Umm al-Amad, Lebanon

The Umm Al Amad site measures more than six hectares. Numerous artefacts from the site are held at the National Museum of Beirut and the Louvre. The site contains two temples, the Temple of Milk‘ashtart and the Eastern Temple with Throne Chapel,Vella, 2000, p. 32 which are estimated to have been built between 287 and 222 BCE.

23 Phoenician Adoration steles have been found at the site depicting upright people in an "adoration gesture", all dating from 100 to 400 BCE.Michelau, 2014, pp. 77–95.

File:Umm al Amad in the Survey of Western Palestine 1880.03 (cropped).jpg

File:Louis-François Cassas, Restes D'un Temple Ionique (from Umm al-Amad, Lebanon).jpg.]]

File:Umm Al-Amad PhoenicianTemples RomanDeckert23112019.jpg

Umm Al Amad was apparently built in the Persian or Hellenistic period, although some scholars have argued for earlier. No buildings from the Roman era were discovered, but there is evidence for Byzantine reoccupation.Vella, 2000, p.32 The original name of the site is uncertain, but may have been Hammon ({{bibleverse|Joshua|19:28}}) or Alexandrouskene.

Umm Al Amad was first depicted in modern times in the 1780s by Louis-François Cassas. Melchior de Vogüé explored the site in 1853.Vella, 2000, p. 31 The site was first excavated in 1861 by Ernest Renan in his Mission de Phénicie. He stopped when he found the remains were no older than the Hellenistic age.Vella, 2000, p. 31: "Ernest Renan was there in 1861 but abandoned the excavations he undertook when he noted that the site was of Hellenistic date."

In 1881, the British PEF Survey of Palestine described the site as "extensive ruins" and noted "traces of aqueducts origin water to birkets".PEF Survey of Palestine, [https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp01conduoft/page/181/mode/2up Volume 1, Galilee, Kh. Umm el Amud], pp. 181–184

Eustache de Lorey excavated the site in 1921, but published only photographs of his work.Vella, 2000, p.31 Maurice Dunand led excavations at the site between 1943 and 1945.{{cite book|author1=Eric M. Meyers|author2=American Schools of Oriental Research|title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kSgZAQAAIAAJ|year=1997|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-511216-0|chapter=Maurice Dunand}}

Ali Badawi, the long-time chief archaeologist for Southern Lebanon of the Directorate-General of Antiquities at the Ministry of Culture, said:

There are the remains of the city known as Oum Al-Amed, dating back to the 2nd century B.C., if not earlier. The city was a religious center for a Phoenician cult, especially that of the Phoenician god Baal Hamon, whose memory lives on in a nearby valley known as Wadi Hamol (the Valley of Hamol). The site still contains the remnants of two important temples, as well as other buildings, dating back to the 2nd and 3rd century B.C., and represents the last of Phoenician culture under the rule of the Greeks. Several steles bearing Phoenician inscriptions were discovered on the site, and an important sundial stone.{{Cite book|last=Badawi|first=Ali Khalil|title=Tyre|publisher=Al-Athar Magazine |year=2018 |edition=4th |location=Beirut |pages=138–140}}

File:Votive throne-AO 4812-IMG 4657.JPG|Throne of Astarte in the Louvre

File:Mission de Phénicie plate LIII from Umm Al-Amad (Throne, construction).jpg|Reconstruction of the Throne of Astarte

File:National Museum of Beirut – Baalshamar stele with Phoenician inscription.jpg|Funerary stele with a Phoenician inscription in the National Museum of Beirut: "To Baalshamar, son of 'Abdosir... chief of the porters"{{cite book|author=Maximillien De Lafayette|title=Phoenicia, Ur, and Carthage: Artifacts, Inscriptions, Slabs, Sites|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FA49AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA41|year=2011|publisher=Lulu.com|isbn=978-1-257-83653-6|pages=41}}

File:National Museum of Beirut – statue with phoenician inscription.jpg|A statue with a Phoenician inscription in the National Museum of Beirut

File:National Museum of Beirut – statue with phoenician inscription close up.jpg|A close-up of the inscription

File:Mission de Phénicie plate LVIII from Umm Al-Amad (KAI 18 inscription).jpg|Baalshamem inscription

File:Mission de Phénicie plate LVII from Umm Al-Amad.jpg|Various artefacts discovered by Ernest Renan

File:Inside the Musee de Louvre, Room 311 (300082184).jpg|The Louvre; the ionic capital on the left is from Umm al-Amad

File:Mission de Phénicie plate LVI from Umm Al-Amad (Sphinx, reconstruction).jpg|Reconstruction of a sphinx found in Umm al-Amad

File:Sphinx accoudoir trône Astarté Louvre AO 1439.jpg|Sphinx head from a Throne of Astarte

File:National Museum of Beirut – Milk'ashtart sun dial.jpg|Phoenician sun dial

File:Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek - Phönizischer Priester.jpg|Funerary stele of "Baalyaton" from the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek.

{{reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• Clermont-Ganneau, C. S., "[https://archive.org/details/RecueilDArcheologieOrientaleTome5/page/n14/mode/1up La stele phenicienne d'umm el-'Aouamid]", Recueil d'archéologie orientale, volume V, 1902, pp. 1–8
• {{cite book |last1=Conder |first1=C. R. |author-link1=Claude Reignier Conder |last2=Kitchener |first2=H.H. |author-link2=Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener |year=1881 |url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp01conduoft |title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology |location=London |publisher=Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund |volume=1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp01conduoft/page/181/mode/1up 181]–184}}
• {{cite book |last1=Dunand |first1=M. |author-link1=Maurice Dunand |last2=Duru |first2=Raymond |title=Oumm el-ʾAmed: une ville de l'époque hellénistique aux échelles de Tyr |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iDfsAAAAMAAJ |year=1962 |publisher=Librairie d'Amérique et d'Orient}}
• {{cite book |last=Guérin |first=V. |author-link=Victor Guérin |title=Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine |url=https://archive.org/details/descriptiongogr00gugoog |volume=3: Galilee, pt. 2 |year=1880 |publisher= L'Imprimerie Nationale |location=Paris |language=fr |page=[https://archive.org/stream/descriptiongogr00gugoog#page/n213/mode/1up 173]}}
• Michelau, H., 2014: "[https://www.academia.edu/9344995/Hellenistische_Stelen_mit_Kultakteuren_aus_Umm_el-Amed_ZDPV_130_1_2014_77-95 Hellenistische Stelen mit Kultakteuren aus Umm el-'Amed]", ZDPV 130: 77–95, Taf. 3–11
• {{cite book |last=Palmer |first=E. H. |author-link=Edward Henry Palmer |year=1881 |url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp00conduoft |title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E. H. Palmer |publisher=Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund |page=[https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp00conduoft#page/50/mode/1up 50] ("the ruin with the columns")}}
• Vella, Nicholas, "Defining Phoenician Religious Space: Oumm el-'Amed Reconsidered", Ancient Near Eastern Studies, volume 37, 2000, pp. 27–55, {{doi|10.2143/ANES.37.0.1081}}.

{{refend}}

{{commons category}}

• Survey of Western Palestine, Map 3: [http://www.iaa-archives.org.il/zoom/zoom.aspx?folder_id=93&type_id=6&id=8366 IAA], [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Survey_of_Western_Palestine_1880.03.jpg Wikimedia commons]

{{Archaeological sites in Lebanon}}

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Category:Archaeological sites in Lebanon

Category:Temples in Lebanon

Category:Phoenician temples