Kaukaba

Last updated
Kaukaba
كوكبا
Kawkaba
Village
22.Djisr-Burghuz, pont sur le Litany (Leontes).jpg
The bridge over Litani River by Kaukaba, by van de Velde, in 1851
Lebanon adm location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Kaukaba
Location within Lebanon
Coordinates: 33°23′44″N35°38′18″E / 33.39556°N 35.63833°E / 33.39556; 35.63833 Coordinates: 33°23′44″N35°38′18″E / 33.39556°N 35.63833°E / 33.39556; 35.63833
Grid position140/162 L
Country Flag of Lebanon.svg  Lebanon
Governorate Nabatieh Governorate
District Hasbaya District
Time zone UTC+2 (EET)
  Summer (DST) UTC+3 (EEST)
Dialing code +961
Kaukaba
كوكبا
22.Djisr-Burghuz, pont sur le Litany (Leontes).jpg
Location5 miles from Rashaya, Lebanon
TypeRock Shelter
Part ofSettlement
History
MaterialLimestone
Foundedc. 8200-6200 BC
Periods PPNB, Neolithic
Site notes
Excavation dates1957, 1964
ArchaeologistsP. Billaux, F. Skeels, L. Skeels
Conditionruins
Public accessYes

Kaukaba, Kaukabet El-Arab or Kaukaba Station is a village in the Hasbaya District in the Nabatiye Governorate in southern Lebanon.

Contents

Archaeology

By the village is a Neolithic archaeological site East of Majdel Balhis near Rashaya in the Beqaa Valley, Lebanon. It was first found by P. Billaux in 1957 who alerted Jesuit Archaeologists, Fathers Henri Fleisch and Tallon. Open air site excavations by L. and F. Skeels were also carried out in 1964. [1]

The rock shelter site lies amongst fields covered with basalt boulders from ancient lava flows. It is in a low pass from the Karaoun Dam to Rashaya. This area is close to the 4 heads of the Jordan River and is drained by feeders such as the Dan, Banias, Hasbani and Upper Jordan rivers, North of Hasbaya. [2] [3]

Artefacts found on the surface included flint axes, sickles, obsidian, basalt vessels and arrowheads dated to the oldest Neolithic periods. Prominent artefacts found included a series of flint picks with heavily worn points due to extremely heavy usage. Fragments of agricultural tools such as basalt hoes have been found with very slight dating suggesting the 6th millennium or earlier. Flints were not knapped on site and the centre of the hoe production has not yet been found. [4] [5] [6]

Modern era

In 1838, during the Ottoman era, Eli Smith noted the population of Kaukaba as Maronite and Druze, [7] while in 1875, Victor Guérin found the population to mostly be Maronite. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rashaya</span> Town in jnoub Governorate, Lebanon

Rashaya, Rachaya, Rashaiya, Rashayya or Rachaiya, also known as Rashaya al-Wadi or Rachaya el-Wadi, is a town of the Rashaya District in the west of the Jnoub Government of Lebanon. It is situated at around 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) above sea level on the western slopes of Mount Hermon, south east of Beirut near the Syrian border, and approximately halfway between Jezzine and Damascus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aadloun</span> Town in South Governorate, Lebanon

Aadloun, Adloun or Adlun is a coastal town in South Lebanon, 17 kilometres (11 mi) south of Sidon famous for its cultivation of watermelons. It is also the site of a Phoenician necropolis and prehistoric caves where four archaeological sites have been discovered and dated to the Stone Age. The evidence of human occupation of Abri Zumoffen has been dated as far back as 71,000 BCE with occupation of Bezez Cave dating back even further into the earlier Middle Paleolithic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Majdal Anjar</span> Village in Beqaa Governorate, Lebanon

Majdal Anjar is a village of Beqaa Governorate, Lebanon. Majdal Anjar is an overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim town.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sin el Fil</span> City in Mount Lebanon Governorate

Sin el-Fil is a suburb east of Beirut in the Matn District of the Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon.

Neba'a Faour, Tell Neba'a Faour, Mashna'et el Faour, Neba Faour or Nebaa Faour is a large, low-lying archaeological tell mound in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon inhabited in the late 7th and early 6th millennium BC. It was initially discovered by Lorraine Copeland and Peter J. Wescombe in 1965 near the road from Beirut to Damascus, 5 miles from the border with Syria. The site was mainly composed of soil and pebbles on limestone bedrock, the site showed heavy erosion since it was abandoned and recent damage from modern construction in the area. It has been suggested as an example of an aceramic stage following the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) that is called the Pre-Pottery Neolithic C (PPNC); sites of comparable culture are Tell Ramad, Labwe and others in the Byblos region. It is generally dated between the second half of the 7th millennium and the beginning of the 6th millennium BC.

Hashbai or Tell Hashbai is an archaeological site on the west of the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon.

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.

Ras Baalbek I is a rock shelter 500 m (1,600 ft) east of Ras Baalbek in the northern Beqaa Valley in Lebanon. It sits north of the Wadi Teniyet er-Râs valley at a height of 1,000 m (3,300 ft). It was first discovered by Lorraine Copeland and Peter Wescombe in 1965–1966. It was later excavated by Jacques Besançon in 1970. Retouched blades along with a pressure-flaked arrowhead and a burin were found dated to the Neolithic period.

Tell Neba'a Litani or Neba'a Litani is a medium size tell 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) west of Baalbek in the northern Beqaa Valley of Lebanon. I It is located near the spring which is the main source of the Litani River at a height of 1,002 metres (3,287 ft). It was first studied by Lorraine Copeland and Peter Wescombe in 1965-1966 and is accessible via a road which turns from Hoch Barada to the left. Materials recovered included flint tools such as scrapers and the blade from a segmented sickle. Pottery included burnished, painted and red-washed shards, some with incised decoration or lattice patterns. The material resembled finds from Byblos and Ard Tlaili leading Copeland and Wescombe to suggest a late Neolithic occupation for the tell that extended into the Bronze Age.

Tell Ain Nfaikh or Ain Nfaikh is an archaeological site in an area c. 100 square metres (1,100 sq ft) of a ploughed field 300 metres (980 ft) east of the Litani, north of Rayak on the west of the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon.

Tell Jisr, Tell el-Jisr or Tell ej-Jisr is a hill and archaeological site 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) northwest of Joub Jannine in the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon.

Aammiq is a village in the Western Beqaa District in Lebanon. It is also the name of an archaeological site.

The Sands of Beirut were a series of archaeological sites located on the coastline south of Beirut in Lebanon.

Tahun ben Aissa is an archaeological site about 3.5 kilometres southwest of Joub Jannine in the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon.

Tell Deir is an archaeological site approximately halfway between Joub Jannine and Chtaura in Lebanon, and a large landmark in the Beqaa Mohafazat (Governorate). It dates at least to the Neolithic.

Antelias Cave was a large cave located 2.5 km (1.6 mi) east of Antelias, 10 km (6.2 mi) northeast of Beirut close to the wadi of Ksar Akil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mtaileb</span> Village in Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon

Mtaileb or Mtayleb is a suburb north of Beirut in the Matn District of Mount Lebanon Governorate in Lebanon.

Dekwaneh is a suburb north of Beirut in the Matn District of the Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon. The population is predominantly Maronite Christian. Tel al-Zaatar, an UNRWA administered Palestinian refugee camp housing approximately 50,000-60,000 refugees, and the site of the Tel al-Zaatar massacre were located on the outskirts of the town.

Ard Saouda or Ard es Saoude is a Heavy Neolithic archaeological site of the Qaraoun culture that is located in the Wadi al-Taym, between Rashaya and Marjayoun in Lebanon. It is south of the branch road to Qaraoun and Kaukaba at cote 990, on the surface of fields covered in large blocks of basalt, made from an ancient lava.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maqne</span> Town in Baalbek-Hermel, Lebanon

Maqne or Maakne is a town and municipality in Baalbek District, Baalbek-Hermel Governorate, Lebanon.

References

  1. Hours, Francis., Atlas des sites du proche orient (14000-5700 BP), pp 57, 198 & 490, Maison de l'Orient Mediterraneen, 1994.
  2. Copeland, Lorraine & Wescombe, P. J., Inventory of Stone Age Sites in Lebanon (1966) Part 2: North - South - East Central Lebanon, pp 23, 37 & 39 Melanges de L'Universite Saint-Joseph, Volume 42, Universite Saint-Joseph (Beirut, Lebanon), 1966.
  3. Moore, A.M.T. (1978). The Neolithic of the Levant. Oxford University, Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis. pp. 192–198.
  4. J. Cauvin., Mèches en silex et travail du basalte au IVe millénaire en Béka (Liban)., pp. 118-131, Melanges de l'Universite Saint-Joseph, Volume 45, Universite Saint-Joseph (Beirut, Lebanon), 1969.
  5. Copeland, Lorraine., Neolithic village sites in the South Bekaa, Lebanon., pp. 83-114, Melanges de l'Universite Saint-Joseph, Volume 45, Universite Saint-Joseph (Beirut, Lebanon), 1969.
  6. Copeland, Lorraine & Wescombe, P. J., Inventory of Stone Age Sites in Lebanon (1966) Part 2: North - South - East Central Lebanon, pp 23, 1-174, Melanges de L'Universite Saint-Joseph, Volume 42, Universite Saint-Joseph (Beirut, Lebanon), 1966.
  7. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, 2nd appendix, p. 138
  8. Guérin, 1880, p. 298

Bibliography