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Louis-Francois Cassas, late 18th century · Wikimedia Commons
Palmyra
Syria · Roman province·Syria·Founded 1st c. BCE (Aramean)
Caravan city on the trade route between Rome and the Silk Road. Great colonnaded street, Temple of Bel.
Uninhabited and badly damaged by ISIS occupation from 2015 to 2017, which destroyed the Temple of Bel, the Baalshamin temple, and the Arch of Triumph; restoration efforts continue.
Excavation history
1902
Otto Puchstein (German expedition) — German archaeologists began the first general excavations at Palmyra in 1902, followed by further German work under Theodor Wiegand in 1917.
1929
Henri Seyrig, Directorate General of Antiquities of Syria and Lebanon — Frenchman Henri Seyrig began intensive excavation of the site in 1929, a campaign later interrupted by the Second World War.
1959
Kazimierz Michalowski, Polish archaeological mission (University of Warsaw) — A Polish mission began excavating Palmyra's 'Camp of Diocletian' area in 1959, continuing as one of Poland's flagship overseas digs until the 2011 civil war forced a halt.
Notable finds
Lion of al-Lat
Polish archaeologists dug this 15-ton, 3.5-metre limestone lion out of the Temple of al-Lat in 1977. Islamic State smashed it in 2015, and restorers rebuilt roughly half the statue from the original fragments before it went back on display in Damascus in 2017.
National Museum of Damascus, Syria
Palmyrene Tax Law (Tariff of Palmyra)
Carved in parallel columns of Greek and Palmyrene Aramaic and erected in the city's agora in 137 CE, this stone tariff spelled out exactly what merchants owed on goods carried in by camel, donkey, or cart. A Russian traveler had it sawn into four pieces in 1881 to haul it out by wagon, rail, and ship to St. Petersburg.
State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
The Beauty of Palmyra
A limestone funerary bust of an unnamed Palmyrene noblewoman, carved around 190-210 CE with traces of its original paint still clinging to the stone, earned the nickname the Beauty of Palmyra after its discovery in a tomb called Qasr Abjad in 1928.
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark
Funerary Relief of Haliphat
An Aramaic inscription on this limestone relief names the deceased as Haliphat, daughter of Ogalta, and dates her death to 231 CE. The bust once sealed the opening of her family's burial niche in a tomb outside Palmyra, safely outside Syria since 1908.
National Museum of Asian Art (Smithsonian), Washington, D.C., USA
Funerary Bust of Aqmat
Carved around the 2nd century CE, this limestone bust of Aqmat, daughter of Hagagu, piles on the drop earrings and layered necklaces typical of Palmyra's merchant elite and names four generations of her family in its Aramaic inscription.
British Museum, London, UK
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