Archaeology of the Military Orders -Auteur : Adrian J. Boas
Routledge - 2006
During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Military Orders played an active role in the defence of the Latin States in the East (modern Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Cyprus) and administered various urban and rural properties.
They were also significantly involved in the various activities relating to the welfare of the Frankish populace and of the pilgrims visiting the Holy Land.
This book presents a detailed description of the archaeological evidence for the five Military Orders active in the Latin East - the Hospitaliers, Templars, Teutonic Knights, Leper Knights of St-Lazarus and Knights of St-Thomas. The three principal sections of the book consist of chapters relating to the urban quarters of the Orders in Jerusalem, Acre and other cities, their numerous rural possessions, and the tens of castles built or purchased and expanded by them in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
The distinctive architecture relatingto their various undertakings (such as hospitals in Jerusalem and Acre) is discussed in detail, with emphasis on the important role of the Military Orders in the development of military architecture in the Middle Ages.
ADRIAN BOAS was born in Melbourne, Australia. He received his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1996 and is a retired lecturer in archaeology and history of the Crusader period at the University of Haifa, Israel.
He has excavated several urban and rural sites and castles in Israel and since 2006 directs the Montfort Castle Project. He is the current president of the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East (SSCLE).
Professor Boas has published several books on the archaeology of the Crusader period, most recently the award-winning Montfort. Early History and Recent Studies of the Principal Fortress of the Teutonic Order in the Latin East, Brill, 2017, winner of the 2017 Verbruggen Prize.
In 2023 Professor Boas was honoured by the publication of a two-volume festschrift titled Exploring Outremer, Studies in honour of Adrian J. Boas, published in the Crusades Subsidia series and edited by Rabei G. Khamisy, Rafael Y. Lewis and Vardit R. Shotten-Hallel.