The hinterland north of Tyre between the Late Bronze Age and the Roman period. The examples of Kharayeb, Jemjim and Tell Qasmiye

It is widely accepted that the formation and development of cities and the countryside are parts of the same synchronic process, which should be studied on a regional level and over long periods. The development of urban settlements and that of the countryside are intrinsically linked. Since the 1970s, many scholars dealing with the Near East have ceased to focus exclusively on urban centres and monumental architecture, orienting their investigations towards complex economic systems, including the examination of the inland areas and the small rural settlements. However, despite this reorientation of research, the situation of the Phoenician coastal cities' hinterland is not well known. Starting from this assumption, the Italo-Lebanese "Kharayeb project" (Italian National Council of Research and the Lebanese University) aims to investigate the mutual relationships between the urban landscape of the great centre of Tyre and the countryside north of the city, considering the landscape as an expression of the communities that contributed to its formation. The discovery of two sites, Tell Qasmiye at the mouth of the Litani river and Jemjim at the entrance of Kharayeb, open new and important perspective for the knowledge of the tyrian region.