Palmyra

Hailing from the Syrian city of Palmyra, a woman named Zenobia (also Bathzabbai) governed territory in the eastern Roman empire from 268 to 272. She thus became the most famous Palmyrene who ever lived. But sources for her life and career are scarce. This book situates Zenobia in the social, economic, cultural, and material context of her Palmyra. By doing so, it aims to shed greater light on the experiences of Zenobia and Palmyrene women like her at various stages of their lives. Not limiting itself to the political aspects of her governance, it contemplates what inscriptions and material culture at Palmyra enable us to know about women and the practice of gender there, and thus the world that Zenobia navigated. It reflects on her clothes, house, hygiene, property owning, gestures, religious practices, funerary practices, education, languages, social identities, marriage, and experiences of motherhood, along with her meteoric rise to prominence and civil war. It also ponders Zenobia's legacy in light of the contemporary human tragedy in Syria.

In Kleinasien und Syrien gibt es zahlreiche Tempel, deren Architektur Hinweise auf eine Kultausübung auf dem Dach gibt. Dabei handelt es sich zum einen um Treppenhäuser, die zum Tempeldach emporführen, zum anderen um Türöffnungen in den Giebelfeldern von Tempeln. Beide Eigenschaften treten bisweilen auch an ein und demselben Tempel auf, so dass zunächst ein Zusammenhang zwischen diesen beiden Eigenschaften naheliegend erscheint. Im folgenden soll jedoch gezeigt werden, dass Treppenhäuser und Giebeltüren unterschiedlichen Kulttraditionen und Funktionen dienten. Die Treppenhäuser entstammen der religiösen Tradition Mesopotamiens und Syriens und führen auf Flachdächer oder Terrassen auf den Tempeln, auf denen Opfer und andere Rituale stattfanden. Die Herkunft der Giebeltüren liegt dagegen in Anatolien. Hier wurde die Epiphanie der jeweiligen Gottheit durch Schauspieler aufgeführt, der Tempelgiebel wurde dabei zur Bühne eines rituellen Dramas. Die Verbreitung beider Architekturformen und damit Kulttraditionen fand in hellenistischer Zeit statt und ist Ausdruck der seleukidischen Religionspolitik.

eds.) with the collaboration of Stefania Ermidoro and Erica Scarpa: Libiamo ne' lieti calici Ancient Near Eastern Studies Presented to Lucio Milano on the Occasion of his 65 th Birthday by Pupils, Colleagues and Friends Alter Orient und Altes Testament Band 436 © 2016 Ugarit-Verlag-Buch-und Medienhandel Münster w w w . u g a r i t -v e r l a g . d e A l l r i g h t s r e s e r v e d . N o p a r t o f t h i s p u b l i c a t i o n m a y b e r e p r o d u c e d , stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, e l e c t r o n i c , m e c h a n i c a l , p h o t o -c o p y i n g , r e c o r d i n g , o r o t h e r w i s e , w i t h o u t t h e p r i o r p e r m i s s i o n o f t h e p u b l i s h e r . P r i n t e d i n G e r m a n y I S B N 9 7 8 -3 -8 6 8 3 5 -197-2

This BOOK groups together a number of papers published over a period of thirty years. They are put into a logical order, with a progressive introduction of concepts and complexity. The general purpose is demonstrate, by the analysis of existing cases (chosen in Japan, France, Syria, Arabia), the pertinence of the semiotics approach for architectural studies. More specifically, it is the discursive approach of semiotics, built upon syntactic transformations, that is promoted. The analyses demonstrate the cultural investment of semantic values into empty portions of space, orientation, geometric patterns, assembling and cutting operations.

For centuries, Palmyra and its ruins have fascinated archeologists, historians and artists. yet, Palmyra has been a terrain for struggles as well. The emergence of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as a new actor in the Syrian conflict has pushed the damages of heritage monuments and sites to a greater extent, and has also added further ideological meanings to targeting cultural heritage. As a consequence, these atrocities have unleashed debates on a broader level. Several initiatives and projects worldwide have started to document the damages in Palmyra, and to prepare plans for its restoration. This paper focuses on the case of Palmyra, in the light of the atrocities committed by the ISIS militant in summer 2015. Destruction has become a part of Palmyra's long history, and reconstructing the damages cannot erase the event that inflicted the destruction.

Worlds Apart Trading Together sets out to replace the outdated notion of ‘Indo-Roman trade’ with a more informed perspective integrating the new findings of the last 30 years. In order to accomplish this, a perspective focusing on concrete demand from the ground up is adopted, also shedding light on the role of the market in long-distance exchange. Accordingly, the analysis conducted demonstrates that an economically highly substantial trade took place between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean in the 1st–6th cen. CE, altering patterns of consumption and modes of production in both India, South Arabia and the Roman Empire. Significantly, it can be documented that this trade was organised at the centres of demand and supply, in Rome and India, respectively, by comparable urban associations, the transport in-between being handled by equally well-organised private networks and diasporas of seagoing merchants. Consequently, this study concludes that the institution of the market in Antiquity was able to facilitate trade over very long distances, acting on a scale which had a characteristic impact on the economies of the societies involved, their economic structures converging by adapting to trade and the market.
NB: See uploaded addenda in paper below 'Worlds Apart Trading Together – addenda'
Available reviews:
—J. Simmons in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2018.09.59 (https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2018/2018-09-59.html).
—R. Tomber in Journal of Roman Archaeology 31, II (2018): 948–52.

More than 20 years after presenting his first interpretation of the mosaic from the House of Aion in a paper entitled “Uwagi na temat mozaiki z Domu Aiona w Nea Paphos (Cypr)” (Meander 9/10, 1987, p. 421-438, in Polish, and translated to English: « The Immortality of the Human Soul and the Dionysiac Mysteries in the 4th Century Allegory [in Connection with the Interpretation of the Mosaic from the “House of Aion” at Paphos in Cyprus]»), where he proposed reading the five mythological panels (1. Leda and Zeus; 2. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; 3. The Dionysian thiasos; 4. Apollo and Marsyas; 5. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia) as an allegory of the destiny of the human soul and body, starting with conception and ending with the liberation of the soul and its apotheosis, the author now enhances his initial interpretation with numerous reflections concerning the historical context of this work of art, created in the years 320-360.
If, according to the author, the mosaic is a “Hymn” in honour of the pagan gods, Man (his soul) and his place in the (pagan) universe, then at the same time it polemicises with the Christian faith and its God, Jesus Christ.
The author puts forward numerous new solutions relating to the mosaic’s iconography and iconology. Analysis of the mosaic also leads him to propose a solution to the as-yet unanswered question regarding the absence of images of the crucified Christ in Christian art of the 3rd and 4th centuries, up until 420/430, when the first images of Christ on the cross appear.
CONTENTS:
Introduction
1. Research to-date (recap)
2. Description of mosaic (recap)
2.1. Composition of five mythological scenes
2.2. Brief iconographic description of mythological panels
2.3. Outline of individual iconographic elements and their respective roles
2.4. The pagan gods’ air of majesty and dignity as an expression of piety
3. A few words about the pagan reaction
4. An apology of pious human life according to pagan principles and a polemic on the Christian model of Man and his theological idol, Jesus Christ
4.1. Divine intervention in the act of human conception (allusion to/polemic on the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary)
4.2. The Epiphany of Dionysus (an allusion to the Epiphany of Christ – Theou Pais)
4.3. The procession and dissemination of Dionysian order (allusion to/polemic on Christ’s entry into Jerusalem)
4.4. The error of Marsyas (polemic on/allusion to the error of Jesus the Messiah): arrest, sentencing for arrogance and lack of piety (asebeia) and condemnation to a martyr’s death
4.5. The anabasis (or anagoge psyches) of a ‘beautiful soul’ (allusion to/polemic on the Ascension of Christ)
5. A few words on the mosaic programme prior to final conclusions
Final conclusions
Key words: mythological mosaic, House of Aion, Nea Paphos, Late Antiquity, Roman art, allegorical narrative, allusive language of mythological pictures, wordplay (Marsyas-Messias), Jesus Christ, anti-Christian polemic, Dionysos, Cassiopeia, Apollon, Nereides, Abstract Personifications, Greek Mythology, ΚΥΠΡΟΣ

This paper documents a general description and an epigraphic analysis of the Palmyrene funerary relief belonging to the "Conde de Lagunillas" Collection at the "Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes” of Cuba. This piece appears to be the only sample of Palmyra funerary art preserved in Hispanic America. The Palmyrene Aramaic inscription on the relief (PAT 0647) is described and translated as part of the present study. In addition, each of the names mentioned in the epitaph is analyzed with respect to its etymology and some related historical and sociolinguistic aspects.


Keywords: Palmyra; funerary portraiture; Palmyrene Aramaic; Palmyrene epigraphy; Conde de Lagunillas Collection.

La conquista romana del Mediterráneo oriental y de Egipto amplió los horizontes de los mercaderes ítalo-romanos como nunca antes. A los pocos años de ocupar el territorio, eran cientos las caravanas y barcos que partían anualmente hacia la India y el lejano Oriente desde las ciudades y puertos ubicados en los límites del Imperio romano. Será con Augusto cuando se sienten las bases de un mercado cada vez más globalizado, permitiendo la libre circulación de los productos más deseados por las élites urbanas de la metrópolis romana.
Esta investigación aborda mediante el análisis epigráfico de más de doscientas inscripciones funerarias quienes fueron los personajes ligados al comercio y fabricación de joyas, vestidos, tintes y ungüentos en la ciudad de Roma. Estos productos se comercializaron entre la élite de la capital y entre los consumidores selectivos que emulaban la conducta de la aristocracia romana. El marco cronológico de estudio comprende la etapa que va desde finales del periodo republicano a finales del siglo tercero d.C. Y es precisamente el momento
relacionado con el cambio de era y el primer siglo d.C. cuando se ha podido relacionar cronológicamente un mayor número de inscripciones. A su vez, poder identificar la localización de sus tiendas o talleres nos ha permitido conocer de primera mano los diversos cambios en la topografía urbana de la ciudad.
Asimismo, con el objetivo de conocer los lugares de producción o extracción de estos bienes de carácter suntuarios se han descrito las diferentes rutas intercontinentales de aprovisionamiento de estos productos. En este punto, el análisis de los diferentes agentes
implicados en este comercio permite conocer las diferentes áreas de actuación, cuáles fueron los mercados más visitados y cuál fue el rol que jugó cada una de las potencias implicadas en este intercambio. Para ello se ha estudiado cuál fue el marco común de entendimiento para establecer estas relaciones.
Los resultados obtenidos han permitido ampliar la descripción tenida hasta ahora sobre un comercio tan selecto, así como proponer nuevas hipótesis interpretativas del tema.

English:
nunc patimur longae pacis mala, saevior armis
luxuria incubuit victumque ulciscitur orbem
(JUVENAL. SAT. II, 6, 292-297)

With these words the Roman author Juvenal evokes the evils associated with unbridled lust which had pushed Rome after the conquest of the so far known world. In this sense, the conquest of the Eastern Mediterranean and the annexation of Egypt under direct control by Rome resulted in the restoration and improvement of trade routes to the East, place of origin of most luxury goods markets as valued in Rome.
As part of our thesis about the luxury trade in the city of Rome during the Early Roman Empire, where we look specifically at luxury products, we wish to introduce how new access to these goods sparked a change in Roman society. In this respect, thanks to the study of lapidary inscriptions related with actors linked to the development and sale of
exotic products can be examined a series of changes that occurred from the new Roman state-run establishment under the principality of Augustus. The classical tradition will oppose a new order marked by the Roman elites demand for expensive products, creating fashions and customs unexplored to date, trying to slow it down with the
enactment of laws against excess and access.
These changes will be accompanied by other observable also in this work, highlighting, the emergence of new commercial characters and their existential increase in Rome: margaritarii, coronarii, vascularii, vestiarii, etc. In this process, indirectly new terms will be minted for defining new jobs and others will vary depending on use. Also, there
is a growing desire to show the life and personal work on the tombstones, making clear a new cultural fashion. Finally, this cultural transformation will extend to an urban modification of the Urbs, lifting exclusive spaces for the purchase and sale of these products

This article argues that the campaign of antiquities destruction waged by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) should be understood in the context of the group's rejection of the nation-state. The Ba'athist regimes of Iraq and Syria used archaeology not only as a tool to promote national unity but also as an ideological narrative to portray their states as continual recapitulations of their pasts. As a result, the pre-Islamic past came to be associated with secular nationalism. Since the secular state demands obedience to secular law, ISIS views it as idolatrous as it demands allegiance apart from God. The group considers the secular sacralization of antiquities in support of nationalism to be an aspect of this form of idolatry that justifies their destruction. Future efforts at cultural heritage preservation in the region will need to take into account the decline of Arab nationalist movements which once supported them.

What can an extraordinary group of sculptures commemorating the dead reveal about ancient life in Palmyra? Thousands of ancient inhabitants’ portraits once graced lavish family tombs in cemeteries just beyond the desert city. Studying this artistry can reveal much about wealth, power, family, and even the balance between local tradition and outside influences in a major trading hub, as Eva Mortensen and Rubina Raja reveal.

The goal of this paper is to offer a re-interpretation of Roman funerary portraits as mediums – archaeological objects carrying certain messages. In contemporary research, the Roman province of Syria is often described as a field to the very successful fusion of Roman and ‘Eastern Greek’ culture. The pivotal example of that fusion is illustrated on Palmyra Portraits – an extraordinary set of reliefs combining Roman, Hellenistic, and local stylistic, iconographic, and epigraphic traditions. Undeniably the funerary portrait reliefs from Palmyra are the visual and epigraphic mediums – they communicate certain values and ideas across time and space. The messages transmitted by this group of monuments were the product of complex mechanisms of cultural transformation in the region. In his ‘Empire and Communication’ Innis observes that the invention of the alphabet subversed the relationship between the center of civilizations and those on their fringes. As a result, new ideas or techniques could emerge in the marginal zones. That observation certainly applies to Palmyra where the correlation between three-lingualism and extraordinary rich artistic culture can be attested. The Palmyrene funerary reliefs are often depicted by several attributes including writing tools. The several messages concerning male identity can be read simultaneously: schoolboys, Greek and Roman citizens, entrepreneurs, mourners, and cult observers. Further, the female portraits decorated by household insignia, rich jewelry, other attributes as well as Greek and/or Aramaic inscriptions communicate the statuses of modest wife, rich bourgeoise, mother, and relation to the man-of-letters. The perfect examples of cultural dialogue and deliberate, spontaneous code-switching in the private, funerary space of Roman Near East the Palmyra Portraits give also a unique example of balance between visual and written media. The image plays here as a crucial role as text – sanctioning the position of the one that was depicted as would Innis write.

This edited volume presents new research on the coinage and so-called banqueting tesserae from Palmyra in the Syrian Desert.

The ancient city of Palmyra is, rightly, famous for its major monumental architecture and its vast corpus of funerary portraiture, most of which dates from the first three centuries AD. This material has long been central to art-historical, archaeological, and epigraphical studies of the region. However, up to now, relatively little attention has been paid to the ‘small stuff’ from Palmyra — seemingly minor items such as the enigmatic local coinage and the richly iconographic banqueting tesserae found scattered across the city’s sanctuaries — which has never been comprehensively studied, but may have had huge importance for the people who lived in Roman Palmyra.

This volume, which arises from the research project Circular Economy and Urban Sustainability in Antiquity headed by Prof. Rubina Raja, aims to redress the balance by giving new focus to these small finds with a view to studying them and better understanding their significance in Palmyrene social and religious life. Drawing together experts on Palmyra’s archaeology, history, and language, the volume offers insights and reflections into various aspects of the city’s coins and tesserae in both their local setting and their wider regional context. In doing so, the contributions gathered here open up new lines of enquiry, and at the same time underline how much we still have to learn from studying even the smallest items.

In recent years, the deliberate targeting of cultural heritage in armed conflicts has been receiving a bigger attention than ever before. Although the phenomenon is not new, the international shock and outrage provoked by the systematic and widely broadcasted iconoclastic destruction and large-scale looting perpetrated by ISIL (also known as Daesh or Islamic State) after expanding its control over territories with a rich millennial heritage in Iraq and Syria, led to an increasing international awareness about the need of an efficient protection regime. The present paper seeks to collect and analyse the political decisions and measures takenby different international organisations (especially UN Security Council, UNESCO) and the proactive role of certain states (particularly France, Italy) in influencing the international agenda primarily in reaction to the violent acts of ISIL against cultural heritage, arguing that there is a stronger political commitment than ever before at an international level for establishing effective norms as well as institutional, financial and military tools as regards prevention, mitigation and retribution for preserving the cultural heritage of humanity in times of armed conflicts, raising the field gradually to the international security agenda at the same time.

""The author analyses the mythological subjects known from the funerary paintings of the Near East. He is interested principally in the meaning and the message which these representations conveyed. He studies the interpretative problems of funerary iconography in terms of the principles that we encounter in the iconography of roman art - principles which are confirmed by Artemidorus of Ephesus (or Artemidorus of Daldis), a Greek author of the Antonine period, in his manuel Key to Dreams (Onirocriticon). This approach has never previously been attempted. To support his argument, he refers to numerouse monuments of funerary art as well as to a series of inscriptions adorning the monuments in Roman necrpoleis.

L’auteur analyse les sujets mythologiques connus de la peinture funéraire au Proche-Orient. Il s’intéresse principalement au sens et au message que ces représentations portaient. Il étudie la problématique de la sémantique de l’iconographie funéraire en fonction des principes qu’on retrouve dans l’iconographie plastique et qu’Artémidore d’Ephese (soit Artémidore de Daldis), auteur grec de l’époque antonine, confirme dans son manuel La clef de songes (Onirocriticon). Cette démarche n’avait jusqu’alors, jamais été entreprise. Pour appuyer son raisonnement, l’auteur se réfère à des nombreux monuments d’art funéraire, ainsi qu’à une série d’inscriptions ornant des monuments des nécropoles romaines.
See also: M.T. Olszewski, Artémidore, mythologie et symbolique funéraire, Archeologia (Warsaw) 52, 2001, pp. 39-60.
M.T. Olszewski, Le statut de l'image selon Artémidore et l'art romain, in: Morlier, H. ed., IXe Colloque international pour l'étude de la mosaïque antique et médiévale, Roma 5.11.2001-10.11.2001, Collection de l'Ecole Française de Rome 352/2, Rome 2005, pp. 859-880.""

Seit Mitte des 18. Jahrhunderts ließen adlige Bauherren ältere Schlösser gänzlich oder in Teilen nach vermeintlich etrurischem oder pompejanischem Stil umgestalten oder passten Neubauten gleich dem neuen klassizistischen Geschmack an. Die bauliche Umgestaltung schloss auch die Innenarchitektur mit ein. Möbel, Vasen, Wanddekorationen, Porzellansie alle wurden im neuen Stil à l'étrusque gestaltet. 1 Unter den zahlreichen Beispielen für die Einflussnahme pompejanischer, herkulanischer oder pseudo-etruskischer Wohnraumgestaltung sind im deutschsprachigen Raum sicher die prominentesten das Schloss Wörlitz (1769-1773), das als erster neoklassizistischer Bau Deutschlands gilt, zu dem ein ganzes Bauensemble zählt, das Luisium und die Villa Hamilton, sowie das Residenzschloss in Dessau (1767-1773), 2 dessen Gestaltungsvorlagen in den Wandmalereien Herculaneums zu finden sind. 3

ENGLISH VERSION of paper available here: https://www.academia.edu/28740853/Will_Palmyra_rise_again_-_War_Crimes_against_Cultural_Heritage_and_Post-war_Reconstruction

The destruction of cultural heritage in North-West Africa and the Middle East beginning with the start of civil wars after the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ has been devastating. Centuries and millennia old archaeological sites and historic cities are demolished through combat, looting or wanton destruction. Thereby, the intentional destruction of cultural heritage is considered to be a war crime because of its severe effects on identity and cultural capital of a population. How dearly those lost cultural treasures are already missed, is shown in the almost instant debate whether or not destroyed heritage should be reconstructed or not with equally valid arguments on both sides. Many concerns are focused on practical issues such as the sheer financial costs of adequate reconstruction. However, one matter seems to be overrepresented within this discussion: authenticity of reconstructions or the lack thereof. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the role of authenticity of post-war reconstructions, explore ethical implications and discuss the potential of reconstructions and memorialisation as means of post-war regeneration.

This book offers a comprehensive linguistic evaluation of the 376 personal names attested in the roughly 600 Aramaic inscriptions of Hatra, the famous Northern Mesopotamian city that flourished in the Parthian age, between the 1st century BC and the 3rd century AD. This study benefits from the publication of many Hatran inscriptions during recent decades, which have yielded rich onomastic data, and some fresh readings of these epigraphic sources. This work is subdivided into three main parts: an “Onomastic Catalogue”, a “Linguistic Analysis”, and a “Concordance” section. The “Catalogue” is organized as a list of entries, in which every name is transliterated, translated (whenever possible), discussed from an etymological perspective, provided with onomastic parallels, and accompanied by its attestations in the Hatran Aramaic corpus. The “Catalogue” is followed by a “Linguistic Analysis” which describes, firstly, the principal orthographic, phonological, morphological, and syntactical features of Hatran names. The linguistic discussion proper is followed by a semantic taxonomy of the names which make up the corpus and an overview of the religious significance of the theophoric names. Charts of “Concordance” end the book.