Arabic: المختارة | |
Location | 30 miles from Beirut, Lebanon |
---|---|
Region | Chouf District, Mount Lebanon Governorate |
Coordinates | 33°39′32″N 35°36′50″E / 33.658863°N 35.613877°ECoordinates: 33°39′32″N 35°36′50″E / 33.658863°N 35.613877°E |
Part of | Settlement |
History | |
Material | tools, flint, bone, ceramics |
Periods | PPNB, Neolithic |
Site notes | |
Excavation dates | 1963 |
Archaeologists | J. Cauvin |
Condition | ruins |
Public access | Yes |
Moukhtara (Arabic: المختارة) is a small town in the Chouf District of the Mount Lebanon Governorate of Lebanon. The town's inhabitants are mostly Druze, with a Christian minority. It is the hometown of Walid Jumblatt, the leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party.
It is also an ancient archaeological site, excavated in 1963 by Jacques Cauvin who found an abundance of flint tools. Examinations were conducted on 378 artifacts with finds including daggers, arrowheads, sickles, axes, chisels, picks and awls traced to the Neolithic horizon.James Mellaart suggested that Heavy Neolithic tools and weapons found at the site were "not associated with pottery, and possibly earlier than the Pottery Neolithic of Byblos."