The Wadi Zone Campus, Citadel, and C3 Bath

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon James
Keyword(s):  
Roman Period ◽  
Major Area ◽  
Military Base ◽  
Open Ground ◽  
Formed Part ◽  
Military Control ◽  
The Military ◽  
The City ◽  
The Temple ◽  
And Training

From the junction of H and 8th Sts, which gave access to the twin main axes of the military base zone on the plateau, H St led S to the bulk of the civil town and ultimately to the Palmyrene Gate, the steppe plateau W of the city, and the roads W to Palmyra and NW up the Euphrates to Syria. The fourth side of the crossroads followed a curving course SE, down into the inner wadi, then snaking through the irregularly laid-out old lower town to the now-lost River Gate, portal to the Euphrates and its plain. Of most immediate significance is that the Wadi Ascent Road also linked the plateau military zone with what can now be seen as another major area of military control, in the old Citadel, and on the adjacent wadi floor. The N part of the wadi floor is now known to have accommodated two military-built temples, the larger of which, the A1 ‘Temple of the Roman Archers’, was axial to the long wadi floor, which in the Roman period appears to have comprised one of the largest areas of open ground inside the city walls. This is interpreted as the campus, or military assembly and training ground, extension of which was commemorated in an inscription found in the temple. In 2011, what is virtually certainly a second military temple was found in the wadi close by the first, built against the foundation of the Citadel. This is here referred to as the Military Zeus Temple. Behind the Temple of the Roman Archers was a lane leading from the Wadi Ascent Road to the N gate of the Citadel. It helped define a further de facto enclosure, effectively surrounded by other military-controlled areas and so also presumed to have been in military hands. The Citadel itself, while in Roman times already ruinous on the river side due to cliff falls, still formed part of the defences. Moreover the massive shell of its Hellenistic walls now also appears to have been adapted to yet more military accommodation, some of it two storeys or higher.

Why Was the Base Where It Was, and As It Was?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon James
Keyword(s):  
Second Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
City Wall ◽  
The Third ◽  
Open Ground ◽  
Face Saving ◽  
Saving Measure ◽  
The Military ◽  
The City ◽  
The Temple

In the foregoing, it was argued that the unitary base area seen in the third century, encompassing the entire N part of the city from the W defences almost to the River Gate, resulted from expansion and coalescence of two later-second-century nuclei, one near the Temple of Bêl, the other focused on the Citadel. Subsequently, presumably increasing Roman troop numbers at Dura led to takeover of the far N part of the intramural area, linking up the military holdings. But why did it start as two nuclei? When Roman power became permanently established over Dura c.165, and a decision was made to station Palmyrene symmachiarii there, while the Realpolitik may have been that these were proxy forces holding the city for Rome, the option of sending in troops from a long-standing friend of Dura may have been chosen as a face-saving measure for the Durene elite. The Palmyrenes were likely presented as defending the newly ‘liberated’ city from Arsacid interference. Under such circumstances, a less obtrusive, peripheral location would have been appropriate. The zone around the Temple of Bêl appears at the time to have comprised only partially built-up city blocks offering open ground, with more free space along the city wall to accommodate the Palmyrene force with minimal disruption to civic life. The temple plaza also offered a ready-made military assembly space. It is further possible that the Palmyrenes attested in Arsacid Dura—visiting traders and soldiers, and resident expatriates—already tended to congregate in or use this zone, around the temple which, at least later, would become especially associated with Palmyrene Bêl. With subsequent arrival of regular Roman troops, and the proposed enrolling of the Palmyrene archers as the nucleus of the nascent cohors XX, the NW cantonment was then probably expanded as it was developed into a Roman auxiliary base. With regard to the inner wadi/Citadel zone, it was suggested above that the incoming Romans would have taken over the great inner stronghold by default, as part of the defensive circuit. They also used the flat wadi floor in its shadow as a campus.

How Did the Base Work?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon James
Keyword(s):  
Brick Wall ◽  
City Wall ◽  
Base Area ◽  
Routine Basis ◽  
Base Boundary ◽  
Four Blocks ◽  
Formed Part ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Military ◽  
The City

We now consider how the military base area operated, as a zone where a large number of people lived and worked on a routine basis. On one hand, to function it required the affordances of its internal communications, connections with the civil town, and access to roads, river, and lands beyond the walls; on the other, there was a need for surveillance and control of activities within the base, and of movements across its boundary. The most obvious part of the base boundary (Plate XXII) is the substantial mud brick wall ploughed across four blocks from the city defences just S of Tower 21, and blocking Wall, A, C, and D Sts, with a gate established at B St. How the S boundary was defined E of D St has always remained an issue. If it was necessary to build a wall at the W end, why was this not simply continued all the way to, e.g., the S end of the Citadel? Across blocks F7 and F5 it seems that the boundary of the military zone simply comprised party walls between military and civilian-occupied structures. The same was true within block B2, by the Citadel, although the boundary probably comprised building frontages along Lower Main St. On the plateau, as the camp wall may have been a subsequent local enhancement, except where the amphitheatre formed part of it, the boundary may generally have comprised the rear walls of military-held houses lining the S side of 8th St—probably all properties from the city wall to H St. The course of the boundary along the W side of the inner wadi is unknown, but the base is suggested, as along 8th St, to have incorporated at least all properties lining the S side of the Wadi Ascent Road, if not encompassing all blocks on the wadi slope—in which case the boundary here may rather have comprised property frontages on K St. The base area was split by site topography into two major zones, the flat plateau, and the N branch of the inner wadi around the Citadel. Each was further subdivided.

Sardis

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clyde E. Fant ◽  
Mitchell G. Reddish
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Ancient City ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
Gediz River ◽  
The City ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Western Half

A city with a strong and vibrant Jewish community during the Roman period, as well as a center for the worship of Artemis and home to a significant Christian community, Sardis is an intriguing place to visit for anyone interested in biblical studies or ancient religious history. The partially restored 3rd-century-C.E. synagogue in the city is the largest known synagogue outside Palestine from ancient times. Ancient shops, a bath-gymnasium complex, and the Temple of Artemis provide glimpses of the life of this ancient city. Once the capital of the ancient Lydian Kingdom, Sardis (Sart) lies approximately 60 miles east of Izmir along the modern highway (E96/300) connecting Izmir to Ankara in the Hermus River valley (today called the Gediz River). Portions of the ruins of Sardis are situated adjacent to the highway and are easily accessible. The ancient city was built along the Pactolus River, a tributary of the Hermus, and at the foothills of the Tmolus Mountains. The city’s acropolis was strategically located atop a spur of the Tmolus Mountains. The Tmolus Mountains (or Mt. Tmolus) were, according to some ancient traditions, the birthplace of the gods Dionysus and Zeus. Sardis first came to prominence during the 1st millennium B.C.E. when it served as the center of the powerful Lydian kingdom, which encompassed most of the western half of Asia Minor. The Lydians supposedly were the first to develop a technique to dye wool and also to invent dice games, knucklebones, and other games. (Interestingly, archaeologists found a terra-cotta die in the ruins at Sardis.) Legend says that Midas, the mythical Phrygian king, was able to rid himself of his golden touch by bathing in the Pactolus River. As a result, the sands of the river turned to gold. Though legendary, this account points nonetheless to the enormous wealth enjoyed by the Lydian kingdom. The earliest Lydian rulers belonged to the Heraclid dynasty, which according to Herodotus (5th-century-B.C.E. Greek historian) lasted 505 years. They were succeeded by the Mermnad dynasty, of which the first king was Gyges (r. ca. 680–ca. 652 B.C.E.).

Conclusion: Chiaroscuro

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon James
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Aerial Photographs ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Military Base ◽  
French Academy ◽  
Base Area ◽  
The People ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
The Military ◽  
The City

This project has explored the archaeology of Dura’s imperial Roman military base, and also considered other material traces of the presence of soldiers in the city, e.g. at the Palmyrene Gate and creation of urban baths. As such it here synthesizes the archaeological evidence of a literal quarter (or more) of this globally important archaeological site. It offers an example of the still under-appreciated potential of ‘legacy data sets’ and archival archaeology, and of resurveying ‘old sites’, to generate significant new knowledge, making best use of limited resources. It also considers ‘legacy ideas’ as well as more recent publications to generate new understandings of garrison, base, and city. I hope that this volume will further constitute a useful contribution to the study of the Roman armies, and the soldiers in their ranks. I also hope that it will establish that the military aspect is a vital part of the story of Dura itself, especially for the Roman era, and that the military base and the people who lived in it cannot be treated as literally and figuratively peripheral to Durene studies. The foregoing presents what has been a visually led project, and also one of space and of movement within it. It was conducted through a combination of examining the largely image-based archival records of the Yale/French Academy expedition and direct observation of the fabric of the city, especially of the remains exposed by the original excavations as they were between 2005 and 2010. It has also generated entirely new data expanding the picture through geophysical prospection of the unexcavated portions of the base area and vicinity. Physically moving around the topography of the former city and, where it was still partially upstanding, through some of its spaces, provided many key insights. Others derived from considering plans, aerial photographs, magnetometry plots, and recent satellite images. Not least, interpretations arose from generating the new drawings, largely plans, featured in this book.

When? New Outline of Development and Chronology

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon James
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Shock ◽  
Project Team ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Urban Fabric ◽  
Military Base ◽  
Military Transformation ◽  
Epigraphic Evidence ◽  
The Military ◽  
The City

Such was the extent of the base in its final form, before the disruptions of the 250s. But how and when did it reach this extent and conformation? As we have seen, the small number of direct epigraphic dates coming from key structures in the military base concentrate c.209–16. While the Yale expedition were aware that there had been resident Roman auxiliaries from the later second century, and also identified (mostly erroneously) some components as belonging to the 220s–250s, they took this ‘epigraphic dating horizon’ as indicating that the military base, from camp wall to principia to baths, amphitheatre, and campus, including creation of most military accommodation, was overwhelmingly a rapid creation of the 210s. This notion of a sudden military transformation of the urban fabric at that time supposedly reflected a radical expansion of numbers of the Roman garrison—resulting in traumatic shock to the city. The concentration of dated inscriptions from the military base does seem to constitute a tight ‘epigraphic dating horizon’ c.209–16, or indeed c.209–12 if the amphitheatre was really an opportunistic coda. It certainly represents a major military building campaign. However, it has been misinterpreted, and its significance exaggerated, especially in taking it to mark effective creation of the base. Central to the ‘epigraphic horizon’, of course, is the dating of the principia to 211–12, with rebuilding of the Mithraeum around the same time. Other components of the programme may be implied by epigraphic information. Notably the detail of the undated inscription attesting building of the A1 Temple of the Roman Archers and expansion of the campus plausibly fits in the context of the 210s. However, the Yale project team pushed interpretation of the epigraphic evidence much too far in employing other texts to date military structures. While the ‘camp wall’ may well also have been built c.210, the epigraphic argument for this, comprising an inscription of debated reading not even found in proximity to the wall, is flimsy in the extreme. Similar misuse of epigraphic evidence is seen in the case of the three altars to Dolichenus found in X7.

Military Presence around and beyond the Base Area

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon James
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
The Other ◽  
Personal Observation ◽  
Military Base ◽  
Base Area ◽  
Archival Material ◽  
Military Presence ◽  
Adjacent Block ◽  
Formed Part ◽  
The Military

The C3 bathhouse, in the heart of the old lower town, the grandest Roman bath in Dura, was not originally envisaged to form part of the present project as it lay well outside the area previously recognized as forming the Roman military base. However, it has long been thought that this bath, and the similar facility M7 at the other end of Main St near the Palmyrene Gate, were constructed by the soldiers. In the case of the C3 bathhouse it also became apparent post-2010 that the zone taken over by the military extended all the way into the adjacent block B2, while the S frontage of B4 opposite the bath on Lower Main St may well have been the edge of the unified military base. Consequently, had it been possible to conduct further fieldwork as projected for 2012, full re-survey of the C3 and (for completeness and comparison) M7 baths would have been undertaken. Circumstances prevented this; however, discussion of these facilities is still necessary, especially as both were only summarily published. This review draws on a preliminary inspection undertaken in 2010, as well as archival material. It concludes that the C3 facility was significantly larger and grander even than already understood. Like the other bathhouses, the C3 facility was visible as an upstanding mound, and especially noticeable as the Ottoman road ran directly through it. The bath was partially excavated during the sixth season, and archival records are relatively good including a six-page typescript document, ‘Notes on Roman Bath in Block C3, excavated Jan.–Mar. 1933’, annotated ‘M. Crosby?’ There is also partial photographic coverage of the structure. The finds registers record 262 finds from the building, over 100 of them ascribed to specific rooms; however, few can now be specifically identified. Brown published a brief account of the bath, composed from ‘the notes of the excavator, Miss Margaret Crosby, carefully checked by personal observation of the author’ (PR 6, 95, n. 7). This, the only publication on the C3 facility, formed part of Brown’s comparative study of Dura’s bathhouses (PR 6, 95–104 and pl. IV, reproducing archive drawing Bath N.12; note on the mosaics and inscription 631: PR 6, 104–5; pls XVI.2–3; XXXIX.1–3).

Rosaliae Signorum

1937 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. S. Hoey
Keyword(s):  
Religious Life ◽  
Roman Army ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Military ◽  
The City ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Made In

In the campaign of 1931–32 at Dura-Europos on the Euphrates there was found among the military archives in the temple of Artemis Azzanathcona a papyrus document containing a list of the festivals which were officially celebrated by the Roman garrison in the city. This document, of unique interest and importance, placed by internal evidence in the reign of Severus Alexander between the years A.D. 223 and 225, contains among its entries the two lines quoted above. In them is prescribed for celebration on two different dates a hitherto unknown festival which is of some little importance both for the religious life of the Roman army and for the history of Roman festivals during the Empire. An attempt will be made in this paper to interpret its nature and to touch briefly on both these aspects of its significance.

No Dal Molin: The Antibase Movement in Vicenza

2012 ◽  
Vol 111 (4) ◽  
pp. 839-846
Author(s):  
Marco Palma
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
Northern Italy ◽  
Military Base ◽  
Italian Government ◽  
Military Installation ◽  
The Military ◽  
The City

In 2006 the citizens of Vicenza, Italy, discovered that for three years US authorities, the Italian government, and city officials had been negotiating secretly to approve the construction of a new military base on the only large undeveloped area in the northern part of the city and the largest aquifer in northern Italy. Beginning in the adjacent neighborhoods, a mobilization arose against the construction of the military installation. In a few months hundreds of thousands of residents were demonstrating in the city, and various forms of direct action against the base became a daily occurrence. Thus was born an extraordinary experiment in democratic political participation.

scholarly journals Armenian Church of the Holy Mother of God in Chisinau

Arta ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-48
Author(s):  
Sergius Ciocanu ◽  
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Historic Monument ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Military ◽  
The City ◽  
The Temple

The documents attest the presence of an Armenian community in Chisinau since the ‘30s of the 18th century. In the 18th century, the Chisinau Armenians had a place of worship, located on the site of the present Armenian Church, in the “heart” of the city, on the first street parallel to the north-east side of the market square. In 1774, among the Chisinau Armenians, the priest Musuz was mentioned, who served in the Armenian Church. The temple was badly damaged by the fire that engulfed Chisinau during the military operations of 1788. The earthquake destroyed this place of worship on October 14, 1802. In 1803-1804, it was rebuilt in the same place. The construction manager and, possibly, the architect of the holy place, was master Vardan from Iaşi. According to the statistical documents of 1809, three priests and four deacons served in the Armenian church. The cemetery of Armenian community was located near the old Orthodox cemetery of the Mazarache church. However, some more important burials were also done in the churchyard of the Armenian church. During the XIX-XX centuries, the church underwent many alterations and renovations, which changed its appearance. In 1993, by the decision of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, this valuable building of Chisinau was given the status of historic monument.

The military uses of Holyrood Park, Edinburgh in the First World War

2021 ◽  
Vol 150 ◽  
pp. 327-353
Author(s):  
Gordon J Barclay
Keyword(s):  
Young Women ◽  
First World War ◽  
Civic Life ◽  
World War ◽  
Domestic Life ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Military ◽  
The City ◽  
First World ◽  
And Training

This paper tells the story of the ephemeral and relatively fleeting use of Holyrood Park, Edinburgh between 1914 and 1919. The domestic life and training regime of the units who camped in the Park, in particular the 10th (Liverpool Scottish) King’s Regiment (Liverpool), is described using contemporary documents and photographs. The practice trenches and anti-invasion defences in the south-east corner of the Park are described, along with the large First World War infantry training camp, rediscovered during the research, in the grounds of Duddingston House. The paper also considers the interaction between the soldiery and the city, within the constraints imposed by paucity of evidence – with individuals and with the city’s civic life and its role in the war. Light is cast on socially conservative and morally judgemental views of the interaction between soldiers and young women – the ‘khaki fever’ of the early months of the war.

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