#Monumental Arch of Palmyra

[emaadsidiki]

Monumental Arch of Palmyra

[tigermike]

Monumental Arch, Palmyra Syria 🇸🇾

[zorbauniverse]

[imperium-romanum]

“A "shy and reserved" schoolgirl has convinced the Institute of Digital Archaeology (IDA) to display its reconstructed Arch of Palmyra in her small hometown after featuring at exhibitions in London and New York.”

“The Arch of Triumph was built in Palmyra during the third century AD in the reign of the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus, but was destroyed by ISIS forces when they stormed the ancient city in 2015.”

“Following the desecration of the ancient heritage site, a group of international archaeologists launched a project to recreate the marble monument, with the finished exhibit recently making its debut showing in Trafalgar Square last year.”

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[fuckyeaharchaeology]

The Pitfalls of “Charismatic Archaeology” - Part One: What’s in a Name?

All right, as promised, we’re going to take a look at the phenomenon of “charismatic archaeology” (Munawar 2017, 41) as it applies to the so-called Arch of Triumph in Palmyra, which was destroyed by Islamic State militants in 2015 and whose modern cultural context has seemingly superseded its archaeological context in the years since. Because there’s a lot to go over here, I’m going to have to split this up into a few parts. But the main takeaway of this series is that this arch—or tripylon—is still fascinating, even if it isn’t necessarily as ‘Roman’ as we are led to believe and that branding it as such does a disservice to the local Palmyrene builders responsible for its innovative construction in the late second to early third centuries AD (but more on that in later installments).

We already encounter an issue with the classification of this monument as a triumphal arch. Once it was torn down by the Islamic State in October 2015, the tripylon was introduced to the public on a global scale. In their reporting, numerous international news outlets used this term to describe the structure. However, this inaccurate classification pre-dates the arch’s destruction: my thesis advisor told me that when she last visited Palmyra in 2005, the archaeological park guided tourists to the monument and the adjacent section of the city’s Great Colonnade with a sign that read “Triumph Arc (sic) and the Long Street.” That said, the vast majority of the archaeological literature that was written prior to 2015 more accurately designates it as simply a monumental arch or, more commonly in the German-speaking world, a tripylon.

Other common misattributions the monumental arch is given are those of “Hadrian’s Arch/Gate” and the “Arch of Septimius Severus,” though the former is more often a fixture in the German-speaking world (where it’s called the Hadrian Bogen or Hadrianstor). In AD 129/130, Hadrian did himself travel to Palmyra, and during his stay, he granted the city his name (Hadriana Palmyra; Browning 1979, 27). And while it is true that there was an uptick in monumental civic construction and ‘Romanization’ in the city afterwards, the tripylon had not begun to be built until roughly the late Antonine period, around AD 175/180 (Barański 1995, Fig. 1; Tabaczek 2001, 128), so it could not have feasibly been built for Hadrian (in contrast to Hadrian’s Arch in Gerasa, Jordan). Similarly, this start date places its chronology too early to have been built for Septimius Severus, either, as his reign lasted from AD 193–211. That said, a number of scholars do date its construction to his reign or to post-212 more broadly (e.g. Browning 1979, 88; Burns 2017, 245; or Will 1983, 74). However, in doing so, they fail to take into consideration that a structure as large and complicated as the tripylon (more on that later) would have taken years and years to complete, and it was most likely finished sometime in the late Severan period (Tabaczek 2001, 38. 130). Therefore, any commemorative/honorific purpose for this arch is called into question (though statues to Odenathus and his family were placed in niches in the central passageway well after its initial construction in the mid-late 3rd century AD; Burns 2017, 245). 

The monument’s designation as a ‘triumphal’ arch or the Arch of Hadrian/Septimius Severus immediately brings it firmly into the realm of ‘Roman’ archaeology, but naming it as such ignores the tripylon’s indigenous Palmyrene context, which in itself tells a much richer story than its apparent association with the Roman Empire. It should be stressed that the term ‘triumphal arch’ was seldom used in antiquity (Cassibry 2018, 246) and that scholars from over a century ago had even expressed the need to use caution when defining these monuments as such (Densmore Curtis 1908, 27). Not only does this term signal the ‘Romanness’ of these structures, but it tends to evoke a sense of particular importance or gravitas to the modern layperson on account of how modern Western powers have adapted the architectural form and used it to express their own “cultural statement,” whether at home or abroad in colonized territories (e.g. the Arc de Triomphe in Paris or the Gateway of India in Mumbai; Ball 2016, 286).

In reality, the eastern Roman territories of Syria and Provincia Arabia have no known ‘true’ triumphal arches, such as those that we’d associate with the city of Rome itself (e.g. the Arch of Septimius Severus or the Arch of Constantine; Ball 2016, 286), but there are three known commemorative/honorific arches to the emperors Trajan (Dura Europos) and Hadrian (Jerusalem and Gerasa; Segal 1997, 131). The point of such monuments was to serve as imperial propaganda “in Wort und Bild” (“in word and image”; Kader 1996, 184). As we will see in later parts of this series, this was not necessarily the case where Palmyra’s tripylon is concerned.

Speaking of cultural statements and propaganda, it is also possible that the concept of triumph was used to the advantage of the Institute for Digital Archaeology of Oxford and Harvard Universities when it decided to use digital methodologies to create a physical reconstruction of the tripylon in 2016 (and believe me, there will be an entire separate post about everything that was wrong with this replica). The IDA’s branding of the tripylon as such in the wake of the Islamic State’s retreat from Palmyra may have delivered a different kind of political message in the sense that the arch and its subsequent reconstruction could represent a triumph of the Syrian people and their cultural heritage over the militants and their wanton destruction of it—perhaps as a 21st-century parallel to Zenobia’s liberation of Palmyra from the Roman Empire (Munawar 2019, 152). Whatever the reason, the emphasis on the monument’s charismatic ‘triumphal’ nature obfuscates its ancient urbanistic context, which will be discussed more in detail in the next part of this series.

Thanks for reading!

Works Cited:

W. Ball, Rome in the East: The Transformation of an Empire, 2nd Edition (London 2016).

M. Barański, The Great Colonnade of Palmyra Reconsidered, Aram Periodical 7(1), 1995, 37–46.

R. Burns, Origins of the Colonnaded Streets in the Cities of the Roman East (Oxford 2017).

I. Browning, Palmyra (Park Ridge 1979).

K. Cassibry, Reception of the Roman Arch Monument, AJA 122 (2), 2018, 245–275.

C. Densmore Curtis, Roman Monumental Arches (New York 1908).

I. Kader, Propylon und Bogentor. Untersuchungen zum Tetrapylon von Latakia und anderen frühkaiserzeitlichen Bogenmonumenten im Nahen Osten (Mainz am Rhein 1996).

N. Munawar, Reconstructing Cultural Heritage in Conflict Zones: Should Palmyra be Rebuilt?, EX NOVO Journal of Archaeology 2, 2017, 33–48.

N. Munawar, Competing Heritage: Curating the Post-Conflict Heritage of Roman Syria, Bulletin - Institute of Classical Studies 62(1), 2019, 142–165.

A. Segal, From Function to Monument: Urban Landscapes of Roman Palestine, Syria and Provincia Arabia (Oxford 1997).

M. Tabaczek, Zwischen Stoa und Suq. Die Säulenstraßen im Vorderen Orient in römischer Zeit unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von Palmyra (Diss. University of Cologne 2001).

E. Will, Le développement urbain de Palmyre, Syria 60, 1983, 69–81.

Image Source: x (the first is from a PowerPoint I presentation I gave in January)

[half-a-tiger]

FATEN KANAAN - “The North Wind”, from her 4th album 'A Mythology of Circles' out now via Fire Records.

Video by Faten Kanaan.

Footage filmed by Matthias Groeneveld in Dwingeloo, the Netherlands.

Images of the Monumental Arch of Palmyra and statues in the collection of the SMK Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen based on 3-d prints by myminifactory.

[americanphoto]

Getty Research Institute

Monumental Arch, Louis Vignes, 1864. Albumen print. 8.8 x 11.4 in. (22.5 x 29 cm). The Getty Research Institute, 2015.R.15

The first photograph to capture the Monumental Arch, also called the Triumphal Arch, an icon of ancient Palmyra which was destroyed by ISIL in 2015.

From: THE GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE LAUNCHES AN ONLINE EXHIBITION OF HISTORICAL DOCUMENTATION OF PALMYRA

[dererumgestarum]

UNESCO Update: Leptis Magna

Leptis Magna was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982, but is currently on the Endangered List. According to the World Heritage Committee, the three greateat threats to the site are terrorism/warfare; the Libyan liquidity crisis; and climate change.

To escape the fate of Palmyra, the site's local custodians threw up an earthen berm blocking vehicular access to the reconstructed Arch of Septimius Severus. Access to the other side of the arch was blocked by placing fallen blocks of Roman masonry across the road. Although the threat posed by ISIL was neutralized in 2016, these obstacles remain in place as a precaution.

As a result of the liquidity crisis, the state cannot pay for security. Locals dependent on the site for tourist income who previously patrolled the ruins at night have been forced to work those hours due to financial distress. This has left the site virtually unguarded and vulnerable to looting.

Leptis Magna was very much a port city with a seaward orientation. Monuments like the Hunting Baths and the theatre were built very close to the sea. Climate change is causing the level of the mare nostra, as the Romans called it, to rise and erode the shoreline causing antiquities to disintegrate into the surf. No amount of diplomatic arm twisting will resolve this problem.

Despite these dangers, the site is still in an exceptionally good state of preservation, with no real changes made for the past two decades.

[skyesbrochures]

The Monumental Arch and the Great Colonnade, Palmyra / Syria

[yhwhrulz]

Syria and Russia have signed an agreement to restore Syria’s Arch of Triumph, an ancient monument that stood at the entrance to a largely destroyed temple used for the worship of Ba’al in the ancient city of Palmyra, Israel365 reports.

[asphyxiophiliation]

The Monumental Arch and the Great Colonnade, Palmyra / Syria

[stripperarmy]

The Monumental Arch and the Great Colonnade, Palmyra / Syria

[comicsqueers]

The Monumental Arch and the Great Colonnade, Palmyra / Syria

[lujainskaf-blog]

Tetrapylon in Palmyra, Syria A tetrapylon was a type of monument common to the architectural vernacular of classical antiquity. The defining quality of this form is the concept of four gates, with four pillars or other supporting structures placed at the corners marking the divisions between them. A tetrapylon could take the form of a single building or multiple, separate structures. They were built as landmarks at significant crossroads or geographical ‘focal points’, as a ‘sub-type’ of the Roman triumphal arch, or simply as decorative and aesthetically pleasing ornamental architecture.

[armeniaitn]

Deliberate destruction of cultural and religious sites characteristic of terrorist organizations – Artsakh MFA

New Post has been published on https://armenia.in-the.news/politics/deliberate-destruction-of-cultural-and-religious-sites-characteristic-of-terrorist-organizations-artsakh-mfa-62090-08-10-2020/

Deliberate destruction of cultural and religious sites characteristic of terrorist organizations – Artsakh MFA

The Artsakh Defense Ministry has strongly condemned the attack by the Azerbaijani armed forces on the Armenian Church of the Holy All-Savior (Ghazanchetsots), located in the city of Shushi of the Republic of Artsakh.

“We remind the Azerbaijani side that making historic monuments, works of art or places of worship which constitute the cultural or spiritual heritage of peoples the object of attack manifests serious violation of both treaty and customary international humanitarian law, and destruction of cultural monuments as part of the conduct of hostilities constitutes a war crime,” the Ministry said.

“The deliberate destruction of historical, cultural and religious sites is a characteristic and notorious signature of international terrorist organizations. Suffice it to recall the destruction of the Buddha statues of Bamiyan by the Taliban, as well as the destruction of the Monumental Arch in Palmyra and the Armenian Church of Holy Martyrs in Deir ez-Zor by ISIS fighters in Syria,” it added.

“The attack on the Church of the Holy All-Savior in the city of Shushi demonstrates that the criminal triple alliance of Azerbaijan, Turkey and terrorist organizations, which unleashed an aggression against the Republic of Artsakh, are united not only by common goals, but also by a common system of values and criminal methods of warfare,” the statement reads.

“We reiterate, that the preservation of the cultural heritage is of great importance for all peoples of the world and damage to cultural property belonging to any people whatsoever means damage to the cultural heritage of all mankind. Along with adoption of numerous international conventions on the protection of cultural and historical heritage, the issue was also addressed at the level of the UN Security Council, which in its Resolution (No. 2347) on the inadmissibility of destruction of cultural property in the event of armed conflicts, notably by terrorist groups, called on all States to make collective and co-ordinated efforts to combat such practices,” teh Foreign Ministry stated.

It once again emphasized that under the circumstances of Azerbaijan’s open denial of the principles of humanity and universal values, the international recognition of the independence of the Republic of Artsakh is the most effective way to ensure the security of the people of Artsakh, the realization of their fundamental rights and the preservation of Artsakh’s cultural heritage.

Read original article here.

[fuckyeaharchaeology]

So to clarify why this blog has been on semi-hiatus for a while: S and I have been very busy in school. S has recently finished up grad school and wrote her master’s thesis on Palmyra’s monumental arch while assisting at a database for ancient coinage from the regions of Thrace, Moesia Inferior, Mysia, and the Troad. I have been working in cultural resource management and historic preservation in America, and I am currently in grad school about to start a thesis on material sourcing lithic tools dating to the Monongahela Cultural Tradition. S has already promised to share her material, I will have to share some of mine when I finally get into the meat and potatoes of my thesis.

~A