Abstract: The Citadel of Homs is set on one of the largest urban tells of Syria but it has been neglected in terms of its archaeology as it was occupied by the military until recent years. The tell goes back to at least the Early Bronze Age although the present paper focuses primarily on its Islamic fortifications. The extant Islamic walls were built during the Ayyubid period and the Mamluk sultan Baybars subsequently carried out restorations. All of this work is testified by inscriptions although without exception, they are lost. A joint Syrian-British study of the Citadel of Homs commenced in 1994, and this has involved recording the remains of the walls and towers, while excavations have attempted to understand the stratigraphic sequence of floors in the rooms of the mediaeval Islamic defences.

Abstract: This article outlines traditional ways that food, principally wheat and milk products, are prepared for storage and eaten in the Levant. Food is an important component of human culture, which not only provides nutrition, but is also used to cement social ties and mark occasions. Foods prepared and consumed by farming and pastoral groups help to define their respective identities and emphasise difference. All the groups discussed here, sedentary farmers, semi-nomadic farmers and goat-herding bedouin, rely on similar raw ingredients and preparation of foodstuffs, but some aspects are unique to one and not to the others. Changes in local diet over the past 100 years also reflect profound social and political changes within the region over this period.

Abstract: This report describes the results of the first and second seasons of field work by an interdisciplinary research team studying the landscape history of the upper Orontes Valley near Homs in western Syria. Initial discussions address the value of survey data to Syrian archaeology, the research aims of the project and describe the survey area. The project methodology, which includes a combination of both extensive and intensive survey methods, is outlined, and the use of satellite imagery as a means of site location discussed. Work on geomorphological processes and off-site artefact distributions has facilitated the development of sampling strategies for intensive surface collection planned for 2002 and 2003. A test core has established that pollen is well-preserved in the silts of Lake Qattine, which appear to offer a west Syrian palaeoenvironmental sequence. Preliminary work in the basalt terrain west of Homs has allowed the refinement of methodologies for the mapping and analysis of cairns and field systems which predominate in this area, and has highlighted the threat resulting from current bulldozing. The report concludes with some preliminary observations on the main trends as these are emerging from the data.

Abstract: The following note presents and discusses an assemblage of Ottoman clay pipes recovered from the joint British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem-Tel Aviv University excavations at the site of Tell Jezreel.

Abstract: This report summarises the first field season of interdisciplinary field survey in the northern Troodos mountains in Cyprus. The overall objective of the project is to integrate intensive archaeological and geomorphological survey with a range of other analytical techniques, in order to understand the relationship between human activity and the environment. Particular focuses of the 2001 season included an area of Roman copper production and habitation; the mountainous Asinou area during the Medieval to Modern periods; and the fertile Karkotis Valley with its long history of cultivation and settlement. All areas were examined in the context of survey transects sampling the broader landscape at all periods.

Abstract: The Ottoman Empire was home to many ethnic and religious groups and the Ottoman administrative system enforced the segregation of ethnic and religious communities. Current research investigates whether identity may be reflected within the eighteenth and nineteenth century domestic architecture of these Ottoman communities. Ethnic and cultural identity is currently much debated and this paper investigates the difficulties with related terminology and theories, and the complexities behind perceptions of identities. Case studies from Cyprus, supported by a consideration of some Jordanian and Lebanese examples, are assessed. The evidence examined suggests that architectural variations are regional rather than related to identity.

Abstract: Landscape is a term that is widely used in archaeology and in cultural heritage management. However the meaning attached to the term is extremely variable. In this paper we consider some of the ways in which it is used and illustrate how a closer consideration of the term can allow the concept to become a more powerful way of approaching the past, both in research and interpretation. Landscape is highly context dependent, and is strongly bound up in perception. As such it can be used to examine the worldviews of the past, and to help modern populations better understand archaeological remains.

Abstract: The marvered glass vessels presented in this study, dating from the Umayyad through Mamluk periods, were discovered at Bet Shean in the excavations conducted in 1980/1 and 1986–1997 by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem expedition, headed by Professor Gideon Foerster and Professor Yoram Tsafrir. These vessels are very rare during the Umayyad and Abbasid-Fatimid periods, but during the Mamluk period a flowering of marvered glass can be seen, as reflected in the finds discovered in different excavated sites. As far as is known, Bet Shean is the only excavated site at which marvered glass vessels covering such a long period of time have been found.

Abstract: In modern times the town of Zarqa has been a stopping place on the Pilgrim Road and a halting place on the Hijaz Railway. Today, swollen by refugees and Jordan's rising population, it has spread rapidly. At the heart of old Zarqa is the medieval khan (Qala'at Zarqa) but not far off is another site, apparently Roman and once perhaps more important than Zarqa. Although Qaryat al-Hadid was known to scholars in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it is not well-known today; indeed, it is one of the more elusive archaeological sites of modern Jordan. The rare nineteenth-century accounts suggest a major settlement, perhaps a fort; of the two reports from this century, the most recent cast doubt on the interpretations of these predecessors. The precise location was uncertain and recent research on old air photographs was inconclusive. Now study of an air photograph taken by the German air force in 1918 provides a precise location and allows more recent air photographs to be exploited.

Abstract: A cylinder seal was found at al-Moghraqa, Gaza in the excavations during the year 2000 (Fig. 1).2 It was found in the upper 20 cm. of fill in a large pit, together with Middle and Late Bronze Age pottery and much bone. The pit (excavation not complete) is very probably contaminated by overlying later material. However, the seal does not rely on context for its date, as it can be closely dated on the basis of style.

Abstract: Excavations at Tell Afis (north-western Syria) 1991–1997, have revealed a long sequence of Late Chalcolithic occupation (Levels 18–26). This article presents an analytical study of the painted pottery from this phase, focusing on classification, technology, and decorative patterns. Three groups in diachronic sequence are identified in relation to the archaeological contexts, and show a technological development. The painted pottery from Tell Afis, with the presence of its own characteristic elements, like the adoption of painted motifs from the Late Ubaid tradition, stresses the cultural identity of this site and its region in the fourth millennium, as yet poorly documented by archaeological evidence.

Abstract: An inscribed late second century AD milestone has been recently re-erected on the edge of the Jordan Valley road near Tell Deir ‘Alla. It provides new evidence for a road from al-Salt down to the better-known Roman route running down the Valley, probably in the modern fields to the west of the present road. In addition, Roman epigraphic references to Salt using its Hellenistic name, Gadora or Gedora, are rare if non-existent.

Abstract: An important assemblage of Early Islamic pottery was retrieved from Area E at Khirbat Yajuz. The pottery includes bowls, cups, basins, cooking pots, lids, jars, jugs, pithoi and storage jars. Decoration included painted, incised, thumb-impressed and cut ware. One complete and 23 fragments of lamps were decorated with geometric and floral designs, as well as arabesques and birds. Abbasid cultural materials such as copper coins and two fragments of steatite were associated with the pottery. The stratigraphic and architectural evidence, the comparative study of the pottery forms and wares, and the associated materials all provide a date from the mid-eighth to tenth centuries AD.