Next May, after an absence of three years due to the crisis, the UPF Archaeology Laboratory, led by M. Eugènia Aubet, professor of Prehistory in the Department of Humanities, will resume its excavation work in the legendary city of Tyre, in the south of Lebanon. It will be facing a major challenge, because it will be the first team to have obtained permission from the Lebanese authorities to excavate the area where the centre of Tyre was located, which contained the ancient island and the palace area, where the temples, palaces and markets were situated.

M. Eugènia  Aubet, who will be accompanied on this project by Francisco Núñez (CSIC) and Laura Tresillo (UPF), as well as two Lebanese researchers, plans to travel to Tyre soon, in order to begin work in May, in the knowledge that "we do not have much money to go ahead with the project" and that "we have to mobilize to obtain funds," in the words of the expert on the Phoenicians.

Based on the descriptions of the monuments from that era, attributed to the prophets of Israel, dating back to around the year 1,000 BC, it is possible to have some idea of what might be found in these excavations, such as city walls with two gateways, and civil and religious buildings. According to M. Eugènia Aubet, "there was the king's palace, temples, houses and stores were, and we may even find objects from everyday life there, such as kitchen utensils or amphorae containing food for its in habitants."

Tyre, known as the "Phoenician queen of the seas" was established on a small island in the third millennium BC, and was coveted by great conquerors, including the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander the Great. King Hiram of Tyre joined the islets together with embankments and reclaimed land from the sea, which made it easier for merchants to begin sailing, and they founded numerous colonies all around the Mediterranean Sea. The colonies made this city of excellent sailors very wealthy, especially as a result of its purple dye and glass industries.

Between 1997 and 2009, the team led by M. Eugènia Aubet, Francisco Núñez and Laura Tresillo excavated around three hundred Phoenician tombs within different projects. These remains were located in a Phoenician cemetery ), at the entrance to the city, dating back to between the ninth and tenth centuries BC, and contained hundreds of funeral amphorae, amulets and pieces of jewellery were found. All this material has been stored in a safe place, in a storage facility built next to the new pavilion at Tyre Museum, which is scheduled to open in 2014.