Mtaileb or Mtayleb () is a suburb north of

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 ...

in the

Matn District Matn (, '), sometimes spelled Metn (or preceded by the article El, as in El Matn), is a district (''qadaa'') in the Mount Lebanon Governorate of Lebanon, east of the Lebanon's capital Beirut. The district capital is Jdeideh (followed to Jdeideh, ...

Mount Lebanon Governorate Mount Lebanon Governorate () is one of the nine governorates of Lebanon, of which it is the most populous. Its capital is Baabda. Other notable towns and cities include Aley, Bikfaya, and Beit Mery. This governorate is named after the mount ...

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

Mtaileb I

Mtaileb I or Rabiya is an

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

site located east northeast of

Antelias Antelias () is a city in Lebanon in the Matn District of the Mount Lebanon Governorate. It is located around 5 km to the north of Beirut. Etymology The name is originally Greek, ἀντήλιος – from ἀντί(anti) "contra" and ἥλ� ...

in a wooded ravine next to a road that zig-zags upwards to the Rabiya Club. The site was discovered by

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 Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. ...

in 1941 and a

Heavy Neolithic Heavy Neolithic (alternatively, Gigantolithic) is a style of large stone and flint tools (or industry) associated primarily with the Qaraoun culture in the Beqaa Valley, Lebanon, dating to the Epipaleolithic or early Pre-Pottery Neolithic at ...

assemblage of the

Qaraoun culture The Qaraoun culture is a culture of the Lebanese Stone Age around Qaraoun in the Beqaa Valley. The Gigantolithic or Heavy Neolithic flint tool industry of this culture was recognized as a particular Neolithic variant of the Lebanese highland ...

consisting of enormous

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

tools was collected and now held in the

Museum of Lebanese Prehistory The Museum of Lebanese Prehistory (, ) is a museum of prehistory and archaeology in Beirut, Lebanon. History The museum is the first museum of prehistory in the Middle East and was opened in June 2000 to commemorate the 125th anniversary of Sain ...

marked "1,500 m - 1,800m E.N.E. Antelias". The tools were studied by

Jacques Cauvin Professor Jacques Cauvin (1930 – 26 December 2001) was a French archaeologist who specialised in the prehistory of the Levant and Near East. Biography Cauvin started his work in France at Oullins Caves and Chazelles Caves (near Saint-André-d ...

and said to be made of impure

Upper Jurassic The Late Jurassic is the third epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time from 161.5 ± 1.0 to 143.1 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata.Owen 1987. In European lithostratigraphy, the name ...

flint. The area is now well built up with widely spaced villas and contains flint outcrops under the soil.

Mtaileb II

Mtaileb II is located west northwest of Mtaileb on the north facing, wooded,

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

slopes, in a junction of two ravines beneath the main

Bikfaya Bikfaya (, also spelled Bickfaya, Beckfayya, or Bekfaya) is a town in the Matn District region of Mount Lebanon. Its stone houses with red-tiled roofs resting amidst pine and oak forests make Bikfaya one of the most sought-after suburbs of Beirut a ...

road. A small Neolithic assemblage of tools was collected in beige and grey flint with small

axe An axe (; sometimes spelled ax in American English; American and British English spelling differences#Miscellaneous spelling differences, see spelling differences) is an implement that has been used for thousands of years to shape, split, a ...

s and picks. One slightly polished trapezoidal axe was found. The material is stored in the

marked "1500 m S.W. Mazraat-ech-Chaar".

References

External links

Mtayleb
Localiban {{Archaeological sites in Lebanon Populated places in Matn District Maronite Christian communities in Lebanon Eastern Orthodox Christian communities in Lebanon Archaeological sites in Lebanon Heavy Neolithic sites Neolithic settlements