Thursday, September 09, 2021

A Phoenician sundial fragment survived the Beirut explosion

PHOENICIAN WATCH: In Lebanon, Part of an Ancient Sundial Returns to View. A year after a huge explosion leveled Beirut’s port, the National Museum has reopened, and its Phoenician timepiece is on display (Melanie Abrams, NYT).
The National Museum of Beirut has only one ancient timepiece: part of a second-century-B.C. sundial. It was broken at some point in the past, but the fragment in the museum has survived even the enormous explosion that leveled the nearby Port of Beirut on Aug. 4, 2020, blowing some of the museum’s doors off their hinges and shattering windows.

[...]

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.