Volubilis Archaeological Project

23/04/2019

16/04/2019

In Area E, the team is hard at work exposing the 8th-9th century medieval quarter outside the city gates.

09/04/2019

The Volubilis 2019 season is in full swing! Looking forward to exciting discoveries ahead.

11/04/2018

10/04/2018

Week 2 in the Berber town: at site A we are investigating a substantial walled domestic compound within the walls of the old Roman city. Inside, our excavations have uncovered the burnt collapse of a loft on which sat large storage jars, cooking pots, and two incense burners dating to the ninth to tenth centuries. Preliminary archaeobotanical analysis indicates that olives and cork were stored in this space. In the area outside of the house, we uncovered an unexpected burial which is probably much later in date.

Institute of Archaeology

08/04/2018

Week 2 in the 'Arab quarter': we've reached a substantial burn layer in all the houses which contains many coins and burnt ceramics. This seems to reflect a sudden site-wide destruction probably in the eighth century. More precise dating will be established through a study of the coins and radiocarbon dating of organic material.

-UCL project

UCL Institute of Archaeology

08/04/2018

Welcome to the page of the INSAP-UCL, Moroccan-English excavation of early Islamic Volubilis, under the direction of Prof. Hassan Limane, Dr. Corisande Fenwick, and Dr. Elizabeth Fentress.

This year we are focusing on a large square compound in the centre of the Berber town (Area A) and the extramural so-called Arab quarter (Area E).

The season is generously supported by the Barakat Trust, the Gerald Averay Wainwright Fund, and the UCL Student Fieldwork Fund.

of Archaeology

06/04/2018

Ruth Pelling, archaeobotanist from Historic England, at work at her flotation station, with Leila and Mimsy.

05/04/2018

One of our UCL students with the coin finds of the day from the early Islamic houses outside the city gates.

02/04/2018

Find of the Week: incense burner.
Where? Area A, storage loft collapse.
Date? 9th century?
Why is it exciting? Our archaeobotanist Ruth Pelling will sample the surface and lipid analysis may reveal what type of incense was used.

02/04/2018

Highlights from our first week: several houses in Area E - the so-called Arab quarter - are being excavated, while area A has revealed a house with a collapsed storage loft.

Notable finds include a silver Idrissid coin, a bone spoon, and our Find of the Week – an incense burner from the destruction in area A. We’ll keep you posted on further developments.

25/03/2018

First meal together with the students from UCL Institute of Archaeology who have joined their colleagues from INSAP! Tomorrow the digging begins...
Photo credit Anna Békési.