40 Collections
The Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project (DMEAP)
The survey and excavation of the monastery of St Julian of the East (Dayr Mar Elian esh Sharqi), Qaryatayn, Syria, 2001-2004. This is now the most complete surviving record of the site as the monastery was destroyed by the so-called Islamic State group in August 2015.
The photographs of the 2001-2003 survey and excavation seasons have been lodged with the Archaeological Data Service and are reproduced here with their permission. For those who would like more specialised information such as context and intervention numbers or direction of shot please refer to: http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/dmeap_ahrb_2004/gallery.cfm.
Contributor: Emma Loosley
Rights: Metadata and all media released under Creative Commons
unless otherwise indicated
The Citadel of Zalabiyeh on the Euphrates
The salvage excavation of the Byzantine/Early Islamic citadel of Zalabiyeh on the River Euphrates in Syria. This project was begun in 2010 as a salvage mission due to the risk to the site posed by the projected construction of a dam as part of a hydro-electricity scheme. The project has been mothballed since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011.
The data published here are the records of that first season of fieldwork in 2010. This includes interim site reports for the Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums (DGAM) and funding bodies, photographs of the site fortifications and images of the excavations. It also includes all pictures of the small finds that were recorded and stored in the Deir Ez Zor Museum and are now believed destroyed due to the presence of IS in the city as a consequence of the Syrian Civil War.
Contributor: Emma Loosley
Joshua Bryant
Rights: Metadata and all media released under Creative Commons unless otherwise indicated
The Limestone Massif of North-Western Syria
An archive of photographs taken on the Limestone Massif 1997-1999. They provide a record of the late antique towns and villages that populated the region from the first century BC/AD and that reached their height in the fourth- to sixth-centuries before mysteriously declining from the first decade of the seventh century onwards.
Contributor: Emma Loosley
Rights: Metadata and all media released under Creative Commons unless otherwise indicated
Edessa/Urfa/Şanliurfa
Photographs taken on fieldwork in the city of Şanliurfa, Turkey in November 2012. The city was formerly known as Urfa and held the older name of Edessa. As the birthplace of the Syriac language, it was an early centre of Christianity. After the Council of Chalcedon in 451, Edessa became the centre of non-Chalcedonian Christianity and the purpose of the fieldwork was to investigate any evidence of Christianity still extant in Şanliurfa.
Contributor: Emma Loosley
Peter Leeming
Rights: Metadata and all media released under Creative Commons unless otherwise indicated
The Early Christian Architecture of Georgia
This collection of photographs was initially based upon pictures taken during fieldwork in May-July 2013, with the addition of some material from earlier research trips. The information gathered at this time has been added to and expanded over the course of the project fieldwork, most notably during long periods spent in Georgia in 2016 and 2017. The aim of the resource is to make available a range of images of early Georgian churches in order to study their form, function and architectural evolution, as well as to act as a record of their state of preservation at this particular moment in time. The fashion for rebuilding ecclesiastical monuments post-Communism is currently a serious threat to the architectural heritage of Georgia and these images record sites that are so far untouched as well as others that have already been modified.
Contributor: Emma Loosley
Peter Leeming
Rights: Metadata and all media released under Creative Commons unless otherwise indicated
The hinterland of Edessa
This collection of photographs was taken on the field trip to Edessa in November 2012. Whereas Edessa was an early and conspicuously Christian city, its hinterland was a patchwork of early Christian and resolutely Pagan religious practices. It is notable that at least one stubbornly pagan cult centre, Harran, then became an early supporter of Islam. These pictures are intended to contextualise the wider region around Edessa and shed light on its Syriac-speaking inhabitants.
Contributor: Emma Loosley
Peter Leeming
Rights: Metadata and all media released under Creative Commons unless otherwise indicated
Resafa
Resafa is the Arabic name for the late antique city in central Syria south of the Euphrates that was known as Sergiupolis. It is believed to be the place where the two Roman soldiers Sergius and Bacchus were martyred for their Christian beliefs, an event traditionally dated to 297. The images in this collection were taken in on three specific occasions. The majority of the pictures come from a field visit in 1997. In October 1998 thousands of Syrian and Lebanese Christians gathered at Resafa to celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the martyrdom of SS. Sergius and Bacchus (they knew that they were a year late....) and the second set of pictures records that event. Finally there are some images of the site taken in 2010.
Creator: Emma Loosley
Contributor: Emma Loosley
Joshua Bryant
Rights: Metadata and all media released under Creative Commons unless otherwise indicated
Comparative Graeco-Roman and Late Antique architecture of Western Anatolia
Collection of images taken of several important Graeco-Roman and Late Antique sites in Western Anatolia. Included so as to be comparative data when looking at the collections from the eastern reaches of the Romano-Byzantine Empire.
Creator: Joshua Bryant, Emma Loosley
Date of Visit: December 1994, 1st July to 31st August 2012
Contributor: Joshua Bryant
Emma Loosley
Rights: Metadata and all media released under Creative Commons unless otherwise indicated
Type: Architecture
Halabiyeh/Zenobia
The hill on which Halabiyeh's citadel rests is presumably the main reason for Halabiyeh's construction. The hill dominates the western bank of the Euphrates at the point where the river valley is significantly narrowed by the plateaus either side of the river. The towns' massive walls run down from the citadel to the riverbank effectively blocking passage along the western bank at this point.
Creator: Joshua Bryant
Date of Visit: August 2010
Contributor: Joshua Bryant and Emma Loosley
Rights: Metadata and all media released under Creative Commons unless otherwise indicated
Type: Architecture
Aleppo
Aleppo is the second city of Syria in importance, after the capital Damascus, but is actually the most populous and commercially significant city in the country. Unlike Damascus, which evolved from a series of small settlements, the origins of Aleppo originate with the tell in the centre of the old city which is now dominated by the citadel.
Creator: Emma Loosley
Date of Visit: February 1997, May 1998
Contributor: Emma Loosley
Rights: Metadata and all media released under Creative Commons unless otherwise indicated