Jiyeh (Porphyreon)
Dates of work: 9 June–19 July 2014
Team:
Co-directors: Dr. Tomasz Waliszewski, archaeologist (Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw), Myriam Ziade, archaeologist (Directorate General of Antiquities)
Archaeologists: Magdalena Antos (PCMA UW), Dr. Mikayel Badalyan (Metsamor Museum, Armenia), Dr. Michał Dzik (Institute of Archaeology, University of Rzeszow), Szymon Lenarczyk (Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw), Rafał Solecki (Institute of Archaeology, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University, Warsaw), Agnieszka Szymczak (PCMA UW), Artavazd Zakyan (Metsamor Museum, Armenia)
Ceramologists: Dr. Krzysztof Domżalski (Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences), Zofia Kowarska (PhD candidate, Center for Research on the Antiquity of Southeastern Europe, University of Warsaw), Dr. Urszula Wicenciak (PCMA UW)
Archaeobotanist:Maciej Jawornicki (freelance)
Architect: Andrzej Bruno Kutiak, post graduate student: architecture and art history (Faculty of Art History, Jagiellonian University; 2014)
Documentalists: Magdalena Makowska (independent), Marek Puszkarski (PCMA UW)
Restorers: Julia Burdajewicz, Anna Tomkowska (both Department of Artworks Conservation and Restoration, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw)
Student-trainees:Wioleta Hypiak, Alicja Jurkiewicz, Amadeusz Kusibab, Antoni Mrozowski, Aleksandra Pawlikowska, Andrzej Rokoszewski, Zuzanna Szymczak, Barbara Ślązak, Maciej Wyżgoł (Institutes of Archaeology, University of Warsaw and Jagiellonian University, Krakow)
Excavation focused on establishing local chronology through a reconstruction of the stratigraphy of the central part of the site (the Roman and Byzantine residential quarter in Sector D), where work has been continued since 2012. Three main phases in the history of Jiyeh: Iron Age II, Persian–Hellenistic with possible continuation into the Roman and Byzantine periods, found full confirmation in the new trenches. Such a clear stratigraphy extending from Iron Age II to Byzantine times is an exception on the Lebanese coast. The relatively late date of the residential units (4th and even 5th century) excavated in 1975 by the Lebanese team was established. Of added interest was a small mosaic of Byzantine date depicting a lion and with parallels in the region.
The Polish–Lebanese Archaeological Project is greatly indebted to the Minister of Culture Gaby Layoun, for permission to excavate, as well as to Asaad Seif, Anne-Marie Afeiche and Myriam Ziade for making the work possible.
[Text: Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 25]