Religion, Society and Culture at Dura-Europos
Religion, Society and Culture at Dura-Europos
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.
- Adopts an interdisciplinary and theoretically informed approach to the subject
- Addresses the current scholarly interest in the Roman Near East, whose sites are currently suffering heavy damage due to the unrest in Syria and Iraq
- Boasts a broad and international range of contributors
Reviews & endorsements
'… the individual contributions … are characterized by a thorough and critical stance, and form a prime example for the re-assessment of faulty interpretations of the archaeological material made in the past, based not only on the original artefacts, but also on secondary archaeological archives, to which the contemporary scholar will unfortunately too often be confined when it comes to studying Dura-Europos, like many other sites in Syria, following the tragic events of the last decade.' Nolke Tasma, Bibliotheca Orientalis
Product details
July 2021Paperback
9781107560239
332 pages
244 × 170 × 18 mm
0.534kg
64 b/w illus.
Available
Table of Contents
- Introduction Ted Kaizer
- 1. Dura-Europos: a Greek town of the Parthian empire Leonardo Gregoratti
- 2. Everyday life in Roman Dura-Europos: the evidence of dress practices Jennifer A. Baird
- 3. Acculturation, hybridity, créolité: mapping cultural diversity in Dura-Europos Michael Sommer
- 4. The problem with Parthian art at Dura Lucinda Dirven
- 5. Gesture at Dura-Europos: a new interpretation of the so-called 'scène énigmatique' Maura K. Heyn
- 6. Women and the religious life of Dura-Europos Jean-Baptiste Yon
- 7. Multifunctional sanctuaries at Dura-Europos Julian Buchmann
- 8. The Mithraeum of Dura-Europos: new perspectives Tommaso Gnoli
- 9. Imperial representation at Dura-Europos: suggestions for urban paths Cristina Marta Acqua
- 10. Thoughts on two Latin dipinti Jacqueline Austin
- 11. The bilingual Palmyrene-Greek inscriptions at Dura-Europos: a comparison with the bilinguals from Palmyra Loren T. Stuckenbruck
- 12. Economic life in Roman Dura-Europos Kai Ruffing
- 13. The dangers of adventurous reconstruction: Frank Brown at Dura-Europos Susan B. Downey
- 14. Dura-Europos and Yale: past, present and future Lisa R. Brody.
