This
volume brings together an international and interdisciplinary host of
scholars to reflect on the complicated legacies of exploration at the
archaeological site of Dura-Europos, situated on the western bank of the
Euphrates River near modern Salihiyeh (Syria). A chance discovery after
World War I kicked off a series of excavations that would span the next
century and whose finds are today housed in collections worldwide,
including the Yale University Art Gallery, the Louvre, and the National
Museum in Damascus. Dura-Europos exemplifies a multiethnic frontier town
at the crossroads of major trade routes. Its textual remains and
remarkably-preserved Christian, Jewish, and polytheist religious
sanctuaries provide key resources for the study of antiquity and attest
to the cross-cultural interconnectivity that was demonstrably central to
the ancient world but which has been too often obscured by Eurocentric
historiographic traditions and siloed disciplinary divisions.
Foreign-run,
large-scale archaeological campaigns of the early twentieth century,
like those at Dura-Europos, have created narratives of power and
privilege that often exclude local communities. The significance of
these imbalances is entangled with the destruction the site has
experienced since the 2011 outbreak of conflict in Syria. As a step
toward making knowledge descendant of early excavations more accessible,
this volume includes Arabic summaries of each paper, following up on
the simultaneous Arabic interpretation provided at the 2022 hybrid
conference whose proceedings form the core of this publication. The
papers address topics connected to essential themes in relation to
Dura-Europos: long-distance trade relations and cross-border
interactions in antiquity, including the exchange of technologies,
people, and materials; Christianity, Judaism, and other religious
practices, and their relations to one another; contemporary trafficking
of looted artifacts; cultural heritage and the Islamic State; and the
evolving role of museum collections, technologies, and archival
materials for research.
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