Religion, Society and Culture at Dura-EuroposTed Kaizer, Yale University. Department of Classics 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 |
Suggestions | 144 |
Thoughts on Two Latin Dipinti 165 | 165 |
Economic Life in Roman DuraEuropos 190 | 190 |
Past Present and Future 206 | 206 |
Plates 219 | 219 |
| 275 | |
| 301 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Adonis ancient Aramaic Arsacid artefacts Atargatis Azzanathkona bilingual bracelets building CIMRM context Courtesy YUAG cult of Mithras cultural Cumont dated dedicated deities denarii depicted Dionysus Dirven documents Downey dress practices Dura Dura-Europos Dura's Durene East emperor empire Euphrates Europos evidence example excavations Feriale figures finger rings Fink and Gilliam Franz Cumont fresco Freyberger funerary gesture graffiti Greek Hatra Hellenistic Ibid imperial inscriptions inside intaglios jewellery Kaizer known Konon Leriche letters military mithraeum monuments names naos necropolis Palmyra Palmyra gate Palmyrene Palmyrene gods papyri Parthian art PLATE present pronaos reconstruction relief religious representation Roman Rome rooms Rostovtzeff salle à gradins sanctuary scene scholars sculptures Seleucia soldiers style stylistic synagogue Syrian tauroctony temple of Artemis temple of Zeus third century tion town University Art Gallery VII-VIII wall paintings women Yale University Art Zeus Megistos Zeus Theos καὶ τοῦ