Sidon: The British Museum 'College Site' Excavation
A Canaanite temple and 4,000 years of the city that gave Israel Jezebel
Found 1998 — Claude Doumet-Serhal for the British Museum with the Lebanese Directorate General of Antiquities, from 1998 (ongoing); 19th-century tomb finds by Renan (1860–61) and the Eshmunazar and Alexander sarcophagi (1855, 1887)
Where College Site, old city of Sidon (Saida) (Lebanon)
Dates from c. 3000 BCE – 300 CE (College Site); Iron Age city c. 1000–330 BCE · Early Bronze – Roman (continuous) · Sidon 'firstborn of Canaan'; Ethbaal and Jezebel; Yeshua and the Syrophoenician woman
Now at Sidon Museum (on site) and the National Museum of Beirut; the Eshmunazar sarcophagus is in the Louvre
How Sidon: The British Museum 'College Site' Excavation was found
A plot in the heart of old Sidon (the 'College Site', former Collège des Frères) was set aside for research. Since 1998 the team has dug an unbroken sequence from the Early Bronze Age: a 3rd-millennium town, Middle Bronze warrior burials with Minoan-linked pottery, a large Middle–Late Bronze temple with feasting deposits and an Egyptian-inscribed stela, and Iron Age and Persian buildings. The results are now displayed in the Sidon Museum opened beside the site.
What it is
A 4,000-square-metre urban excavation with over 170 Bronze Age burials, a temple whose courtyard held cattle and fish feasting remains and imported Cypriot, Aegean and Egyptian goods, and a stone-built 'Holy of Holies' room. Iron Age levels include Phoenician houses and industrial installations. Elsewhere in Sidon stand the Temple of Eshmun (7th–4th c. BCE) and the royal necropolis that produced the Eshmunazar and Alexander sarcophagi.
Why it matters for the Bible
Sidon is the oldest Phoenician city in the Bible's memory — 'the firstborn of Canaan' — and the home of Ethbaal, whose daughter Jezebel brought Baal-worship into Israel. The College Site is the first excavation to trace the city itself from Canaanite temple to Phoenician port, showing the wealth and cult that lay behind Jezebel's 450 prophets. Yeshua later walked in Sidon's territory and healed a Syrophoenician woman's daughter; Paul's ship called there on the way to Rome.
The Hebrew word: tsee-DOHN
צִידוֹן
צִידוֹן is pronounced tsee-DOHN and means Sidon — 'fishing (place)', from tsud, to hunt/fish (Strong's H6721).
People this discovery connects to
- Ethbaal — אֶתְבַּעַל (et-BAH-al) — with Baal / Baal is with him
- Jezebel — אִיזֶבֶל (ee-ZEH-vel) — where is the prince? (a Baal title)
Places
- Sidon — צִידוֹן (tsee-DOHN) — fishery / fishing town
Events
Table of Nations: Sidon firstborn of Canaan · Ahab's marriage to Jezebel · Yeshua in the region of Tyre and Sidon · Paul's stop at Sidon en route to Rome
Sidon: The British Museum 'College Site' Excavation in Scripture
Genesis 10:15 Sidon is Canaan's firstborn — the College Site's Early Bronze levels are as old as any city in the Levant. (First mention of Sidon.)
1 Kings 16:31 Ahab marries Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians; the excavation shows the city and cult she came from.
Mark 7:24-26 Yeshua in the region of Tyre and Sidon heals the daughter of a Syrophoenician (Greek) woman.
Questions people ask
What is Sidon: The British Museum 'College Site' Excavation?
A 4,000-square-metre urban excavation with over 170 Bronze Age burials, a temple whose courtyard held cattle and fish feasting remains and imported Cypriot, Aegean and Egyptian goods, and a stone-built 'Holy of Holies' room. Iron Age levels include Phoenician houses and industrial installations. Elsewhere in Sidon stand the Temple of Eshmun (7th–4th c. BCE) and the royal necropolis that produced the Eshmunazar and Alexander sarcophagi.
When was Sidon: The British Museum 'College Site' Excavation discovered?
It was found in 1998 by Claude Doumet-Serhal for the British Museum with the Lebanese Directorate General of Antiquities, from 1998 (ongoing); 19th-century tomb finds by Renan (1860–61) and the Eshmunazar and Alexander sarcophagi (1855, 1887), at College Site, old city of Sidon (Saida).
Where is Sidon: The British Museum 'College Site' Excavation today?
Sidon Museum (on site) and the National Museum of Beirut; the Eshmunazar sarcophagus is in the Louvre.
Which Bible verses does Sidon: The British Museum 'College Site' Excavation relate to?
Genesis 10:15, 1 Kings 16:31, Mark 7:24-26.
Related discoveries
- יִזְרְעֶאלJezreel: The Omride Royal EnclosureAhab and Jezebel's fortified compound overlooking the valley
- חוֹתָם'Jezebel' SealAn opulent Phoenician-style seal that may — or may not — have belonged to Ahab's queen
- צִידֹנִיםTel Dor in the Persian and Hellenistic PeriodsThe Phoenician-ruled harbor city on Israel's coast that supplied cedar and trade to Yehud
- צֹרTyre: The Island City and Alexander's CausewayBikai's deep sounding through Hiram's city, and the mole that fulfilled Ezekiel's image of scraped rock
- גְּרָרTel Haror (Tell Abu Hureira): GerarThe Middle Bronze city with a Canaanite temple, most often identified as Abraham and Isaac's Gerar
- הֵיכָלHazor Orthostat Temple (Area H)A three-room Canaanite temple whose plan foreshadows Solomon's
Sources
- Doumet-Serhal, C., 'A Middle Bronze Age temple in Sidon: Ritual and communal feasting', in Doumet-Serhal (ed.), Networking Patterns of the Bronze and Iron Age Levant (2008)
- Wikipedia, 'Sidon' (archaeology)
- British Museum, Sidon excavation project
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