Joub Jannine ( /

ALA-LC ALA-LC (American Library AssociationLibrary of Congress) is a set of standards for romanization, the representation of text in other writing systems using the Latin script. Applications The system is used to represent bibliographic information by ...

: ''Jub Jannīn'') is located in the

Beqaa Valley The Beqaa Valley ( ar, links=no, وادي البقاع, ', Lebanese ), also transliterated as Bekaa, Biqâ, and Becaa and known in classical antiquity as Coele-Syria, is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon. It is Lebanon's most important ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

. Joub Jannine is the capital of West Beqaa. It is a town and the center of the

Western Beqaa District Western Beqaa District ( ar, قضاء البقاع الغربي) is an administrative district in the Beqaa Governorate of the Republic of Lebanon. The capital is Joub Jannine which has a population of 12,000. Main cities and towns West Beqaa ...

, hosting the Serail, which is a main governmental building serving the area. Joub Jannine is the largest and most populated town in its district with a population of 14,728. All major banks exist in Joub Jannine as well as a trades college, Amusement Park, indoor/outdoor soccer arena, basketball court and the weekly Souk which takes place every Saturday and is a local produce market. Joub Jannine is surrounded by a number of villages. To the south there is the village of Lala, Ghazze to the north, Kamid al lawz to the east, and

Kefraya Kefraya ( ar, كفريا / ALA-LC: ''Kifrayā'') is a village in the Western Beqaa District of the Beqaa Governorate in the Republic of Lebanon, approximately northwest of Joub Jannine. The village is home to a mixed population of Sunnis and Gr ...

, known for its wine grape

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vine ...

s, to the west.

History

In 1838, Eli Smith noted ''Jubb Jenin'' as a

Sunni Muslim Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word ''Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...

village in the

Archaeological sites

Joub Jannine I is a small surface site brought to the surface through erosional activity of a stream. It is 8 km northeast of Qaraoun in a range of foothills, 1 km north of a small village called

Jebel Gharbi The Nafusa Mountains (Berber: ''Adrar n Infusen'' (Nafusa Mountain), ar, جبل نفوسة (Western mountain)) are a mountain range in the western Tripolitania region of northwestern Libya. It also includes their regions around the escarpment fo ...

, between two tracks, west of cote 878 by about 200 m. The site was found by Dubertret with a collection made by

Henri Fleisch Reverend Father Henri Fleisch (1 January 1904 – 10 February 1985) was a French archaeologist, missionary and Orientalist, known for his work on classical Arabic language and Lebanese dialect and prehistory in Lebanon. Fleisch spent years re ...

and Maurice Tallon that is now in the

Museum of Lebanese Prehistory The Museum of Lebanese Prehistory (french: Musée de Préhistoire Libanaise, ar, متحف ما قبل التاريخ اللبناني) is a museum of prehistory and archaeology in Beirut, Lebanon. History The museum is the first museum of prehist ...

at the

Saint Joseph University Saint Joseph University of Beirut (French: ''Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth'', abbreviated to and commonly known as "USJ") is a private Catholic research university located in Beirut, Lebanon, which was founded in 1875 by French Jesuit mis ...

Flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...

tools found on the site included bifaces and rough pieces that were suggested to date to the

Acheulean Acheulean (; also Acheulian and Mode II), from the French ''acheuléen'' after the type site of Saint-Acheul, is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by the distinctive oval and pear-shaped " hand axes" associat ...

.Besançon, J. et Hours, F., Préhistoire et géomorphologie : les formes du relief et les dépôts quaternaires dans la région de Joub Jannine (Béqaa méridionale, Liban). Hannon, Beyrouth, vol. V, p. 63-95, 1970 Joub Jannine II was first discovered by M. Billaux in 1957. It was described by

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several part ...

in 1960.Fleisch, Henri., Les industries lithiques récentes de la Békaa, République Libanaise, Acts of the 6th C.I.S.E.A., vol. XI, no. 1. Paris, 1960. It is located on the right bank of the

Litani River The Litani River ( ar, نهر الليطاني, Nahr al-Līṭānī), the classical Leontes ( grc-gre, Λέοντες, Léontes, lions), is an important water resource in southern Lebanon. The river rises in the fertile Beqaa Valley, west of ...

northwest of the village, 100 m from the river and 100 m east of cote 861. An abundant amount of flint was collected including nine hundred and forty four tools and one hundred and fifty two cores. This was first reported to be a

paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός '' palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone to ...

industry by

Lorraine Copeland Lorraine Copeland (born Elizabeth Lorraine Adie, 1921April 2013) was a British archaeologist specialising in the Palaeolithic period of the Near East. She was a secret agent with the Special Operations Executive during World War II. Early lif ...

and Peter Wescombe. A highly specialized

archaeological industry :''Not to be confused with industrial archaeology, the archaeology of (modern) industrial sites.'' In the archaeology of the Stone Age, an industry or technocomplex is a typological classification of stone tools. An industry consists of a nu ...

of striking spheroid and trihedral

flint tools A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stone tool-dependent societies and cultures still exist today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric (particularly Stone A ...

was found at the site and published by Fleisch in 1960, termed by Copeland and Wescombe as the Trihedral Neolithic. Little has been said about this industry or the ancient people that would have used these huge rock mauls (i.e. hammers) in this area, at the dawn of

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peop ...

, or what they would have been using them for. The material from Joub Jannine II was described by

as Joub Jannine III (The Gardens) is a

Heavy Neolithic Heavy Neolithic (alternatively, Gigantolithic) is a style of large stone and flint tools (or industry) associated primarily with the Qaraoun culture in the Beqaa Valley, Lebanon, dating to the Epipaleolithic or early Pre-Pottery Neolithic at ...

site of the

Qaraoun culture The Qaraoun culture is a culture of the Lebanese Stone Age around Qaraoun in the Beqaa Valley. The Gigantolithic or Heavy Neolithic flint tool industry of this culture was recognized as a particular Neolithic variant of the Lebanese highlands ...

, south of the village along steep slopes and around the houses. It was discovered by

and Maurice Tallon in 1957. An abundant amount of material was recovered, which included several large flakes and blades along with a finer series of rabots and scrapers that is now held in the

at the

. No large bifaces were found at this site. The site may extend through the areas now turned into gardens. It was covered in

crops A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydroponi ...

in 1966.

Tourism & Nightlife

Tourism

Joub Jannine is not really known for tourism. However, it is home to one of the oldest bridges in Lebanon, called The Roman Bridge of Joub Jannine (built in 704 AD). The bridge collapsed in 1943, but it was rebuilt with the same rocks and is currently identical to the bridge the Romans built. It is located at the entrance of Joub Jannine on Joub Jannine-Chtoura Rd. Old Bridge of Joub Jannine

Nightlife

Joub Jannine is known for its variety in restaurants and cafes which make it a destination town for most surrounding villages. All restaurants and fast food joints serve Nargila (Shisha). Nightlife exists but limited due to the towns size and distance from the major cities. Nightlife is limited to some operating cafeterias, bars and restaurants around the town which serve alcoholic drinks and quick bite plates and stay open a little past midnight.

References

Bibliography

External links

Joub Jannine
Localiban
Chateau Kefraya Website
{{Authority control Populated places in Western Beqaa District Sunni Muslim communities in Lebanon Great Rift Valley Archaeological sites in Lebanon Beqaa Valley Trihedral Neolithic sites Heavy Neolithic sites Archaeological type sites