Talk:National Museum of Beirut

pre-war museum layout

i found this description of the NMB's pre-war layout. it no longer serves any purpose so it should not be included in the article.

from tours National Museum of Beirut

Lebanon’s main archaeological museum couldn’t have been in a worse position during the war-right on the Green Line, and on one of the main crossing points from east to west. There were times when the crossing was closed for days at a time due to heavy shelling and gunfire. The building was closed for the duration of the war and the exhibits bricked up to avoid damage, but the fabric of the building itself suffered from the shelling and periodic occupation by the militias. Following the cease-fire, work began in earnest to restore the building.

The museum dates from 1942 and its façade and interior have an Egyptian style. The windows have been overlaid with black wrought-iron work in a lotus-bud design. The four pillars which flank the entrance hall are copies of those at at Luxor and have lotus-head capitals. At the time of writing, teams of workers were slaving away, practically round the clock, to get the museum ready for reopening. There was no specific timetable for the work to be finished, but it seems likely that by the time you read this, the museum will be at least partly open.

Formerly the museum was open daily, except Monday, with a small entrance fee. The hours in winter, from 1 October until 31 March, were 9 am to 12 noon and from 2 pm to 5 pm. In summer the hours were the same in the morning and 3pm to 6pm in the afternoon. It seems likely that once the museum reopens, these hours will resume. If you want to check if the museum is open, you can telephone the Department of Antiquities (TL 426704). If you want to take photographs inside the museum, you have to obtain a written permit –enquire on the same number.

It has been difficult for the curators to properly assess the damage done to the artifacts as many of them are still in crates and bricked up in the basement of the building. It was said that they expected at least 60% of the exhibits to be undamaged. As one of only two archaeological museums in Lebanon, most of the important finds, which represent the cream of the national heritage, are housed here.

Following is a brief description of the collection and the layout of the museum as it was before the war.

The galleries were arranged over three floors-the basement, ground floor and 1st floor. The ground floor entrance hall had a small collection of Phoenician pottery found at Tyre, dating from the 7th century BC. The first gallery on the left was the Gallery of the Alphabet Which had several early stelae (inscribed stone slabs) representing various stages in the development of writing. Some of the earliest dated from the 10th century BC. One, dating from the Persian period, described the building of the temple at Byblos, which was dedicated to the goddess Balaat Gebal.

Following the gallery around, you would come to the south alcove, which used to house a collection of stone figures and stelae from Byblos.

The Gallery of Rameses was the next room. The pieces in this gallery came from a monument at Byblos which was built or restored by the great pharaoh Rameses II, who paid many visits to Phoenicia during his campaign against the Hittites in the 13th century BC. The pieces included statues and a portal with the cartouche of Rameses II and variius stelae from the same period.

Orpheus Tours http://www.orpheus-tours.com/en Powered by Joomla! Generated: 20 April, 2008, 19:27 If you continued past the staircase which led to the lst floor, you would come to the Gallery of Echmoun which used to house a collection of objects found at Sidon, Tyre and of course Echmoun itself. The exhibits included a set of four mutilated statues of children used to invoke the healing spirit of Echmoun.

The Hygiea Gallery was next on the circuit around the ground floor. This gallery housed mainly statues and mosaics from the Roman and Byzantine periods. The most notable of the mosaics was the one that depicted the life of Alexander the Great, and included a mythical scene from Olympus announcing his future birth.

The next room was the Gallery of Jupiter which had a beautiful 5th- century Byzantine mosaic at the entrance and some statues from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, including part of a colossal statue of Jupiter (or possibly Neptune). The gallery was flanked by two 2nd-century altars. From here, you would return to the entrance hall and to the main central hall. This space contained reconstructions of the temples at Baalbek and a piece of the capital showing the upper half of a bull. Behind the staircase leading up to the lst floor were some fresco fragments from a Frankish chapel in Beirut.

The galleries on the lst floor held the smaller objects and those dating from prehistory. Most of these exhibits came from the Byblos site where extensive digs have taken place. Many of the objects had some religious significance, but others were personal objects from everyday life including some exquisite jewellery.

The first thing you used to see going up the stairs was a frieze of fossilized fish, or ichthyolites. These came from two principal limestone sites in Lebanon: Haqel and Sahel Alma. Radioactive dating shows that the Haqel fossils date from 85 million years ago and the Sahel Alma fossils from million years ago. The fish fossils are all the more remarkable when you consider that the sites from which they come are now 1000m above sea level on a mountain top.

Turning to the left at the top of the stairs, the exhibit began with a collection of old and new stone Age weapons and tools found at the sites of the later Phoenician settlements. There were also cases containing early pottery from this period and a couple of very early clay idols.

The next cases displayed the earliest Phoenician artifacts dating from the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. There was an outstanding figure of Astarte, made of terracotta, showing the goddess holding her breasts, and also some jewellery dating from the 2nd millennium BC.

The next section of the upper gallery was devoted to the treasures of Byblos and contained an impressive collection of figurines and jewellery. Further along the gallery there were many objects found in the tombs of the kings of Byblos dating from the 18th century BC, including mirrors, vases and incense caskets. One of the most dazzling objects was a magnificent gold breastplate from the mid-19th century BC.

The collection continued with some Greek pottery from the 5th century BC and later some fine Phoenician glassware from the lst century BC onwards. The later part of the exhibits included some Byzantine jewellery and household artefacts and a collection of household objects from the Arab ear.

The basement of the museum used to house a collection of sarcophagi and the hypogeum of tyre, an underground vault whose walls were painted with mythological scenes. The ford Gallery was on one side of the basement and contained a collection of sarcophagi in human shapes, mostly in white marble. Most of these had tops of the tomps carved into a likeness of their former occupants. The faces would have originally been painted and you could still see traces of pigment on some of them. They were discovered near Sidon in 1901 and were mainly the coffins of wealthy Phoenician merchants. http://www.orpheus-tours.com/en/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=77 Eli+ 18:41, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

GAN review

GA review (see here for criteria)

1. It is reasonably well written.

   a (prose): b (MoS):

2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.

   a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR):

3. It is broad in its coverage.

   a (major aspects): b (focused):

4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.

   Fair representation without bias:

5. It is stable.

   No edit wars etc.:

6. It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate.

   a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):

7. Overall:

   Pass/Fail:

• Expand lead to emcompass all major points discussed in article.--Redtigerxyz (talk) 14:46, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

hi and thank you for ure effort, i expanded the lead a bit, but i'm not quite sure if "notable" and "fame" are objectionable words here. thank you for your reply.Eli+ 18:36, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

• "Golden Era" para is not well-written. Needs to be expanded. Years needed. Concrete stats needed instead of informal " Tens of thousands of intellectuals tourists and students" and "significant antiquities including tombs, statues, and mosaics, as well as mummies and small artifacts".
• "Closing during hostilities", change name. What hostilies?
• Tone issues: Too informal.
  • "was made possible thanks to the joint efforts of the Ministry of Culture, the Directorate General of Antiquities and the National Heritage Foundation"
  • "thanks to last-minute preemptive measures"
  • "has regained its former fame"
  • "Anyone who owns an historic artifact legally should register it with the Department of Antiquities." wrong tense
• Neutrality issues: gloification of museum with words like "stately", 'fashionable', 'premier', 'thousands of visitors and scholars'.
• "Collections" needs to have more info about the artifacts themselves rather then the background (UNDUE).

--Redtigerxyz (talk) 04:38, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

I will wait for a response before PASS, FAIL or ON HOLD decision. What is needed is just a copyedit, making the language more formal.--Redtigerxyz (talk) 04:42, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

All of the above suggestions are completed, thank you for your time Eli+ 15:46, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

PASS.--Redtigerxyz (talk) 07:14, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

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Undue weight

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