Posted on 11/02/2002 3:59:00 PM PST by blam
Archaeologists unearth Tyre’s Phoenician roots
Dig uncovers 12 burial jars
Spanish archaeologists discovered a Phoenician cemetery containing 12 jars during excavations in Tyre on Friday, one of them reported.
“We have discovered 12 earthenware jars of various sizes, filled with burned up bones and ashes at the southern entrance of Tyre,” Maria Eugenia Aubet told AFP. Aubet said her team “hopes to find gold jewelry under the ashes, which date back to between the ninth and 10th century before Christ.”
“The Phoenicians used to bury their dead in jars along with their jewelry after incinerating their bodies,” she said.
The team from Barcelona’s Pomper Fabria University is excavating under the supervision of the Directorate-General of Antiquities.
In 1997, Spanish archaeologists made a similar discovery in the same area, unearthing several clay jars containing cremated human remains in a 3,000-year-old cemetery. It was the first such discovery in the city, fueling speculation that the jars could provide clues to Tyre’s Phoenician origins.
According to archeologists, the excavation revealed evidence of a period when Tyre was at the center of Phoenician expansion, with the ancient traders establishing colonies at Carthage modern-day Tunisia and Cadiz in Spain.
“Tyre was the most famous and powerful Phoenician metropolis on the Syrian-Lebanese coast at that time,” said Aubet.
Tyre was one of the great city states established by Phoenicians who populated the Levant between 3,000 BC and 300 BC. It was King Hiram of Tyre who provided King Solomon with the wood for the construction of the Temple of Jerusalem.
While the city has long been renowned for its Roman and Greek ruins, little evidence remains of its Phoenician past.
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Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
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Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution. |
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