Over the duration of the project efforts were made to talk to local people to collect their memories of the monastery. The older inhabitants of Qaryatayn could remember the small mud brick shrine that stood over the sarcophagus until the modern church was built on the site in 1938. The eastern range of the cloister had also had a range of mud brick rooms until the 1980s, when termite damage caused them to collapse leaving only the south east tower and one other chamber still standing. Until this collapse the monastery was inhabited by Bayt Habib, a Christian Bedu clan. Members of this family, especially the family patriarch Abu Nasif, were amongst the most knowledgeable of the local informants.
Creator
Emma Loosley
Date of Visit
3rd July 2002
11th July 2002
29th August 2003
Contributor
Daniel Hull
Stephen Rowland
Mukhles Atallah
Rights
Metadata and all media released under Creative Commons
unless otherwise indicated
Related Resources
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.
Type
Ethnographic information/Social History
Tags
Bedouin, Bedu, Dayr Mar Elian, Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project, Ethnographic information, Monastery, Qaryatayn, Social History, Syria, Syrian Civil War
Collection
The Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project (DMEAP)
Citation
Emma Loosley, “Gathering information on local history,” Architecture and Asceticism, accessed December 31, 2024, https://architectureandasceticism.exeter.ac.uk/items/show/342.