Rome's Desert Frontier from the Air

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Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire

Discussions about looted antiquities often focus on large, culturally and monetarily valuable items. Nevertheless, it is clear that mundane small finds, which sell for relatively small amounts, account for a large portion of the global market in antiquities. This article highlights two types of small artifacts—namely, cylinder seals and coins, presumed to come from Syria and Iraq and offered for sale by online vendors. We argue that the number of cylinder seals and coins sold on the Internet has increased steadily since 2011, reaching a peak in 2016–17. This shows that the trade in Iraqi and Syrian antiquities has shifted from big-ticket items sold in traditional brick-and-mortar shops to small items readily available on the Internet for modest prices. The continuing growth of the online market in antiquities is having a devastating effect on the archaeological sites in Iraq and Syria as increasing demand fuels further looting in the region.

Small Finds, Big Values: Cylinder Seals and Coins from Iraq and Syria on the Online Market

Aramese votiefinscripties gevonden in en rond de Syrisch-Mesopotaamse steppe bevatten dikwijls de formule 'l hyy, voor het leven van. Het merendeel ervan dateert uit de eerste drie eeuwen AD. Aangebracht op beelden, altaren, bouwwerken of delen daarvan, en doorgaans geplaatst in tempels of andere locaties met een sacrale functie, wordt met behulp van de formule een relatie gelegd tussen de dedicant(en) en degene(n) voor wiens (wier) leven het betreffende object op die plaats wordt opgericht. ... Zie: Samenvatting

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Life and loyalty : a study of the socio-religious culture of Syria and Mesopotamia in the Greco-Roman period

Ce travail replace l'etude de l'occupation de la vallee de l'Euphrate entre la fin du IVe s. Av. N. E. Et le milieu du VIIIe s. Dans une perspective resolument archeologique. Il s'agit d'abord de comprendre les relations entre le contexte environnemental, les limites climatiques et les contraintes topographiques de cette region, et les choix d'implantations humaines depuis le Neolithique jusqu'a la periode ottomane. Nous avons presente les sources textuelles et documentaires qui nous renseignent sur le Moyen-Euphrate classique et byzantin et notamment un premier bilan des campagnes d'urgence liees a la mise en eau des barrages turcs et syriens entre 1968 et 2000. Nous avons concu un catalogue des sites classiques et byzantins et un atlas archeologique du Moyen-Euphrate, base sur la digitalisation d'images satellite. Ces documents nous ont permis de mettre en evidence les caracteristiques, l'evolution et la repartition de l'occupation de la vallee depuis la periode hellenistique jusqu'a la periode byzantine.

Géographie historique du Moyen-Euphrate de la conquête d'Alexandre à l'Islam

The present study has been conceived on the trails of those works about the Roman Near East and the relations and interactions with the Eastern neighbours and the local populations. In more recent times, the on-going excavations projects in the area and the new notions of interaction and integration related to the Roman presence have made relevant further steps in the understanding of the topic. Considering exclusively Roman or, at the contrary, exclusively Parthian (or Sasanian) a site means, nowadays, ignoring the dynamics that characterized the whole area in the period at issue. It is doubtless that the starting point for the comprehension of such dynamics must be the identification of the points of interactions as well as the differences, always bearing in mind the hybridisation that occurred. 
The term hybridisation indeed, even if it is a modern word, perfectly fits with the mixture of races, religions and social institutions that shaped the Near East in the period from the Hellenistic period to the late 4th century CE. The theory is quite easily applicable in the major centres (Nisibis, Singara, Hatra), where the abundance of data is widely used to identify this kind of hybridisation such as the distinctive and unmistakable feature of a given culture as well, while it appears to be slightly tougher to track in the minor settlements. The lack of historical and archaeological evidence, indeed, affects our knowledge about the rural landscape and the countryside itself. Some of the minor sites mentioned in the literary sources are still not only unexcavated, but quite often unidentified too, while the fewer where excavation works have been conducted are the same sites almost practically unknown to the ancient sources (see the specifica case of Tell Barri). Notwithstanding this lack of evidence on both sides the countryside and the rural landscape still remains a keystone for the understanding of the Roman occupation in the area, as well as the organization and administration of the newly acquired territory after the severian annexation. The integration of the archaeological data with the known literary and epigraphic evidence could be the only way through which the presence of Rome beyond the Euphrates could be better understood. The region itself, indeed, represents one of the most archaeologically important areas of the world and thus the isolation of a given event in a specific chronological period forcedly needs more elements than elsewhere.

Rocco Palermo

Papers

Settlement Patterns and Cultural Interactions in Northern Mesopotamia (2nd - 4th century CE)