Sands of Beirut

Sands of Beirut

Shown within Lebanon
Location	coastline south of Beirut, Lebanon
Coordinates	33°53′13″N 35°30′47″E / 33.886944°N 35.513056°E / 33.886944; 35.513056
Type	series of sites
History
Periods	Paleolithic, Kebaran, Natufian, Khiamian, Neolithic, Chalcolithic
Site notes
Excavation dates	1965
Archaeologists	J.W. Chester J. Dawson G. Zumoffen Henri Fleisch N. Josserand Abbe Remonney Lorraine Copeland Peter Wescombe
Condition	ruins
Public access	Yes

The Sands of Beirut were a series of archaeological sites located on the coastline south of Beirut in Lebanon.

The Sands were a complex of nearly 20 prehistoric sites that were destroyed due to building operations using the soft sandstone in constructing the city of Beirut and Beirut Airport. The large number of open air sites provided a wealth of flint relics from various periods including Natufian remains, unstratified but suggested to date between c. 10000 BC to c 8000 BC. Finds included sickles used for harvesting wild cereals as just prior to the agricultural revolution. The transition into the neolithic is well documented with Khiamian sites also being represented in the Sands. Evidence of pre-Natufian Kebaran occupation was also found.

The materials recovered are now held by the Museum of Lebanese Prehistory part of the Saint Joseph University. It is one of the few sites showing signs of real village occupation in the late . The first flints were found by J. Chester and further studies by J.W. Dawson were published in 1874. This was followed by extensive research by Father G. Zumoffen who published in 1893.Henri Fleisch also catalogued and recovered materials from the sites in the 1960s, the destruction of the Sands of Beirut was recently exhibited through Father Fleisch's photography in June 2010 at the Museum of Lebanese Prehistory.

Sands of Beirut archaeological sites included:

This site was located at the top of the Bir Hassan dune at approximately fifty five meters above sea level extending down the slopes towards Ouza'i. Thousands of flint tools were collected from the site from various periods. It was first published as Lower Paleolithic and Middle Paleolithic by Auguste Bergy in 1932 and as Middle and Upper Paleolithic by Henri Fleisch in 1965. Some of the material was found at a depth of three and a half meters below the sands. A trace of Neolithic was found along with three Emireh points and a series of styled picks that were given their name from this site, known as Bir Hassan picks.