ABSTRACT
For the first 32 years of its investigation, the Sisters of Nazareth site was excavated by the nuns themselves, without any outside assistance. This chapter includes large-scale excavation ahead of the construction of the present convent, a very early example of urban rescue archaeology in the Middle East. As these excavations were initiated, directed and initially published by the convent’s superior, Mere Giraud, they are also one of the first examples of a large-scale archaeological fieldwork project being led by a woman. Working from 1881, Giraud was directing excavations decades before such pioneering archaeologists as Harriet Boyd Hawes in Greece or Gertrude Bell in the Middle East began to excavate. The decorative frieze, columns and mosaics on Giraud’s drawing also indicate something more than a domestic or agricultural structure. This was plainly a highly decorated monumentalised space which, as it incorporated earlier burials, might be understood as having a funerary and/or religious function.
