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<< Our Photo Pages >> Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi - Standing Stones in Syria

Submitted by Andy B on Thursday, 11 December 2014  Page Views: 10400

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi
Country: Syria Type: Standing Stones
Nearest Town: Damascus
Latitude: 34.021670N  Longitude: 36.842220E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
3 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
1 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
3

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Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi
Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi submitted by Andy B : A corbelled structure (pile of rocks) with an associated circle. Credit: Robert Mason Site in Syria (Vote or comment on this photo)
Possible stone circles, stone alignments and burial chambers in Syria. Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi (the monastery of Saint Moses the Abyssinian) has stood at the eastern fringes of the Anti-Lebanon mountains since at least the sixth century. Thought to have been built on the remnants of a Roman watchtower, today it resembles a storybook castle perched on the edge of a steep precipice overlooking the Syrian desert.

The archaeological project at Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi, involves survey of the catchment of the wadi together with excavation at selected sites. The region is presently extremely arid, and comprises a ridge of limestone, scattered with caves.

For Dr. Robert Mason, an archaeologist with the Royal Ontario Museum, it all began with a walk last summer. Mason conducts work at the Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi monastery, out in the Syrian Desert. Finds from the monastery, which is still in use today by monks, date mainly to the medieval period and include some beautiful frescoes.

Dr. Mason explains that he “went for a walk” into the eastern perimeter of the site - an area that hasn’t been explored by archaeologists. What he discovered is an ancient landscape of stone circles, stone alignments and what appear to be corbelled roof tombs.

Source: University of Toronto and The Independent

Note: A write up of what was found at Deir Mar Musa in Syria - an update from 2012
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Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi
Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi submitted by Andy B : Lithics from the prehistoric landscape Photo Credit: Robert Mason Site in Syria (Vote or comment on this photo)

Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi
Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi submitted by Andy B : The largely natural outcrop we called "Lion Rock" (Feature 49), which seems to be the centre of a Prehistoric landscape, with then Br. Jihad and Julia Tugwell. Photo Credit: Robert Mason, used with permission Site in Syria (Vote or comment on this photo)

Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi
Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi submitted by Andy B : The face of Lion Rock with voids left by chert nodules, quarried out by Prehistoric humans. Photo Credit: Robert Mason, used with permission Site in Syria (Vote or comment on this photo)

Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi
Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi submitted by Andy B : A stone alignment running north from Lion Rock towards a corbelled structure. The higher Qalamoun rise in the background. Photo copyright Robert Mason, used with permission. Site in Syria (Vote or comment on this photo)

Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi
Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi submitted by Andy B : Feature 40, a corbelled structure with associated circle Photo copyright Robert Mason, used with permission. Site in Syria

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"Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi" | Login/Create an Account | 7 News and Comments
  
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The Monastery of St Moses, Syria: The Prehistoric Remains by Andy B on Thursday, 11 December 2014
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Dr Robert Mason writes: I thought you might be interested in the write up of what I actually found at Deir Mar Musa in Syria. Hopefully it is sufficiently clear that I do NOT think I found Stonehenge, no matter what the press thinks!

Since 2004 I had walked the Qalamoun mountains around the monastery of Deir Mar Musa looking for archaeological features to record. In all that time I found one lithic, a stone tool from humanity’s prehistoric past. My colleagues back home that specialised in these objects would say that I just didn’t know what I was looking for. In the last days of the 2009 season, what turned out to be my last season at the monastery, I thought I would reconnoitre the southern part of the field area. Here lay a range of low hills that ran parallel to the high Qalamoun upon which sat the monastery.

This photograph taken while surveying the Qalamoun around the monastery shows the valley below the monastery, and in the middle distance the low range of hills that marked the extent of my field area.

The approach road to the monastery went past these hills, and I had noticed piles of rocks on top of some them. The first building at the monastery itself was thought to be a Roman watchtower, and Roman watchtowers are always built in line of sight of each other, to signal at the approach of danger. I was hoping that a reconnaissance of these hills would settle that business, but instead I found something completely unexpected, what seemed to be a Prehistoric landscape.

The focus of the landscape seemed to be a limestone rock outcrop with a flat top. It would not have been a significant feature in the Qalamoun, but in these low hills it was a major landmark. At the time I dubbed it "Lion rock", a name that is convenient to continue to use! Such natural features would have providing prehistoric people with a point of reference for generations of hunting and gathering, following the herds of gazelle across the desert. Lion Rock's flat top would have made it a good candidate to be the site of ritual activities by these prehistoric hunter-gatherers. It also had another, more evident use, a series of round holes in the rock face show where nodules of chert had been broken out of the limestone. The chert had been used to make stone tools, the only resource of this type I have found in the region. Using stone mauls, the rock had been quarried out to obtain the chert.

Arranged around Lion Rock were a group of 6 roughly circular stone structures, each about 2.5 metres in diameter. The ones nearest Lion Rock were of orthostatic construction, with larger upright stones, but others were of corbelled construction, made of smaller stones that started to come closer to the centre, and presumably originally came together to create a corbelled dome. At least one of these structures was built right up against the face of Lion Rock, covering the quarried part. Thus so far we have at least two phases, with the first phase being the quarying of Lion Rock, and the second phase being the stone structures, with perhaps the orthostatic structures being earlier than the corbelled structures.

About 73 metres south of Lion Rock was a group of a further 3 corbelled structures, presumably part of the same complex. Radiating from Lion Rock were a number of alignments of stones, none of them large, but still distinctly running across the landscape. One alignment that we had time to study (Feature 44) was 363 metres long running from Lion Rock north to a another corbelled structure (Feature 43). Unlike the other corbelled structures, in this case Feature 43 had an associated circle of stones about 8 metres in diameter. Conceivably the alignment provided a physical link to Lion Rock for the corbelled structure, and the lack of Lion Rock in near proximity necessitated the creation of the circle, perhaps for ritual purposes.

Northeast of this feature, on the summit of the next hill in this low range, was a group of corbelled structures (Features 40-42) each with a ci

Read the rest of this post...
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Re: Neolithic stone circles, alignments and possible tombs discovered by Andy B on Friday, 29 June 2012
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An ancient landscape of stone circles, alignments and possible tombs lies out in the Syrian Desert, according to a Royal Ontario Museum archaeologist who has dubbed the mysterious structures "Syria's Stonehenge."

"These enigmatic arrangements are not especially imposing, they are not megaliths or anything like that [then don't keep calling them 'Syria's Stonehenge' - MegP Ed], but they are very intriguing and clearly deliberately aligned," Robert Mason of Canada's Royal Ontario Museum told Discovery News.

More, with photos
http://news.discovery.com/history/syrian-desert-structures-120626.html

With thanks to Jackdaw1 for the link
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A mystery in the Syrian desert clouded by the conflict tearing apart the nation. by bat400 on Wednesday, 27 June 2012
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'... [Like] a landscape for the dead and not for the living."

Mason, who talked about the finds and about archaeology at the monastery on Wednesday at Harvard’s Semitic Museum, said that much more detailed examinations are needed to understand the structures, but that he isn’t sure when he will be able to return to Syria, if ever.

Analysis of fragments of stone tools found in the area suggests the rock formations are much older than the monastery, perhaps dating to the Neolithic Period or early Bronze Age, 6,000 to 10,000 years ago. Mason also saw corral-like stone formations called “desert kites,” which would have been used to trap gazelles and other animals. The region is dry today (“very scenic, if you like rocks,” Mason said), but was probably greener millennia ago.

It was clear, Mason said, that the purpose of the stone formations was entirely different from that of the stone-walled desert kites. The kites were arranged to take advantage of the landscape and direct the animals to a single place, while the more linear stone formations were made to stand out from the landscape. In addition, he said, there was no sign of habitats.

“What it looked like was a landscape for the dead and not for the living,” Mason said. “It’s something that needs more work and I don’t know if that’s ever going to happen.”

Robert Mason's recent talk brings this site back into the news. For more, see http://phys.org/news/2012-06-mystery.html and http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/06/desert-mystery/.

Also thanks to Jackdaw1 for the link
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" Syria's Stonehenge" Neolithic stone circles, alignments and possible tombs by Andy B on Wednesday, 10 March 2010
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Whilst I'm sure this is a potentially important discovery, Dr Mason has (whether deliberately or not) so blatantly pandered to those headline sub-editors we know and love that I am finding it difficult to take this story seriously beneath the red mist...
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    Re: by Anonymous on Thursday, 24 February 2011
    Completely innocent! I never at any time suggested I had found Stonehenge! The source of this article was a lecture I gave at the Royal Ontario Museum for members. It was meant to be informal and narrative, but scientifically sound. But a blogger was in the audience and i suddenly found myself in all sorts of odd places saying I had found Stonehenge in Syria.

    Never believe everything you read!

    Mason
    [ Reply to This ]
      Re: Stonehenge in Syria by Andy B on Friday, 25 February 2011
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      Dr Mason, I apologise for suggesting you made these remarks yourself, I was railing against the simplistic reporting of the talk. We have seen a long history of people comparing their work to Stonehenge (or journalists doing so) in an attempt to get better news coverage and it gets very tiresome. Saying “I’ve wandered onto Salisbury Plain” (assuming that was correctly reported?) is not the same thing as saying you have found a site like Stonehenge but I can see how it was misinterpreted. We would be delighted to put across an accurate view of what you have found. Please see our extensive coverage of sites in Israel and Jordan and do contact me via the e-mail on my profile page.
      [ Reply to This ]

Neolithic stone circles, alignments and possible tombs discovered by Andy B on Wednesday, 10 March 2010
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For Dr. Robert Mason, an archaeologist with the Royal Ontario Museum, it all began with a walk last summer. Mason conducts work at the Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi monastery, out in the Syrian Desert. Finds from the monastery, which is still in use today by monks, date mainly to the medieval period and include some beautiful frescoes.

Dr. Mason explains that he “went for a walk” into the eastern perimeter of the site - an area that hasn’t been explored by archaeologists. What he discovered is an ancient landscape of stone circles, stone alignments and what appear to be corbelled roof tombs. From stone tools found at the site, it’s likely that the features date to some point in the Middle East’s Neolithic Period – a broad stretch of time between roughly 8500 BC – 4300 BC.

It is thought that in Western Europe megalithic construction involving the use of stone only dates back as far as ca. 4500 BC. This means that the Syrian site could well be older than anything seen in Europe.

At a recent colloquium in Toronto, Canada, Mason described his shock at discovering the apparent tombs, stone circles and stone alignments: “I was standing up there thinking, oh dear me, I’ve wandered onto Salisbury Plain,”

At the southern end of the landscape there are three apparent tombs. They are about eight metres in diameter and each of them “actually has a chamber in the middle”. The roof is corbelled which suggests that beneath them is “something you would want to seal in.” Each of these corbelled structures had a stone circle beside it, which is about two meters in diameter.

Dr. Mason cautioned that the team did not have the chance to do more than survey the area, so it’s still possible that these corbelled structures could have a purpose other than burial. More work also needs to be done to get a precise date of construction.

Read more, with a photo, in the Independent (and don't forget, it's "Syria's Stonehenge" folks!)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/news/syrias-stonehenge-neolithic-stone-circles-alignments-and-possible-tombs-discovered-1914047.html
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