Recent French archaeological work in Syria and Jordan

Abstract

The French connection with the late antique and Byzantine archaeology of the Levant is now more than a century old. Between 1864 and 1877 Melchoir de Vogue published his great Syrie Centrale:architecture civile et religieuse, a work which revealed for the first time the great richness of the archaeological record for the period. With its superb drawings and elegant plans it remains indispensable, especially since it describes some buildings, like the praetorium at Mismiyya, south of Damascus, which have long since disappeared. In these days when so much worthless nineteenth-century travel literature about the Middle East has been reprinted, it is sad that this masterpiece remains unavailable. The French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon from 1921 onwards gave a great impetus to these studies. Although most attention was given to great classical sites like Palmyra or Crusader ones like Crac des Chevaliers, late antiquity was not neglected and there was a growing interest in the deserted towns of the limestone hills of the north from J. Mattern, A travers les villes mortes de Haute * This article does not aspire to completeness, and there are a number of short reports and notices not included. Most of the publications discussed are produced for the IFAPO by Librarie Orientalist Paul-Geuthner, 12 rue Vavin, Paris 75005. Geuthner seems to be a secretive, even reclusive, publisher, if that is not a contradiction in terms. No catalogue is issued and very few review copies are sent out, at least in the Anglo-Saxon academic world. Full details of the publications available can be found in Livres Disponibles, the French equivalent of Books in Print. I am extremely grateful to Prof. Maurice Sartre of the University of Tours for his kindness in guiding me to publications which I would otherwise have missed and I can only apologise to any scholars whose work has been inadvertently omitted.