The Terentius Frieze in Context

As the sun set on James Henry Breasted’s single day of field work at Dura-Europos in 1920 he and his team stood in front of the north wall of the pronaos of the Temple of the Palmyrene Gods, Although paintings covered the entire extant wall, they had only one film plate left and chose to photograph the painting of Julius Terentius with his troops, on the right hand side of the wall (pl. 37). When Franz Cumont returned in the season of 1922 through 1923, he re-exposed the decoration on the north wall, took pictures, made illustrations, and noted graffiti. Cumont also had a protective wall built in front of the paintings. This wall was dismantled eight years later, when most of the paintings adorning the temple were removed and transported to the National Museum in Damascus and the Yale University Art Gallery." Although scholars who work at Dura-Europos know when the paintings were removed and, generally, where they went, the current location of the remainder of the north wall of the pronaos is a mystery. In his description of the removal process, field director Maurice Fillet mentions only three in particular: the painting of Terentius; the painting of Lysias, Apollodorus, and Zenodotus on the south wall of the pronaos; and the painting of Conon and his family on the south wall of the naos. It is certain, however, that other paintings were removed and transported that day, for the mythological scene on the east wall of the pronaos went to Yale along with the Terentius painting. The remainder of the north wall has not resurfaced and its disappearance has contributed to the trend that began on that fateful day in 1920, with the painting of Terentius and his troops being studied as an independent tableau. The purpose of this essay is to place the painting back into its artistic context in order to understand better the function of mural adornment in the temple

Empire, community, and culture on the Middle Euphrates : Durenes, Palmyrenes, villagers, and soldiers.

The focus of this paper is on the Middle Euphrates: Dura-Europos as its best-known urban settlement; a series of villages known mostly from two papyrological dossiers situated along the river; and the military stations on the Euphrates. The paper asks questions about the impact (or lack of it) of the culture of Palmyra on the region's communities. It is argued that Dura-Europos remains our best case study for social and religious life in a Near Eastern small town under the Roman empire, and that the only evidence that actually makes the town look potentially ‘untypical’ is the idiosyncratic source material related to its Palmyrene inhabitants. The paper also questions the traditional periodization of Dura's history and puts forward the hypothesis that at two points during the so-called ‘Parthian phase’ Palmyrenes took advantage of a power vacuum along the Middle Euphrates and became the dominant military factor in the region

Before the roses and nightingales: excavations at Qasr-i Abu Nasr, Old Shiraz

https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/amar/1130/thumbnail.jp

SELECCIÓN BIBLIOGRÁFICA SOBRE LA SIRIA ROMANO-CRISTIANA

La selección bibliográfica que recogemos en estas páginas no es más que un intento de sintetizar las diversas temáticas y problemáticas, clarificando las numerosas áreas de investigación que se abren ante cualquier iniciación o estudio que se pretenda efectuar sobre la romanización y cristianización en Siria. Por este motivo, en algunos de los temas propuestos, simplemente se insinúan algunos de los estudios más significativos a modo de punto de referencia inicial, desde el que poder comenzar una mayor profundización en el caso de que fuese necesaria. Es el caso de algunos capítulos como los dedicados a la Patrología, a las Escuelas o a la Producción Literaria y Autores que por lo extenso y amplio de su bibliografía hacen imposible una recogida totalmente exhaustiva. (...

Writers and writing in the Roman Army at Dura-Europos

This socio-palaeographic thesis maintains that behind the uniform appearance of Roman army writing was a particular, dedicated training. Focussing on the third century Dura-Europos, it uncovers evidence for the thorough schooling given to the clerks of the resident Cohors XX Palmyrenorum enabling them to fulfil their administrative duties. These include maintaining efficient documentation systems and preparing a range of accurate, legible texts, and the clerks were trained to produce a repertoire of standard military scripts. Additionally other soldiers and the more general public were taught to read and to understand, to varying degrees, but the clerks, distinct, were specialist writers who found dignity in the work that they did. This dissertation, a preliminary study, draws throughout from the camp’s rich epigraphic and papyrological evidence. It sets out the context in which clerical soldiers worked and the evidence for army literate education and then introduces Roman writing, its form and development generally, before analysing in detail the letter-forms used in one particular standard hand over the decades the cohort’s documents span. In this hand, the well-known development out of Old Roman Cursive is presented and discussed. A brief additional chapter presents the possibility that military clerks also produced camp signage

Giove Dolicheno e Turmasgade a Dülük Baba Tepesi: note epigrafiche

The archaeological excavations conducted since 2001 by the University of Münster (Forschungsstelle Asia Minor) at Düluk Baba Tepesi (Gaziantep, Turkey) have identified the main sanctuary for the worship of Iuppiter Dolichenus and have cast light on various aspects of one of the most widespread cults in the Roman Empire. Epigraphic material is fragmentary and limited, due to the continuous re-use of the stones, but nonetheless crucial. The first part of this article offers a brief overview of the most relevant inscriptions found in this site, through which we can better assess the transformation of this worship place and the evolution of its deity. The remaining section focuses on a votive inscription for Turmasgade, a mysterious Oriental god to whom inscriptions have been dedicated in Rome and other regions of the Empire. As I will show, this find is particularly relevant: it confirms the link between Turmasgade and Iuppiter Dolichenus, which had already emerged from the epigraphic material found in Dura Europos, and it raises new questions on the relationship between these two deities

Giove Dolicheno e Turmasgade a Dülük Baba Tepesi: note epigrafiche

Le ricerche condotte sin dal 2001 dall’Università di Münster (Forschungsstelle Asia Minor) a Dülük Baba Tepesi (Gaziantep, Turchia) hanno permesso di identificare il santuario centrale di Giove Dolicheno e di chiarire molti aspetti di uno dei culti più diffusi nell’Impero romano. Un contributo essenziale deriva dai ritrovamenti epigrafici, malgrado essi siano spesso frammentari e di numero esiguo, a causa del costante reimpiego del materiale lapideo. La prima parte di questo articolo intende offrire una breve panoramica delle testimonianze più interessanti, recenti e meno recenti, provenienti da questo sito, attraverso cui meglio si colgono le trasformazioni di questo luogo di culto nel corso dei secoli e l’evoluzione della figura del dio a cui era destinato. In seguito ci soffermeremo su un’iscrizione votiva per Turmasgade, una divinità orientale conosciuta a Roma e in altre zone dell’Impero, su cui si sa molto poco. Come si cercherà di chiarire, questo ritrovamento è particolarmente rilevante perché conferma il legame tra Turmasgade e Giove Dolicheno, legame già emerso nella documentazione da Dura Europos risalente al secolo scorso, e pone nuove questioni sui rapporti tra queste due divinità.The archaeological excavations conducted since 2001 by the University of Münster (Forschungsstelle Asia Minor) at Düluk Baba Tepesi (Gaziantep, Turkey) have identified the main sanctuary for the worship of Iuppiter Dolichenus and have cast light on various aspects of one of the most widespread cults in the Roman Empire. Epigraphic material is fragmentary and limited, due to the continuous re-use of the stones, but nonetheless crucial. The first part of this article offers a brief overview of the most relevant inscriptions found in this site, through which we can better assess the transformation of this worship place and the evolution of its deity. The remaining section focuses on a votive inscription for Turmasgade, a mysterious Oriental god to whom inscriptions have been dedicated in Rome and other regions of the Empire. As I will show, this find is particularly relevant: it confirms the link between Turmasgade and Iuppiter Dolichenus, which had already emerged from the epigraphic material found in Dura Europos, and it raises new questions on the relationship between these two deities