Studia Palmyreńskie (12.2013)

THIRTY YEARS OF SYRO-GERMAN / AUSTRIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH AT PALMYRA

A broader comparative study was carried out concurrently on the architecture and decoration of
all the tempie like tombs in Palmyra.

Tomb 36 is situated in the centre of so-called Valley of the Tombs. At approximately 18 m length
from edge to edge and with about 300 graves (loculi) inside it, it is certainly the largest example
of this palace-like type of tomb in Palmyra. The architectural decoration of the building placed it
about AD 210 through 230. Morę than 700 blocks were documented, leading to a fuli theoretical
reconstruction of the building. The architecture documents a fusion of different traditions, as well
as grandiose thinking on the part of those who commissioned it — the family of the famous lulius
Septimius Aurelius Yorodes, to whom it was possible to attribute the tomb. The palace-like faęade
[Fig. 1, top] of the entrance contrasts with the sąuare, two-story and uncovered peristyle courtyard
in the centre of the structure [Fig. 1, bottom], The design and metrology of the building reveal at
every point subtle Roman principles of design, brought in linę with Oriental taste.

Themes and carving style of the architectural decoration evince close relations with the foreign
sarcophagi workshops on the Syrian coast and their connections to Roman art: Dionysos-Baal-
shamin sitting in the vineyards, Nereids and Erotes riding on dolphins [Figs 2-3], sea monsters
holding a shell between them, Yictories, winged Medusas, tragic masks. On the other hand, the

Textiles

Preliminary reports/summaries

al-As'ad, Chehade, Schmidt-Colinet 2005; al-As'ad, Schmidt-Colinet 1992a: 140-141;
1993; Schmidt-Colinet 1994; 1995a; 1995c; Schmidt-Colinet, Stauffer 1992; Stauffer 2005;
Bóhmer 2005
Specialist studies

Schmidt-Colinet 1996a; 1996b; 2000; Stauffer 1996; 2000; 2005; 2007a; 2007b; 2010; Stauf-
fer, Schmidt-Colinet 1999; 2001
Finał publication

Linek, Fassbinder 2011; Schmidt-Colinet, Stauffer, al-As'ad 2000
Quoted in

Will 1992: 84-86; Sartre 2001: 796 notes 27-29; Sartre-Fauriat, Sartre 2008: 89; Gawli-
kowski 2010: 67-68

Area of the 'Hellenistic' town

Preliminary reports/summaries

al-As'ad 2010; al-As'ad, Schmidt-Colinet 1992a: 141; 1993; General Organization of Re-
mote Sensing 2002; Plattner, Schmidt-Colinet 2010; Schmidt-Colinet 2001; 2003a; 2003b;
2005c; 2008a; 2008b; Schmidt-Colinet, al-As'ad 2000; 2002; Schmidt-Colinet, al-As'ad,
Kh., al-As'ad, W. 2008; Schmidt-Colinet, Plattner 2001
Internet publications

Forum Archaeologicie 12/IX/1999, http://farch.net; Forum Archaeologiae 37/XII/2005,
http://farch.net; Forum Archaeologiae 49/XII/2008, http://farch.net
Specialist studies

Becker, Fassbinder 1999; Laubenheimer, al-As'ad, Schmidt-Colinet 2007; Ployer 2008;
2010a; 201 Ob; 2012; Romer-Strehl 2010; Schmidt-Colinet 2005b; 2011; Schmidt-Colinet,
al-As'ad 2005b
Finał publication

Schmidt-Colinet, al-As'ad (eds) 2013
Quoted in

al-As'ad, Yon 2001: 54, Figs 1-4; Sartre 2001: 667 notę 116; Delplace, Dentzer-Feydy 2005:
356,364, Fig. 463; Sommer 2005:139-141, especially 140 with notę 4; Sartre-Fauriat, Sartre
2008: 28-29, 56; Hammad 2010: 22-23, Fig. 47; Schnadelbach 2010: 51-52, 92
Website

http: //klass-archaeologie.univie.ac.at/index.php?id=18025#c41401

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Studia Palmyreńskie XII