Tell Ain Nfaikh or Ain Nfaikh is an archaeological site in an area c. of a ploughed field east of the Litani, north of

Rayak Rayaq - Haouch Hala ( ar, رياق), also romanized Rayak, is a Lebanese town in the Beqaa Governorate near the city of Zahlé. In the early 20th century and up to 1975 and the outbreak of the civil war, it was Lebanon's most important railway ...

on the west of the

Beqaa Valley The Beqaa Valley ( ar, links=no, وادي البقاع, ', Lebanese ), also transliterated as Bekaa, Biqâ, and Becaa and known in classical antiquity as Coele-Syria, is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon. It is Lebanon's most important ...

in Lebanon.Copeland, Lorraine, "Neolithic Village Sites in the South Beqaa Lebanon", ''Melanges de l'Université Saint-Joseph'' (Beirut Lebanon) Volume 45, (Pages 83-114), 1969.
/ref> It was first studied by Lorraine Copeland and Peter Wescombe in 1965–1966. A wide variety of materials were recovered from the site and its immediate area that are now held in the

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 ...

in Beirut. Stone tools from the surface included numerous short, wide, sickle blades with fine denticulation or nibbling along with tanged arrowheads, scrapers,

chisel A chisel is a tool with a characteristically shaped cutting edge (such that wood chisels have lent part of their name to a particular grind) of blade on its end, for carving or cutting a hard material such as wood, stone, or metal by hand, stru ...

s, axes, burins,

obsidian Obsidian () is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements s ...

and a small green stone axe. Pottery resembled middle periods at Byblos and coloured similar to at

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 northwest of Baalbeck, in the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon. IIt was first surveyed and studied in 1965–66 by Lorraine Copeland ...

with red or black washes. Both fine and coarse shards were found of jars with a variety of collared and flared necks and flat bases along with bow rims such as those found at

Jericho Jericho ( ; ar, أريحا ; he, יְרִיחוֹ ) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank. It is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. It is the administrative seat of the Jericho Gove ...

. Vessels were decorated with stabbed and incised designs, finger pressed around the rim and smoothed by hand or with

straw Straw is an agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has a number ...

. A painted lattice pattern was detected on at least one piece. Comparisons were made with middle and late Neolithic periods at Byblos showing inhabitation from several phases. The site was also used in Bronze Age and Classical times and material from these phases has been found over a wide area around the site.

References

{{Portal, Lebanon, History, Asia 1965 archaeological discoveries Baalbek District Archaeological sites in Lebanon Great Rift Valley Neolithic settlements