www.dailystar.com.lbThe Lebanese town of Byblos, or more correctly in modern Arabic, Jbeil, is never far from the news these days. Be it for its increasingly entertaining summer music festival, its glistening sandy beaches and resorts, or for its ancient ruins, old town and fascinating history - Byblos it seems is ever popular.

The book deals with the  town's past, archaeological heritage and rich cultural life from respected Lebanese archaeological writer and researcher, Nina Jidejian.

"Byblos: a Travers Les Ages"("Byblos - Through The Ages") published by Librairie Orientale, is a guide written in French documenting centuries of the town's life from the first Neolithic fishermen's village on the site to modern times and features over 100 black and white plates and 36 color plates of statues and excavated objects as well as photographs and images provided by the Lebanese National Museum which houses many relics from the town.

Do we need another book on Byblos and its statues and histories? Or even another book on archaeology in Lebanon? Jidejian, 70, believes so.

"If one could ever fall in love with an archaeological site Byblos has to be it,"she told The Daily Star and, in a nod to her book adds "Byblos: a Travers Les Ages"is an easy-to-read and fascinating book for every family coffee table in Lebanon."

Of course, Jidejian herself has had a love affair with the town since she arrived in Lebanon as a student at the American University of Beirut some decades before the war. Indeed her university thesis was on Byblos and while at AUB she met famed French archaeologist Maurice Dunand to whom her book is dedicated.

Dunand and his wife Mireille devoted 50 years of their lives beginning in the mid-1920's in collaboration with Emir Maurice Chehab, the then director-general of antiquities, to Lebanon and Byblos in particular.

"Though Dunand's method of excavation is criticized today by younger archaeologists, he did an incredible job at the time,"says Jidejian. "In 1925 he faced a formidable task to actually accomplish anything.

"The Crusader castle was occupied by several families of Jbeil for instance. They had put in windows and doors and were happily installed there. Getting them out was a job in itself.

The fact that Byblos had served for years as a quarry for the surrounding region also did not help Dunand's investigative efforts.

"When the crusaders arrived there in the 12th century they realized that by digging down just a few meters they could reach Roman period levels and extract ready-cut stone blocks and granite columns with which to build their castle.

"The presence of a Hellenistic pottery fragment (300 B.C.) in a huge Chalcolithic burial jar (3500 B.C.) shows the extent to which the site had been disturbed as some 3,000 years separate both objects."

As Jidejian explains in her book, Dunand brought to light the foundations of the temple of Baalat-Gebal, also known as the "Lady (goddess) of Byblos"who presided over the city for 3,000 years in her goddess guises as Baalat-Gebal, Hathor-Isis, Astarte, Aphrodite and Venus in Roman times.

During the Lebanese civil war, many objects including a number of terra-cotta figurines from Byblos were stored in the basement of the National Museum for safekeeping. But many were damaged or destroyed completely due to the rising of the water table and humidity at the museum, according to Jidejian. In "Byblos"Jidejian presents photographs of most of the ancient figurines that remain - for example, one terra-cotta figurine of a farmer and oxen dating back to 2800 B.C. in Byblos.

Jidejian also tells the tale of the bumpy ride of the statue of Hygeia, goddess of health, which in ancient times stood in a niche in the Nympheum - the shrine of nymphs that flanked the paved Roman road leading to Byblos from the north. During the earthquake of July 16, 551 A.D., the marble statue fell to the ground, her head rolling away to be found during the last century's excavations at a few meters distance. The head was replaced by Dunand and Chehab but during the civil war - between 1976 and 1982, according to Jidejian - the statue was hit by a shell and lost her head again. Again it was replaced, and today Hygeia greets visitors to the National Museum in Beirut at the bottom of the main stairs, her head sitting solidly on her shoulders.

"Byblos: a Travers les Ages" is a detailed, comprehensive and colorful history of the famous Lebanese city and its archaeological heritage from one of the most dedicated archaeological writers and researchers in Lebanon today.