|
Our story with
Fossils started long time age thanks to our grand father George. One day, he
accidentally discovered a fossil fish which led him to understand that his
country and his mountains in particular were favored by destiny. His region,
almost unknown, was soon to be so no more. This small area was soon to gain not
in kilometers but in reputation.
Hence, he soon
acquired the habit of climbing up and down the nearby hills of his hometown
Ehmej with elementary tools in quest of fossils. His son, our father
Mikhaël remembers the time when as a child he found fossils in the house
and how his father used to show him the location of his discovery. In turn,
Michael endeavored to follow in his father's footsteps and gathered pieces
without however attempting to comprehend or achieve any scientific purpose. To
extract a fossil was, for him, a mere amateur pleasure and he wanted us, his
sons, George , Joseph, Pierre and Albert to share his passion .
To realize his dream,
we acquired a property rich with fossil fish. To research these
fossils became, thus, an act of creation and our goal became to
share our knowledge. Pascal Tassy, founding member of the French
society of systematic studies, says in his book entitled "the message
of the fossils": "In fact, if we want to illustrate the history
of life throughout time, we constantly need additional fossils.
These additional fossils are a must to fill the gaps".
This is how we
started to communicate with some universities, museums of natural history and
specialists of international renown. Hence, "the memory of time" saw light. Our
establishment "Memory of Time" was founded with the purpose of a thoroughly
exploring the world of fossils and improving the excavation and research
techniques.
It is a private
establishment of 4 sections:
- The Sites
- The Workshops
- The Showroom
- The Shop
We attach a
particular importance to the sites which are made of sedimentary layers that
restitute a piece of history. The excavations we carry out are meticulous and
scientific.
The workshop is
well equipped. It gathers, on one hand state of the art tools, and on the other
qualified staff with a solid training in Lebanon and abroad.
In our
showroom, a large number of fossils from our private collection is exhibited.
These are regularly replaced with others in order to allow our guests to admire
all what has been recently excavated.
This room is
open to the public throughout the week, for free. Visitors are entitled to all
kinds of information related to the studied and exhibited pieces. As for the
other pieces, studied for scientific purposes, they are reserved for
specialists. The shop was opened in 1966 at the street of the rose-laurels next
to the crusaders' citadel in Byblos and has succeeded in attracting faithful
customers. It has always been inconceivable for us to sell specimens of unknown
species. However in 1978, we decided to keep at least 10 fossil pieces, of
various sizes, of each species and to authorize the sale of the rest. With each
purchased item, we deliver a certificate with the name and age of the fish,
location and date of excavation and the characteristics of the fossil. The
stone is also immediately scanned on the certificate and well covered to
protect it against the hazards of the road.
Hence, the
excavation of fossils achieves its purpose passing by successive steps from
restoration to exhibition under the supervision and evaluation of specialists
in our establishment and without the use of any other means.
back to
top |