Studia Palmyreńskie (9.1994)

Studia Palmyreńskie IX, 1994

71

CATALOGUE OF JEWELLERY FOUND IN THE
TOWER-TOMB OF ATENATAN AT PALMYRA

by

ANNA WITECKA

The jewellery in this catalogue comes from the tower-tomb of Atenatan (No.7) situated in the West
necropolis of Palmyra. Exploration of the tomb conducted jointly by the Palmyra Museum (Director
Khaled As’ad) and the Polish Archaeological Mission in 1992 headed by Prof. M. Gawlikowski, revealed,
among other things, a collection of jewellery which consists of: eight earrings, finger ring, gem, bracelet,
34 pearls 1 and 146 beads 2 made of cornelian, amethyst, coral, lime, glass, bone, and ceramics. This is
the second largest collection known to be found in one tomb at Palmyra and thus surely dated. The first
one was the jewellery from the Hellenistic tomb located near the temple of Baalshamin
(Fellmann 1970: Taf. 13-19), but that group, except for one type of earrings, is earlier than ours. The
jewellery here thus represents a next stage of Palmyrene ornaments and becomes an important source for
studies of Palmyrene jewellery, the more so that a few items of our collection are represented on
Palmyrene funerary sculpture which until now was the only source for these studies. The fact that ancient
jewellery is often of uncertain provenience and its date is based on stylistic analysis only, additionally
increases the value of our specimens.

The tower-tomb of Atenatan is the earliest dated tomb in the Palmyrene necropolis (Pl. I). The date
of the tower, established by an inscription, is 9 B.C. and the date of the fall of Palmyra in 273 A.D. must
be accepted as the terminus ante quem. Built of irregular stones, the tower is quadrangular and narrows
toward the top. It rises up seven storeys and has two parts with separate entrances above which the
foundation inscriptions are placed. The lower part is accessible from the north and includes only the
ground floor. The upper one, with entrance from the south consists of the six remaining storeys, of
which three are destroyed. An internal staircase runs up to the top of the tower inside the outer walls.
The chambers, narrow and inward-leaning, trapezoid in section, had some tall and narrow loculi sunk
into their walls. Normally, each loculus was subdivided internally by shelves of pottery or limestone slabs
for the corpses. Such compartments were walled up, plastered over and might be inscribed. At least some

1 Inv. no. 19/92

2 Inv. no. 21/92