Ard Tlaili

Ard Tlaili or Tell Ard Tlaili is a small tell mound archaeological site in a plain at the foot of the Lebanon Mountains 11 km (7 mi) northwest of Baalbeck, in the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon.[1][2]

Ard Tlaili

Shown within Lebanon
Alternative name	Tell Ard Tlaili
Location	11 km (7 mi) northwest of Baalbek, Lebanon
Coordinates	34.06°N 36.08°E
Type	Tell
Part of	Settlement
History
Founded	c. 8200-6200 BC
Periods	PPNB, Neolithic
Site notes
Excavation dates	1965-1966
Archaeologists	Lorraine Copeland, Peter J. Wescombe, Diana Kirkbride
Condition	ruins
Public access	Yes

IIt was first surveyed and studied in 1965–66 by Lorraine Copeland and Peter Wescombe with excavations later in the 1960s by Diana Kirkbride.[3] The perimeter of the mound was buried under a metre of soil but the remains of rectangular buildings were found in 2 phases. Building walls were of wall made of stiff earth or clay with pebble bases and large stones in the upper layers. The floors were layered with white plaster with plastered and even burnished walls. Hearths and other areas were constructed of plaster or clay.

The wide variety of materials recovered included a stone assemblage of tools, obsidian blades, basalt bowls and hammers, clay sling ammunition, finely denticulated flint blades, scrapers, borers and a few axes. Pottery included Halafian painted shards both pattern and plain burnished with incised decoration including horizontal or vertical lines with dots, waves, zig-zags and cross-hatched designs. some with an application of red wash. These finds were significant as they represented the most southerly Halaf type painted pottery yet found. Red, orange, brown and black burnished bowls and jars were found in upper levels, with lower levels showing more coarse shards smoothed by hand or with straw. This little farming village shares the material culture of Byblos and southern Syrian and Halaf sites to the north.[4]

The carbon 14 dating of charcoal from the different levels at Ard Tlaili gave a short date range between c. 5710 until c.5780 BC.[5][6]

References

1. Lorraine Copeland; P. Wescombe (1965). Inventory of Stone-Age sites in Lebanon. Imprimerie Catholique. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
2. Copeland, Lorraine, "Neolithic Village Sites in the South Beqaa Lebanon", Melanges de l'Université Saint-Joseph (Beirut Lebanon) Volume 45, (Pages 83-114), 1969.
3. Diana Kirkbride (1969). Early Byblos and the Beqaʻa. Retrieved 24 March 2011.
4. Moore, A.M.T. (1978). The Neolithic of the Levant. Oxford University, Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis. pp. 433–435.
5. University of Cologne, Radiocarbon Context Database entry on Ard Tliali
6. Kuijt, I. Bar-Yosef, Ofer., Radiocarbon Chronology for the Levantine Neolithic: Observations and Data, Radiocarbon, 36, 227-245, 19, 1994