Crusader Archaeology

Cuadernos de Arquitectura y Fortificación CUADERNOS DE ARQUITECTURA Y FORTIFICACIÓN es una revista científica dirigida a arqueólogos, historiadores, historiadores de la arquitectura y del arte, restauradores, arquitectos y todos aquellos profesionales cuyo trabajo esté relacionado con la documentación, estudio e intervención en la arquitectura fortificada.

This article provides a summary history of Ḥiṣn al-Akrād (the crusader-era “Crac des Chevaliers”) and under Ottoman rule. After a brief résumé of its situation in the Mamluk period, it draws on Ottoman tax (tapu-tahrir) records, executive decrees (mühimme and şikayet registers), financial records (maliyeden müdevver and ahkam registers), Tripoli court registers and other administrative documents to trace the district’s evolution from the sixteenth through the early twentieth centuries. In doing so, it highlights the role played by Turkmen, Kurdish and bedouin settlers in the area, the importance of both Sunni Muslim and Christian local notables, the influence of the Dandashlī family beginning in the eighteenth century and the administrative reforms affecting the district in the nineteenth.

Deep in the heart of the Lebanese mountains, in the Qadicha or Holy valley, the grotto of Assi el Hadath is the site of a major discovery achieved by a group of speleologists, the GERSL, in 1990. The cave has indeed revealed the remarkable well preserved mummified remains of a group of people who lived there in the thirteenth century, that is in the Crusader period, in a time of turmoil, when this place was attacked by the Mamluks as recorded by historical sources. Together with the deceased, who were still dressed, was found a variety of artefacts among which were items of personal adornment, mainly bracelets, necklaces, earrings, fingerrings and fasteners, made of a variety of materials and shapes. Our examination of these particular objects from such a closed and dated context attempts to contribute to our understanding of personal adornment practices of this period and of this area, still very poorly documented in the archaeological record. Ultimately, these artefacts are considered as a reflection of the identity of their owners, thus revealing a multicultural community.

This article looks in detail at the well-planned and very effective defenses at the Crusader castle of Château Pèlerins on the ʿAtlit peninsula, focusing in particular on the defense line of the ʿAtlit ridge. The castle was constructed during 1217-18 by the Knights Templar, and its defenses, which relied on the topography and the exploitation of locally derived building materials, were never breached. The castle was vulnerable to attacks only from the east, so three defense lines were created: (1) On the peninsula neck, two massive walls, towers, and a dry moat. (2) A wall entering the sea in the north and the south bays, with guard towers at both ends, to protect the town east of the castle. A line of large stones which once stood upright, was discovered underwater, extending to the north from the north tower, forming a barrier that prevented approach in the shallows along the coast. (3) An outermost defense line, including two guard towers, and the easternmost external defense line on the ʿAtlit ridge, the focus of this article. A quarry stretched along the ridge, creating an artificial rock cut cliff. This longitudinal defense wall would delay an attack, even if for a short time, enabling people who worked outside the castle to escape to the well-protected peninsula. To provide the large quantity of stones required for building the castle and completing the defenses on the ridge rapidly, the builders simultaneously extracted stones in several places. The stones were quarried from the eastern, far flank of the ridge to create the rock-cut cliff. By applying a sophisticated, pre-planned quarrying technique, they removed immense blocks from the ridge which were then cut into ashlars. The artificial cliff, 2.1 km long and up to 6 m high, thus became the castle's easternmost defense. This longitudinal barrier, described as a quarry in some previous publications, is shown to be an integral part of a pre-planned defense system, completed by an east-west rampart in the south and the natural canyon of the Oren River in the north. Passages were cut across the ridge from east to west to convey the quarried stones to the castle. Other results of quarrying activity were rock-cut enclosures adjacent to the longitudinal defense wall, and usually associated with the passages. Rock-cut feeding troughs and tethering holes identified in these compounds suggest that they served to protect and house the quarrymen, passage guards, and livestock.

In 1981, Robert W. Edwards had discovered a six-line Armenian inscription in the previously unreported castle of Tamrut of the Armenian Kingdom in Cilicia. Unfortunately, picture-taking conditions made it difficult to obtain a photograph that would allow for a full reading of the inscription. A high-resolution scan and digital image processing have now allowed the author to interpret the important parts of the inscription. These include the medieval name of the castle, T'ambrowt – thus establishing a link with the modern name of the castle, the year of construction of 1253 AD, and references to King Het'um I and his father Kostandin, Lord of Papeṙōn, in whose memory the castle was built. This information allows us to conclude that despite agreements with the military Crusader orders to protect the southern flanks of the kingdom, and the treaty of vassalage to the Mongols, Het'um I was in a position to build new fortifications to protect his kingdom, and exercised an autonomous policy of military activity. Evidence of construction – or renovation – preserved in other castles of the kingdom may be dated to Het'um I’s reign, in which case it would support these conclusions, even though much of the military construction of Cilician Armenia is traditionally ascribed to King Lewon I or the baronial period which preceded his coronation.

A new website dedicated to the churches, monasteries, fortifications and other architecture of the Armenian, Greek, Georgian, Syriac, and Crusader people of the Near East (modern Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel and Cyprus) is now online: The Christian Architecture of the Levant, accessible at https://ChArLvArchive.org. Volume One of the Website is comprised of the archive of Robert W. Edwards, over 3300 images and plans. Interested parties can contribute images on a non-exclusive basis, and are invited to contact the editor from the Contact links at: https://charlvarchive.org/Home/Contact.

The Mamluk siege of Montfort castle provides a rare opportunity to examine one of the most celebrated but also misrepresented technologies of the Middle Ages: mechanical artillery. The castle was inhabited for only about forty-five years before it was taken and then destroyed by the Mamluks, creating a time capsule for archaeologists to peer into life in a mid-thirteenth-century stronghold and carefully examine evidence of the siege that ultimately led to its abandonment. Among the finds are a number of artillery projectiles that date to the final siege of the castle. An investigation of the surrounding topography has revealed that there are only a couple of places from which these stones could have been thrown. This rare combination of clearly datable projectiles and a topographical environment that provides a good indication of range allows for a unique quantitative assessment of the development of trebuchet technology.

The excavation conducted on Yehuda Ha-Yammit Street in Yafo revealed the remains of three strata: graves from the Persian and Hellenistic periods; a Crusader-period moat; and late Ottoman-period wells. The moat, dated to the end of the Crusader period (thirteenth century CE), was hewn in the kurkar rock and lined with retaining walls. The finds retrieved from within the moat fill included potsherds and glass finds dated to the Crusader period. An Ayyubid coin of Al-Naṣir Yusuf II, found in a probe next to the moat’s southern wall, probably attests that the moat was destructed during Baybars’ conquest of Yafo in 1268 CE. This is the first archaeological evidence of the location of the Crusader moat in the south of the city.

The following article summarizes our current knowledge of the history of Tell Mulabbis (in modern Petah Tikva). As a key archaeological site in the Yarkon River basin, it was inhabited during the Roman, Byzantine, Early Islamic, Crusader, Mamluk and Late Ottoman periods. Based on the published results of recent excavations, older scholarship, and hereto-unnoticed written evidence, the article examines and interprets Mulabbis's material culture within the broader contexts of the region's historical geography. Although possessing important advantages like access to water and arable land, the site was inhabited only intermittently due to malaria and changing economic and political circumstances. Within the framework of Ottoman Archaeology, the article suggests the need to pay closer attention to 'recent' archaeological layers. For example, the few Ottoman material remains published so far, testify to continued cultural exchange and economic ties between Mulabbis, the mountainous interior, and the southern parts of Palestine.

The Version of Record of this manuscript has been published and is available in the Palestine Exploration Quarterly since June 20, 2019: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00310328.2019.1621734

Abstract EN

The contribution aims to provide a brief overview of passive defense systems identified three 12th-century Crusader castles in the Petra region, in southern Jordan (al-Habis, al-Wu'ayra / Li Vaux Moysis and Shawbak / Mons Regalis) . In particular, the material devices and the territorial systems of the area in question are illustrated, while only a reference is made to the social strategies implemented by the Latin lords to maintain control of the medieval region around the ancient Petra.

The data were collected, using light archeology methods, as part of the activities of the archaeological mission ‘Medieval Petra: archeology of the Crusader-Ayyubid settlement in Transjordan’, founded and directed by Guido Vannini (Florence University). Finally, the paper proposes to contextualize the results of the 'light' readings in the framework of the recent Crusader Archeology studies dedicated to the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem.

Abstract ITA

Il contributo si propone di offrire una sintetica rassegna dei sistemi di difesa passiva individuati in tre castelli crociati di XII secolo nella regione di Petra, in Giordania meridionale (al-Habis, al-Wu’ayra / Li Vaux Moysis e Shawbak / Mons Regalis). In particolare vengono illustrati i dispositivi materiali e i sistemi territoriali di difesa dell’area in oggetto, mentre solo un accenno viene fatto alle strategie sociali attuate dai signori latini per mantenere il controllo della regione medievale di Petra.

I dati sono stati raccolti, con metodi di archeologia leggera, nel quadro delle attività della missione archeologica Petra Medievale: archeologia dell’insediamento crociato-ayyubide in Transgiordania, fondata e diretta da Guido Vannini (Università di Firenze). Il contributo si propone infine di contestualizzare i risultati delle letture ‘leggere’ nel quadro dei recenti studi di Crusader Archaeology dedicati al regno latino di Gerusalemme.