ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that it is possible to obtain 'useful' information from sites that have been damaged in conflict–often to extent that they have been dismissed as beyond the skill of archaeologists. The modern country of Lebanon is rich with archaeological and heritage potential. Although Lebanon dutifully signed up to major international agreements, including The Hague Convention and The Hague Protocol for the Protection of Cultural Property, historical events have ensured their inoperability. The challenges to archaeology and heritage in Lebanon run deep and are ongoing, as confirmed by reviewing some of the key archaeology and heritage-focussed literature that has been published during and after the civil war. In Lebanon more generally, the narrow politicised associations concerning two archaeological periods–the Iron Age of the Phoenicians and the Classical period–need to be re-assessed. The National Museum of Lebanon in Beirut has a very moving display case containing glass artefacts which have been subject to such intense heat that they have melted.
