This gorgeous fresco from Dura Europos dates from the first century CE and is one of Damascus Museum's priceless collections. The scene takes place inside a temple, with the priest Konon, son of Nicostratus (first from left), preparing with his assistants to sacrifice an offering to the gods. Seen in the middle is his daughter Bithanaïa with four young men on her left, his sons and grandsons. In the forefront we identify a young girl and two boys. The clergy are barefoot, as is the case for Ishtar's priesthood. The painting mixes Hellenistic with Oriental and Parthian influences. The figures are two-dimensional, and there exists no sense of perspective. The views are all frontal, and the look is fixed. The costumes follow Hittite, Babylonian, and Assyrian models.
Dura-Europos' ruins are located near the village of aṣ-Ṣāliḥīyyā on the south bank of the Euphrates River northwest of ʾAbū Kamāl. The site used to be a transitional zone between the Roman and the Parthian empires, and as such had to change masters more than once until its destruction by the Sassanians in 256 C.E.
This disaster proved a godsend to modern archaeologists for the simple reason that it has always been far easier, cheaper, and more rewarding to excavate abandoned sites than continuously inhabited urban centers such as Damascus, to mention but one example.
The works commenced in the early 1920s uncovered 16 temples, including a Christian church, a Jewish synagogue, and an edifice dedicated to Palmyrene gods.
Dura-Europos was looted and destroyed by ISIS between 2011 and 2015. Luckily, quite a few of the city's treasures were transferred to the National Museum of Damascus long before the beginning of what passes for the Arab Spring.
Gérard Degeorge. Syrie. Art, histoire, architecture. Hermann, éditeurs des sciences et des arts 1983.
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