Dura-Europos
Dura-Europos was a Hellenistic and Roman walled city built on an escarpment 90 meters above the banks of the river Euphrates. It is located near the village of Salhiyé, in today's Syria.
It was founded by the Seleucids in the late 4th century BCE on the intersection of an East to West trade route and the trade route on the Euphrates. It later became a frontier fortress of the Parthian Empire. It was captured by the Romans in 165 A.D. It was abandoned after a Sassanian siege in 256-257. After it was abandoned, it was covered by sand and mud and disappeared from sight.
Although the existence of Dura-Europos was long known through literary sources, it was not rediscovered until British troops under Capt. Murphy made the first discovery during the Arab rebellion in the aftermath of World War I, March 30, 1920, a soldier digging a trench uncovered brilliantly fresh wall-paintings. Major excavations were carried out in the 1920s and 1930s by French and American teams. The American archeologist James Breasted, then at Baghdad, was alerted. The first archaeology on the site, undertaken by Franz Cumont in 1922 - 23 identified the site with Dura-Europos, and uncovered a temple, before renewed hostilities in the area closed it to archaeology. Renewed campaigns directed by Michael Rostovtzeff funded by Yale University continued until 1937, when funds ran out with only part of the excavations published. World War II intervened.
Since 1986 excavations have resumed.
Dura-Europos was a cosmopolitan society, controlled by a tolerant pagan Macedonian aristocracy descended from the original settlers. The excavations revealed temples to Greek, Roman and Palmyrene gods. There was also a Jewish synagogue (see Dura-Europos synagogue) and the earliest identified Christian church (see Dura-Europos house church). In the course of its excavation over a hundred parchment and papyrus fragments and many inscriptions have revealed texts in Greek and Latin, Palmyrene, Hebrew, Hatrian, Safaitic and Pahlevi. The oldest preserved synagogue was preserved, ironically, when it had to be infilled with earth to strengthen the city's fortifications against a Parthian assault in 256 CE. It contains a forecourt and house of assembly with frescoed walls, and a Torah shrine in the western wall facing Jerusalem.
Hellenistic Dura Europos
The new city, commemorating the birthplace of Alexander's successor Seleucus I, was founded in 303 BCE to control the river crossing on the route between his newly-founded cities of Antioch and
