Museum of Lebanese Prehistory, Archaeological museum at Saint Joseph University, Beirut, Lebanon

The Museum of Lebanese Prehistory occupies 350 square metres on two levels of Saint Joseph University in Beirut. The upper floor is devoted to stone tools, while the basement illustrates hunter-gatherer life. Displays cover hunting, the invention of agriculture and animal domestication, with 35 display boards and 22 windows showing flint tools, blades, sickles, an axe and a millstone from over four hundred archaeological sites.

The museum opened in 2000 but draws on collections gathered by Jesuit scholars over more than a century. The connection to the university's research activities gave it access to materials from decades of field investigations.

The museum's name and purpose trace to Jesuit researchers who studied Lebanese prehistory until the 1950s. Displays are explained in French and Arabic, and a documentary titled Lebanon in Prehistory screens for visitors. A 2010 exhibition on the museum's tenth anniversary showed Henri Fleisch's photographs of sites lost to urban expansion.

The museum sits in central Beirut and operates on a limited schedule during the week. Calling ahead before your visit helps ensure the museum is open and to arrange a guided tour if interested.

The institution actively conducts archaeological investigations in the region rather than simply displaying past discoveries. New findings from these ongoing projects periodically add fresh insights to what is known about prehistoric settlement patterns.