Amrit (Syria) MAPDAM_Prin

Mapping Damage. Research on the archaeological heritage in the Tartus region (Syria)

 

This interdisciplinary Project (MAPDAM) explores the TARTUS REGION through the study of past and modern damages in a complementary and synergetic approach. The Project focuses on the concept of damage both as a modern phenomenon caused by recent conflict and economic crisis and as a past event that determined major changes in the history of a region. Main goals of the Project are: to provide reliable data to safeguard the archaeological heritage of the region of Tartus and to increase the historical, geographical and archaeological knowledge of the area in pre-classical and classical periods. Based on an interdisciplinary approach, the Project explores damages and patterns of changes at three different scales. The MACRO-SCALE involves the whole Tartus region, whose archaeology and geomorphology are still poorly known; as well as changes in settlement distribution before the Roman conquest. The MESO-SCALE analysis will focus on the archaeological site of Amrit, with his monumental remains from the Phoenician/Achaemenid and Hellenistic periods. On the MICRO-SCALE, two monumental areas (the maabed and the meghazil) in Amrit will be investigated through an on site and archival archaeological study, an analytical evaluation of stone decay phenomena and 3D documentation.

These researches will be carried out in order to map past and recent damages and understand their role in the cultural history of the site. The long-term major outcome of the Project is a renewed shared awareness of the causes of damage and decay, of the economic and social, as well as strictly cultural, dimension of the damage in the archaeological field impacting not only the scientific community but also local social groups. Settlement analysis, geomagnetic survey and topography represent the core dataset to delimit the archeological area and provide a damage assessment. Moreover, the Project will use data from satellite images, LiDAR survey and geomorphology. These datasets will be combined to point out critical elements that have affected or may affect in the future the archaeological heritage.