Überblick
Road construction workers discovered in the vicinity of the Qubbat Douris, which was built in the Ayyubid period (1243 AD), a late Roman cemetery with stone sarcophagi. Almost all of these sarcophagi had already been robbed in antiquity, but one had been left intact and contained a rich assemblage of objects.
According to the local inhabitants other sarcophagi had been found from time to time in the surrounding gardens, thus indicating a large necropolis that probably belonged to one of the many suburbs of ancient Baalbek and was situated close to the ancient road along the eastern border of the Beqaa plain.
In the summer of 1997 a scientific investigation of the findspot of the sarcophagi was started, as these had been removed immediately after their discovery in 1996. In close cooperation with the Department of Antiquities of Lebanon as well as with students of the American University of Beirut and of the FHTW (Fachhochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft) of Berlin the topographical and geomorphological surroundings of the necropolis were investigated and the typology and burials in the necropolis studied.
Cooperation partners
Direction Générale des Antiquités du Liban (Khalid Rifai, Toufiq Rifai).