The exhibition “Byblos, a thousand-year-old city of Lebanon”, on the Institute of the Arab International (IMA), in Paris, from March 24 to August 23, 2026, was once deliberate for the autumn of 2024, however was once canceled because of the battle in Lebanon. After all, it was once in the midst of a brand new battle that had simply began, and the valuable items controlled to depart the bombed nation in time.
Byblos, some 40 kilometers north of Beirut, was once “the most powerful Bronze Age port city” within the jap Mediterranean, recollects Elodie Boufar, curator and head of exhibitions on the Institute for the Arab International (IMA). A real industrial crossroads between the Orient, Egypt, Anatolia or even Minoan Crete.
The website was once excavated from the second one part of the nineteenth century, revealing worthwhile treasures (jewellery, statuettes, gold and silver dishes, ceremonial guns, and so on.) a few of which might be exhibited in Paris. The proposed historic direction additionally lets in for an excessively actual archaeological evaluation of analysis performed for a couple of hundred and fifty years, till the new paintings of Tanya Zaven, clinical curator of the exhibition and director of the Byblos website.
A necklace with a pendant within the type of a “pylon” whose ornament displays a double illustration of a pharaoh sitting on both sides of a falcon and a pendant within the type of a shell within the title of King Japi-Shemu-Abi. Byblos, royal necropolis (Tomb II), Center Bronze Age. Gold and semi-precious stones. Beirut, Ministry of Tradition/Normal Directorate of Antiquities of Lebanon. Photograph: Philippe Maillard Byblos and the Pharaohs
It was once financial change with Egypt that allowed the city-state to revel in its first flourishing within the years 2800-2750 BCE, as advised by way of a stone vase bearing the title of Khasekhemoui, a pharaoh of the second dynasty, found out in Byblos.
Town’s port, within the center of the area that the Greeks known as Phenicia two thousand years later, is positioned on the sea outlet of a number of main business routes sporting lapis lazuli from Central Asia (present-day Afghanistan) and even silver from Anatolia (Turkey). The native inhabitants added their very own sources, particularly cedar wooden and different conifers that the pharaohs acquired for making luxurious ships or coffins.
Family members with Egypt intensified all through the Outdated Kingdom (c. 2750-2250 BCE), the age of the pharaohs who constructed the nice pyramids. Some of the treasures of Queen Hetepheres, the mummy of Khufu, found out in her tomb at Giza, there may be silver jewellery encrusted with stones that indubitably handed via Byblos, touring a number of thousand kilometers.
Nevertheless it was once within the first part of the second one millennium (c. 1900-1600 BC) that the buying and selling metropolis reached its top. It was once then a middle of change between East and West, as evidenced by way of a Cretan jar with a pouring spout, within the so-called “Kamares” taste, found out in Byblos. On the similar time, the Egyptian pharaohs of the twelfth Dynasty (c. 1974-1781 BCE) despatched the rulers of town magnificent jewels on which their names have been inscribed in hieroglyphs in cartouches.
The so-called “temple obelisk” additionally dates from this wonderful generation, as a result of it’s adorned with a lot of stone needles whose form is borrowed from Egyptian artwork. Pharaonic civilization appeared extraordinarily prestigious within the eyes of the sovereign and the elite. Kings Abichemu and Ipchemuabi (or Yapi-Shemu-Abi) owned luxurious pieces produced within the Nile Valley or made in the neighborhood within the Egyptian taste. Magnificent “Egyptian” gold jewellery, adorned with multi-colored stones, was once found out within the royal necropolis.
The stage of subordination of the kings of Byblos to the pharaohs oscillated over the centuries between alliance and vassalage, relying at the length and the efficient energy of the Egyptian empire.
A plaque adorned with the picture of the goddess Hathor on a pillar. Byblos, Center Bronze Age. Ivory. Beirut, Ministry of Tradition/Normal Directorate of Antiquities of Lebanon. Photograph: Philippe Majard Ounamon’s adventure
On the finish of the New Kingdom, within the eleventh century BC, Egypt was once divided into two kingdoms: one within the south, the opposite within the north. The affect of the rustic was once decreased by way of this political cut up. That is what is definitely mirrored within the Egyptian tale in regards to the Ounamon expedition, which was once despatched to Byblos by way of the top priest of the god Amun from Thebes, in Higher Egypt. Ounamon is chargeable for bringing within the wooden to allow the reconstruction of the sacred boat used to move the long-lasting statue of the Egyptian god.
Ounamon carries with him a load of worthwhile steel. Cash that then serves as foreign money within the type of small ingots. However all through the prevent, the Egyptian was once robbed of his cash. He however continues his voyage against Byblos. He was once gained by way of the king of town, he attempted to persuade him to provide wooden to Egypt as a tribute. However the sovereign refuses and recollects the fundamental regulations of business according to reciprocal change.
The top of the tale is misplaced, however it’s transparent that Egypt now not had the standing of a super energy. The closing pharaoh whose title is located in Byblos was once Osorkon II (c. 865-830 BC). Different empires would now take over from the pharaohs: the Assyrians, the Babylonians, then the Persians, till the Greco-Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Nice captured Phoenicia in 332 BC.
Byblos then got here below the rule of thumb of the Ptolemies, Alexander’s successors in Egypt, then the Seleucids, any other Greco-Macedonian dynasty, and after all the Romans.
Bust of the goddess Hathor. Byblos, Obelisk Temple, Center Bronze Age. Beirut, Ministry of Tradition/Normal Directorate of Antiquities of Lebanon. Photograph: Philippe Maillard Woman of Byblos
Financial family members between Byblos and Egypt are accompanied by way of cultural and non secular change. The kings of Byblos worshiped a super goddess named Baalath Gebal, this means that “Lady of Byblos.” The Egyptians thought to be her the identical of the goddess Hathor, related to motherhood, pleasure and fertility.
Within the Bronze Age, the Woman of Byblos was once depicted in line with the codes of Egyptian artwork, dressed in a heavy wig or showing cow horns.
King of Byblos, selected by way of the goddess
The ruler of Byblos performs the position of mediator between Baalat Gebal and his topics. It’s assumed that he was once enthroned by way of the Woman. Within the fifth century BC, King Yehavmilk mentioned on a stele:
“I am Jehavmilk, king of Byblos (…), I whom the Lady of Byblos made king of Byblos.”
Alternatively, regardless of this statement of his divine proper, he does no longer appear to have dominated as an absolute sovereign. He had, a minimum of on positive events, to discuss with the Council of Elders, a type of legislative meeting, recognized from the inscriptions.
The royal workplace would disappear after the conquest of town by way of Alexander the Nice in 332 BC. Byblos was once then reworked right into a Greek-type metropolis, or polis, with a civic frame, a council, and elected judges.
Divine collectible figurines. Byblos, Temple of the Obelisk, Bronze Age. Bronze and gold leaf. Beirut, Ministry of Tradition/Normal Directorate of Antiquities of Lebanon. Photograph: Philippe Maillard Isis in Byblos
Plutarch, a Roman creator of the Greek language from the start of the second century, tells us a delusion that connects the Egyptian goddess Isis and Byblos (Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, 15-16).
Isis went looking for the frame of her husband, Osiris, who was once killed by way of her brother Set. The prison positioned the stays in a field which he threw into the Nile. The river carried it to the Mediterranean Sea, after which the waves carried it to the shores of the Center East, close to Byblos the place it washed ashore. A bush started to develop at the shore, totally protecting the coffin of Osiris.
The king of Byblos, seduced by way of the gorgeous tree that all at once gave the impression, ordered it to be lower right down to make a pillar which he erected in his palace. Then Isis arrived in Byblos. She asks the king to ship her a picket coffin. The goddess will have the ability to take over the frame of her husband, which she brings again to Egypt. Later, she is going to reach uniting with him, via a mystical operation, and can give start to a son, Horus, who will overthrow the usurper Set and transform the brand new official pharaoh.
It’s fascinating to notice that Byblos represents one of the crucial levels of Isis’s wanderings looking for a husband. The Egyptian goddess is in comparison to each Hathor and the Woman of Byblos, whilst Osiris is regarded as the identical of Adonis, the nice Phoenician god.
The cult of Adonis
The cult of Adonis is definitely attested in Roman instances, from the first to the third century. The population of Byblos then have fun the resurrection of the god. Once a year they move in procession to the shrine constructed within the mountain, at greater than 1000 meters above sea stage, close to the holy spring known as Afka, in the midst of recent and luxurious nature.
Making an allowance for present occasions, a discuss with to this luminous exhibition leaves a style of paradise misplaced. Nevertheless it additionally raises hopes that Lebanon, the traditional Phoenicia whose title conjures up the Phoenix, this immortal mythological fowl, will have the ability to upward push from the ashes.
Poster for the exhibition “Byblos, the thousand-year-old city of Lebanon”, IMA, Paris, March 24-23. August 2026. IMA
