I love ruins, the spirit-haunted battlefields of the past or the empty cells of a monastery, but Dura Europos offered something else: a ruined city engulfed in a sandstorm that had come up from the Arabian desert and brought its own extraordinary atmosphere.

A week later I did indeed see Jesus, and Moses, as they had once appeared to the long-dead citizens of Dura Europos – albeit it in the Damascus archaeological museum. For the gaunt ruins of this fortress city, overlooking the frontier between the Roman and Persian Empires, have revealed three extraordinarily beautiful fresco cycles, from a house-church, a house-synagogue and a temple.

I can’t wait to go. One day… one day.

via FT.com / Weekend / Travel – Ruins in the Syrian desert.

The paper begins with a brief introduction of Dura Europos and then moves into more detail about the Synagogue itself.

(27 pages)

Fun stuff to ponder.

What we have here is an uncanonical Gospel which tone is free from exaggeration. The whole impression produced is that of a comparatively early work. The relation to the canoncial gospels is very controversely discussed. There are several verbal agreements, but they are very mixed up. We have parallels with John and with the Synoptics. But some parallels are given in a different context. For this reason some have proposed that the author knew the canonical Gospels from repeated hearing and used them from memory, but not in written form. Others proposed complete independence of the canonical Gospels and suggest, Egerton selected the elements shared with the Synoptics out of tradition. Parallels with John are explained by a “shared milieu”, similar style, language and theology.

via Papyrus Egerton 2: Introduction.

The whole post is entertaining, but the best part was this image of the ruins of the Synagogue at Dura…

Notice the green grass there? That’s important. When I try to describe Dura’s location, most folks immediately conjure up an image of a dusty desert. Sure, the area is arid and dry, but the ancient town overlooks the Euphrates and there is lots of green to be had.

Dura Europas and Palmyra, Two of The Most Important Places to Visit: “In the Syrian desert, Dura Europos sits on the banks of the Euphrates River. ‘Dura’ – fortress in old Semitic and ‘Europos,’ the birthplace of Seleucus I, a general who founded a colony here in about 300 BC. It came under the control of Palmyra as a link in the caravan trading route. This was a very interesting site because of the remains. A hodge podge of civilizations – Greek, Palmyrene, Roman, Byzantine, Persian and Islamic. Because of this, cosmopolitan Dura Europos also had Roman Temples, a Christian chapel, synagogue and pagan temples.”

Head over and read the whole thing.

“The site dates back to the 9th century B.C, when a military camp was built by the Assyrians. During Roman times it was a desert outpost fortified to defend against the Sassanids. It flourished as its location on the caravan routes linking Aleppo, Dura Europos, and Palmyra was ideal. Resafa had no spring or running water, so it depended on large cisterns to capture the winter and spring rains. Fortunately, the rainfall in the area was more than sufficient. Resafa was planted right in the path of the Persian-Byzantine wars, and was therefore a well-defended city that had massive walls that surrounded it without a break. It also had a fortress. The city is mentioned in the Bible (Isaiah 37:12) but little else is heard of it until the 4th century when it became a pilgrimage town for Christians coming to venerate Saint Sergius. Sergius was a Roman soldier who was persecuted for his Christian faith. Sergius was brought to Resafa for his execution, and there he became a martyr for the city. A church was built to mark his grave and the city was renamed Sergiopolis.”

Interesting story concerning Saint Sergius and the pilgrimage trade to the city after he became a martyr. I hadn’t come across that reference before.

Picture Of The Week « smiling in syria

Highlights in the museum were the oddly moving 1400BC tablet with the world’s first recorded alphabet and, alongside it, another tablet with the world’s first recorded musical notation. Also the 4,000-year-old Phoenician glass, sublimely coloured using techniques experts still can’t unravel. And the stupendous Dura Europos synagogue, the wall paintings as pristine and beautiful as they must have been when created 1,800 years ago.

Glad to see Dura getting some mainstream press coverage!

Most scholars I’ve read have serious doubts, but ABC has an interesting video report on the find:

An archaeologist in Jordan claims to have found the earliest-known Christian church anywhere in the world.
Archaeologist believes he's found it.

I read this online in the Jordan Times while I was next door in Iraq. What was any self-respecting journalist with a persistent pull of curiosity about the world going to do?

Head over for the full video (can’t embed ABC vids for some strange reason).

You can find me there at http://identi.ca/samharrelson