The site of Ayn Soukhna in the northern Gulf of Suez, identified in 1999, has been excavated by a French-Egyptian mission (IFAO, CNRS, Sorbonne, Suez Canal University) since 2001. It was one of the three known Pharaonic intermittent harbours and logistic platforms for Egyptian expeditions, mainly to the South Sinai mining area (copper, turquoise). It was a key feature of the Pharaonic network in the Red Sea. Ayn Soukhna was, of these three harbours, the longest and most regularly occupied. The two...

The city of Tiberias is located on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in modern day Israel (32°46" N, 35°32" E). It was founded in 19 CE by King Herod Antipas, and was continuously occupied until the Crusader conquest in 1099 CE. The Hebrew University’s excavations directed by the late Prof. Yizhar Hirschfeld exposed remains from all periods, including a Roman palace, simple dwellings, a luxurious late antique mansion, urban infrastructure such as streets and sewage systems, and a commercial and administrative center from the Early Islamic period when the...

Tel Hadar (Sheikh Khadr) is a well-stratified mound in the central Levant, located on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee (32°51’2.96 “N, 35°38’58.46 “E). It was excavated between 1987 and 1998 by the late Moshe Kochavi and Pirhiya Beck as part of the “Land of Geshur Regional Project.” Despite its relatively small size, the finds from the excavations have immense importance for understanding the cultural interactions between Syria and the southern Levant in the Bronze and Iron Ages and for the chronology...

Founded by Tarquinia in the last quarter of the 4th century BC, the city of Musarna (44°24'43.44 "N - 11°58'35.40 "E) occupies a central position within the vast territory of the great Etruscan metropolis. Along with other contemporary foundations, it was intended simultaneously to counter the Roman advance and to exploit the agricultural resources of the hinterland. Research carried out on the site by the École française de Rome between 1983 and 2003 has enabled to reconstruct the rigorously orthogonal layout of the city, to excavate several sectors of the settlement, to study the...

...

The village and its surrounds: Excavations, architecture and artefacts

This project will see the publication of fieldwork from 1979–86 at the Workmen’s Village (27° 38’ N, 30° 54’ E) associated with the pharaonic Egyptian city of Akhetaten (modern Amarna). Akhetaten was built by...

The Valley of the Kings (KV) is most...

The House of Fourni has been built in Delos, located 37°39143” North and 25°26947” East, in the heart of the Cyclades and off Mykonos. In ancient times it was considered a sacred island, the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis, and despite its small size, it experienced exceptional urban and economic development. The House of Fourni is a vast house-complex built outside the urban centre, in an intermediate area organised around the bay of Fourni which...

"Die Glyptik der mittelassyrischen Zeit aus Dūr-Katlimmu"

During the reigns of the Middle-Assyrian kings Shalmaneser I (1263-1234 BC) and Tukulti-Ninurta I (1233-1197 BC) the city of Dur-Katlimmu, that is modern Tell Sheikh Hamad on the Habur in Syria (35° 37’’ N, 40° 45’’ E), served as a supra regional center/capital headed by a grand vizier administrating and controlling the western part of the empire. We owe this knowledge from an archive of 666 registered...

Located in North Syria, on the left bank of the Euphrates river (36° 47’ 14’’ North, 38° 02’ 09’’ East), Tell Shiukh Fawqâni is one of the key-sites for investigating the still poorly known period marked by the collapse of the Hittite Empire and by the destruction of several important cities such as Ugarit and Emar. Its cremation graveyard, discovered by chance about 70m north of the tell base, yielded 128 cremation graves dated to the end of the Late Bronze Age and to the beginning of the Iron Age. Most of the graves were untouched: the excellent state of...

Because of its unique stratigraphic sequence ranging from the Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (8th millennium cal. BC) to the Late Pottery Neolithic (6th ...

Lachish (Tell ed-Duweir) was a major Canaanite city in the second millennium BCE, and the second most important city in the kingdom of Judah after Jerusalem. The top of the large mound covers an area of 7.5 hectares. The main interest of our expedition was Level V, the first Iron Age city at the site. We uncovered a previously unknown city-wall of Level V, dated radiometrically to the late 10^th century BC. This clarifies the debate about when Lachish was first fortified in the Iron Age. A rich destruction level was found in Level...