Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (19.2007(2010))

PALMYRA

SYRIA

MUSEUM WORK

Adding new exhibits to the galleries of the
Palmyra Museum has recently become
a tradition with the restorers of the mission.
In keeping with it, a large set of Sasanian
coins discovered in 2001 (Gawlikowski
2002: 266-269 and Fig. 11) was now
prepared for exhibition, and four new
sculptures from the Allat sanctuary were
installed in the Allat gallery [Fig, 9], Among
these is one of the oldest Palmyrene
sculptures and certainly the best archaic
piece ever found on the site: a slab
representing a panther hunted by an archer
on horseback. Another slab featuring
a horseman bringing a lamb for sacrifice
under his arm, a decorated merlon, and
a small relief of veiled women watching
a procession of camels are all early pieces

from the Allat sanctuary (for these
sculptures, cf. Gawlikowski 2009). They are
now on show opposite the honorific statues
set up two years earlier, lining the way
towards the marble statue of Athena at the
far end of the gallery.
The lintel of the tomb of Odainat,
found crowning a narrow entrance to an old
village in the Ayyubid bastion of the Bel
temple and removed in 1930 to the old
Depot des Antiquites, was also installed in
the inscription room at the special request
of the Director of the Palmyra Museum
[Fig, 10]. The bilingual funerary text is
interesting in itself, but the historical
eminence of its founder makes it one of the
most important inscriptions to be seen in
Palmyra.


Fig. 10. The inscription of Odainat, now in the Palmyra Museum
(Photo M. Gawlikowski)

Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 19, Reports 2007

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