Doura Europos

The archeological site of Doura Europos (near to the village of Salhieh,) is located at the extreme south-east of the Syria on the Euphrate means, at 24 kilometers in the north of the archeological site of Mari and at 35 kilometers of the Iraqi border. Frescos had been discovered on March 31st 1920 by a British task force, pressed by the troops of Fayçal, and which sought a refuge. The site had then been called the “Pompéi of the Syrian desert”.

History

Doura Europos was a city-fortress gréco-Roman built on a strategic site which had been occupied already by the Assyrian . The city, founded in -303 by the general Nicanor, was built by the Séleucides, between 300 and 280 before J. - C., to be inhabited by a colony of veterans Macedonians and Greeks.

The term of Dura means fortress in the old Semitic languages, and Europos was the name of the native village of Séleucos Ier in Macedonia, king of Syria and Babylonia, and who was a companion of Alexandre Large the and the son of Antiochos, one of the generals of Philippe II of Macedonia.

At the time séleucide, the city is built in checkerwork around a vast agora (town planning hippodamien). Its institutions are Greek ( swell , strategist, treasurers, sitonai charged with the corn supply). The king exerts his monitoring by a épistate . The citizens have cléroi (batches of ground) which work for them of the natives. Beside the temples dedicated to the gods Greek (Zeus Mégistos, Apollo and Artémis), the sanctuaries of local divinities are numerous. Art testifies quickly to the contribution of Eastern elements.

In 113 front J. - C., it fall to the hands from Parthes, and know its greater extension then, and become a cosmopolitan city where, with the population of Greek origin, Iranian and Semites mèlent themselves.

In 115, the Roman Trajan occupies first once the city, then the Romans returned in 166 and will use it like starting point of the conquest of the territories of Osrohène and forwarding towards the empire of the Parthes and their capital Séleucie of the Tiger in 199.

In 211, the city becomes Roman colony. Thereafter it will become a border post of the kingdom of Palmyre.

In 253, it will be taken by Persians Sassanides which will destroy it entirely in 256 after a revolt. It will fall then definitively into the lapse of memory.

Archaeological elements

The city had a typically colonial architecture with its streets being cut to right angle and deciding between urban blocks ( insulae ) of dwellings and public edifices. The site kept its impressive ramparts which overhang left bank of the Euphrate and offer a splendid point of view.

The site contains many religious buildings, various religions, which seems to attest of a great tolerance nuns. He was discovered temples, a Christian baptistry and a Jewish synagog, whose frescos, dating from the Roman epoch and preserved at the Musée of Damas, are particularly exceptional.

With the Christian baptistry, one can also find the remainders exceptional of a house Christian Community, dating from the Années 220 - 230, of which the structure comprises vault, classroom and cloister. It is one of the first experiments of mobilities connected with the church which were formed in rich person residences and who will give rise to the monasteries.

See too

Culture of Syria

External bonds

Doura-Europos on Euphrate by Pierre Leriche, Research director at CNRS.
Frescos of the synagog of Doura Europos

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