Mayrouba ( ar, ميروبا; also spelled ''Meyrouba'' or ''Mairouba'') is a village and municipality in the

Keserwan District Keserwan District ( ar, قضاء كسروان, transliteration: ''Qaḍā' Kisrawān'') is a district (''qadaa'') in Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate, Lebanon, to the northeast of Lebanon's capital Beirut. The capital, Jounieh, is overwhelmingly Maroni ...

of the

Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate Keserwan-Jbeil ( ar, كسروان - جبيل) is the most recently created governorate of Lebanon. It consists of the districts of Jbeil and Keserwan. Keserwan-Jbeil covers an area of and is bounded by the North Governorate to the north, the ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

. Its average elevation is above sea level and its total land area is 823

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

s. Mayrouba's inhabitants are almost predominantly

Maronite Catholic The Maronite Church is an Eastern Catholic '' sui iuris'' particular church in full communion with the pope and the worldwide Catholic Church, with self-governance under the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. The current head of the Mar ...

. As of 2008, the village had a school with 50 pupils and seven businesses with over five employees. There are several

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with t ...

archaeological sites in the vicinity that have defined the location as the type site of the Mayroubian culture.

Archaeology

Mayrouba I

Mayrouba I is east northeast of Junie by the way to

Faraya Faraya ( ar, فاريا) is a village and municipality in the Keserwan District of the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate, Lebanon. It is located 46 kilometers north of Beirut. Elevation start from 1290 meters to 2000 meters above sea level and its tota ...

. It is a large site on top of a

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ha ...

to the north of the village situated in

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

at an altitude of approximately . It was discovered by

Paulist Fathers The Paulist Fathers, officially named the Missionary Society of Saint Paul the Apostle ( la, Societas Sacerdotum Missionariorum a Sancto Paulo Apostolo), abbreviated CSP, is a Catholic society of apostolic life of Pontifical Right for men founded ...

from

Harissa Harissa ( ar, هريسة ''harīsa'', from Maghrebi Arabic) is a hot chili pepper paste, native to the Maghreb. The main ingredients are roasted red peppers, Baklouti peppers (), spices and herbs such as garlic paste, caraway seeds, coriander ...

. Collections were made from the site by P.R. Gigues and various

Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

including

Maurice Tallon Reverend Father Maurice Edouard Tallon (22 October 1906 – 21 July 1982) was a French Jesuit archaeologist notable for his work on prehistory in Lebanon. Born in Mornant, France, he was son of Edouard Tallon and attended Mongre College, (Cler ...

Auguste Bergy Reverend Father Auguste Bergy (12 May 1873 – 31 August 1955) was a French Jesuit archaeologist known for his work on prehistory in Lebanon. He is known particularly for excavations and studies at the Sands of Beirut and at Ras Beirut. In 193 ...

Francis Hours Reverend Father Francis Hours, born 1921 in France and died 1987, was a French Jesuit archaeologist known for his work on prehistory in the Levant. He gave the Lebanese a real scientific framework for prehistoric research and worked excavating v ...

and

Henri Fleisch Reverend Father Henri Fleisch (1 January 1904 – 10 February 1985) was a French archaeologist, missionary and Orientalist, known for his work on classical Arabic language and Lebanese dialect and prehistory in Lebanon. Fleisch spent years rec ...

. Fleisch admitted that it was not the best choice for a

type site In archaeology, a type site is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it. For example, discoveries at La Tène and Hallstatt led scholars to divide the European Iron Age ...

due to the possibility of mixed industries however he published it as a transitional site with successive occupations between peoples of the

Middle Paleolithic The Middle Paleolithic (or Middle Palaeolithic) is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle Paleoli ...

and

Upper Paleolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories coin ...

.Fleisch, Henri., Les stations préhistoriques de montagne au Liban, VI' Congrès de l'UlSPP (Rome, 1962) Finds of predominantly blue-grey

Upper Jurassic The Late Jurassic is the third epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time from 163.5 ± 1.0 to 145.0 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata.Owen 1987. In European lithostratigraphy, the name ...

flints included an emphasized

element with finds of two Emireh points by

Lorraine Copeland Lorraine Copeland (born Elizabeth Lorraine Adie, 1921April 2013) was a British archaeologist specialising in the Palaeolithic period of the Near East. She was a secret agent with the Special Operations Executive during World War II. Early life ...

and R. Khawam in 1965. Artefacts included numerous burins, end scrapers, thick blades, steep scrapers, bladelet cores, tortoise cores, discoid cores, point cores and miniature flake cores. Collections from the site have been dispersed but a large number have been retained by

Saint Joseph University Saint Joseph University of Beirut ( French: ''Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth'', abbreviated to and commonly known as "USJ") is a private Catholic research university located in Beirut, Lebanon, which was founded in 1875 by French Jesuit mis ...

Mayrouba II

Mayrouba II is north of Mayrouba found by

and determined as a Mayroubian site in a wooded, uncultivated area on

at an altitude of approximately .

Mayrouba III

Mayrouba III (Ain-bou-Grasse) is on the other side of the crest of a hill from Mayrouba I in a wooded area at an altitude of approximately . It was found by

in 1964 and determined as a Mayroubian site and lies undisturbed amongst

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

Mayrouba IV

Mayrouba IV is on a small plateau north of the road between Jebel Mazloum and Mayrouba, east of a track leading to Ain-bou-Grasse, west of Mayrouba I. It was found by

in 1964 and determined as a Mayroubian site. A collection was made by Hours,

Jacques Tixier 250px, Jacques Tixier Jacques Tixier (1 January 1925 – 3 April 2018) was a French archaeologist and prehistorian notable for his work on prehistory in Qatar, Lebanon, and North Africa. He led the first French archaeological mission to Qatar in 19 ...

and

in 1965 of mostly cores and burins but including an Emireh point. It lies undisturbed amongst screes.

Mayrouba V

Mayrouba V (Ain Berdet) is about northwest of Mayrouba at an altitude of approximately on the slopes of a wooded hill. It was found by Francis Hours in 1964, determined as a Mayroubian site and lies undisturbed.

Mayrouba VI

Mayrouba VI ("Site Tixier") is south of Mayrouba I in a wood sloping towards the road to Mayrouba. It was found undisturbed in 1965 by

, Jacques Tixier and

. The tools found indicated it to be a Mayroubian site and included an Emireh point, they are held by the

Museum of Lebanese Prehistory The Museum of Lebanese Prehistory (french: Musée de Préhistoire Libanaise, ar, متحف ما قبل التاريخ اللبناني) is a museum of prehistory and archaeology in Beirut, Lebanon. History The museum is the first museum of prehist ...

References

External links

Localiban Entry for Mayrouba
{{Keserwan District Populated places in Keserwan District Maronite Christian communities in Lebanon Archaeological sites in Lebanon Mayroubian sites