Religion, Society and Culture at Dura-EuroposTed Kaizer This volume advances our understanding of the religion, society and culture of Dura-Europos, the small town on the Euphrates known since the 1930s as the 'Pompeii of the Syrian desert'. Several features make the site potentially our best source for day-to-day life in a small town situated on the periphery of the Roman world: inscriptions and graffiti in ten ancient languages; sculptures and frescoes combining elements of Classical and Oriental art; the most important papyrological dossier of any military unit in the Roman world; documents relating to the local economy; over a dozen pagan sanctuaries; plus a famously painted synagogue and the earliest Christian house church, all set in a gridiron city plan and surrounded by well-preserved fortifications. Dura's unique findings facilitate the study of life in a provincial small town to a degree that archaeology and history do not usually allow. |
Contents
A Greek Town of the Parthian Empire 16 | 16 |
The Evidence | 30 |
Mapping Cultural | 57 |
The Problem with Parthian Art at Dura 68 | 68 |
A New Interpretation | 89 |
Women and the Religious Life of DuraEuropos 99 | 99 |
Multifunctional Sanctuaries at DuraEuropos 114 | 114 |
New Perspectives 126 | 126 |
The Bilingual PalmyreneGreek Inscriptions at Dura | 177 |
Economic Life in Roman DuraEuropos 190 | 190 |
Frank Brown | 199 |
Past Present and Future 206 | 206 |
Plates 219 | 219 |
| 275 | |
| 301 | |
| 307 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Adonis ancient Aramaic Arsacid Artabanus Atargatis Azzanathkona bilingual bracelets building CIMRM city’s context Courtesy YUAG cult of Mithras cultural Cumont dated dedicated deities depicted Dionysus Dirven documents Downey dress practices Dura Dura-Europos Dura’s Durene East empire Euphrates Europos evidence example excavations figures finger rings Franz Cumont fresco Freyberger 1998 frontal representation funerary Gadde gesture Graeco-Roman graffiti Greek Hatra Hellenistic Ibid imperial inscriptions inside intaglios jewellery Kaizer known Konon Leriche Middle Euphrates military mithraeum monuments names naos necropolis Palmyra Palmyrene Palmyrene gods Parthian art Parthian empire PLATE pronaos reconstruction relief religious Roman Rome rooms Rostovtzeff Rostovtzeff 1935 salles à gradins sanctuary scene scholars sculptures SEG VII Seleucia soldiers style stylistic synagogue Syrian Tacitus tauroctony temple of Artemis temple of Zeus third century tion town VII–VIII wall paintings women Zeus Megistos Zeus Theos καὶ τοῦ