Antoine Poidebard (

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

, 12 October 1878 –

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

, 17 August 1955) was a French landscape archaeologist,

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

missionary, and pilot. He pioneered

aerial archaeology Aerial archaeology is the study of archaeological sites from the air. It is a method of Archaeology, archaeological investigation that uses aerial photography, remote sensing, and other techniques to identify, record, and interpret archaeological ...

in the Middle East, flying over

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

, and

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

. Poidebard exploited shadows and differences in vegetation to discover mounts indicating past settlements and Roman roads, photographing these from the air and visiting some of the sites on the ground.

Biography

Poidebard was a

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

pilot during World War I. Poidebard went to

in 1924. He was a pilot in the 39th Aviation Regiment of the French Levant in

Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon The Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon (; , also referred to as the Levant States; 1923−1946) was a League of Nations mandate founded in the aftermath of the First World War and the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, concerning the territories ...

during which time he conducted an aerial survey of desert regions. He became a priest at Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut. His work was published in the ''Syria'' journal, attached to the Service des antiquités, with 55 photos published from 1927 to 1933. They were also displayed in the Musée de l’Orangerie in 1930. Poidebard's 1934 book ''The Trace of Rome in the Syrian Desert'' (''La Trace de Rome dans le désert de Syrie'') covered his work from 1925 to 1932 and included over 200 photographs. René Mouterde collaborated on this book, and co-authored another book (''Le limes de Chalcis'') with him. Five of the photos were also published in

L'Illustration ''L'Illustration'' (; 1843–1944) was a French language, French illustrated weekly newspaper published in Paris. It was founded by Édouard Charton with the first issue published on 4 March 1843, it became the first illustrated newspaper in ...

in June 1934. In the 1934 book, Poidebard documented hundreds of previously undiscovered Roman forts and structures on the empire's Eastern periphery. He argued that these structures represented a line of defence against incursions from the east. However, recent mapping work, which has revealed hundreds of additional forts, overall aligned east-west rather than north-south, has undermined his interpretation, indicating instead that the forts and structures "supported a system of caravan-based interregional trade, communication and military transport." While Poidebard dates items to the Roman era, many are actually from the Umayyad dynasty era, such as the Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi. The Lebanon-Syrian Mandate was motivated to highlight Roman legacy over Arab history, Westernizing its history and linking the civilizing of the Romans to that of the Mandate.

Surveyed items

Harbaqa Dam The Harbaqa Dam or Kharbaqa Dam () was a Roman era Palmyrene gravity dam in the Syrian Desert about southwest from Palmyra on the road to Damascus. The dam, built of rubble, concrete, and dressed with ashlar stones, dates to the first or second ...

* Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi

Published works

* Poidebard, A. (1927). Les routes anciennes en haute-Djezireh. Syria 8: 55-65. * Poidebard, A. (1929). Resultats de sa mission en haute Djezire en automne 1928. Comptes-rendus des Seances de I'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 72: 91-94. * Poidebard, A. (1931). Recherches sur le limes romain (campagne d'automne 1930). Syria 12: 274-280. * Poidebard, A. (1934). La trace de Rome dans le desert de Syrie: le limes de Trajan a la conquete arabe: recherches aeriennes (1925-1932), Geuthner, P

References

1878 births 1955 deaths Archaeologists from Lyon Clergy from Lyon French Jesuits French Roman Catholic missionaries Jesuit missionaries Jesuit scientists Remote sensing archaeologists {{France-scientist-stub