) to rediscover and photograph as many as possible of the Safaitic inscriptions copied at these sites by early travelers, so that their readings can be verified before they are entered in the Safaitic Database. (c) to make systematic and comprehensive surveys of each of these sites, and others discovered by the SESP, to record all the epigraphic material present including the large numbers of previously unrecorded texts. There have been four season of fieldwork in which over 4000 inscriptions were recorded and there are plans for a two-volume final report.
Settlement and Landscape Development in the Homs region, Syria
CBRL ProjectDr 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
Shuaib Hisban Project (1965-)
Research AwardDr Kay Prag (University of Manchester)
Project Website
A regional survey and excavations undertaken since 1965.
Spirally fluted columns
Senior Visiting Research FellowshipDr Edmund Thomas (Durham University)
State and politics of Druze in Israel
Travel grantAmir Khnifess (SOAS)
Statebuilding as Exclusion: (Re-)Defining Palestine
Affiliated ProjectDr Mandy Turner (University of Bradford)
Study of an old 'Mandatory' quarter in full transformation: Sha'laan, Damascus
Research AwardDr Dawn Chatty (Oxford University)
Taming the insurgent city. Investigating the role of urban development in reducing the potential for crisis in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon
Travel grantMonika Halkort (Queen's University, Belfast)
Tel Jezreel Post-Excavation and Publication: The Joint Tel Aviv University and British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem Excavations directed by David Ussishkin and John Woodhead, 1990-96
CBRL Publication ProjectDr Charlotte Whiting (CBRL Honorary Research Fellow) and Prof Bill
Finlayson (CBRL)
Project Website
Drawing together of previous work of a former BSAJ excavation to bring the results to publication.
Tell Nebi Mend Publication Project
CBRL Publication ProjectPeter Parr (University College London)
Previously part-funded by the British Academy, this project is now a fully-funded CBRL backlog publication project.
Travels of/into Arab Cinema
Research AwardDr Kay Dickinson (Goldsmiths College, University of London)
Troodos Archaeological and Environmental Survey (TAESP)
Pilot FundingDr Michael Given and Prof Bernard Knapp (University of Glasgow), Prof Jay Noller (Oregon State University), and Dr Vasiliki Kassianidou (University of Cyprus)
Project Website
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
CBRL Honorary Research Fellowship ProjectDenis Genequand (CBRL Honorary Research Fellow & Service cantonal d’archéologie, Genève) and 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)
Umm el-Biyara (Jordan)
Pilot fundingProf Piotr Bienkowski (Manchester University)
Urban memory in divided Nicosia
Travel grantAnita Bakshi (University of Cambridge)
Villages of Crusader Transjordan: a survey of archaeological resources
Travel grantMicaela Sinibaldi (Cardiff University)
Wadi Faynan 16 Excavation Project
CBRL Staff ProjectProfs Bill Finlayson (CBRL) and Steven Mithen (Reading University) and Dr Mohammad Najjar (Jordan's Landscapes Tours)
Following the 2007 publication of results of survey and trial excavations in the Faynan region on Palaeolithic to aceramic Neolithic occupations. A major grant was awarded by the AHRC to fund a large-scale excavation at the PPNA site of WF16.
Wadi Rayyan, Ajlun (2001-2006)
CBRL Staff ProjectDr Jaimie Lovell (CBRL)
Investigation of olive production and the Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age transition in the Southern Levant. Funded by Australian Research Council and affiliated with CBRL.
Water, Life and Civilisation
CBRL ProjectProf Steven Mithen and team (University of Reading)
Project Website
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.
Western Cyprus during the Bronze Age
Research Award, Affiliated ProjectDr Lindy Crewe (Manchester University)
Women of Hamas: Social and political activism since 1987
Senior visiting fellowshipDr Marion Boulby (Trent University)
In recent years researchers working on the material culture of the later Neolithic period in Cyprus (ca 7000-4000 cal. BC) have recognised technological and typological affinities with the chipped stone, ground stone and pottery of the central and northern coastal Levant. Possible connections with the mainland at this time have been alluded to in several publications but the evidence is, as yet, anecdotal and based exclusively on published material. Even so, there has been some wider discussion of the significance of these affinities for our understanding of the transmission of materials, knowledge and ideas. Without comparative studies of the artefact assemblages from the Levant it seems that this line of enquiry for Cypriot researchers has now reached an impasse.