Poll: Religious Place (v1.2) Published on: 01 March 2023 Date Range: 44 BCE - 272 CE Region: Palmyra Region tags: Middle East, Syria Palmyra, Syria Religion of Roman Palmyra By Aleksandra KubiakSchneider, University of Wrocław Entry tags: Roman Religions, Temenos, Levantine Religion, Greek Cult, Graeco-Roman, shrines, City, Religious Practice, Archaeological monument, Shrine, Phoenician Cult, Palmyra, Arabian Religions, Aramaic Religions, Hellenistic Religions, Greek Religions, Mesopotamian Religions, Monument, Temple, Altar, Religious Place, Religious Group, Religious Complex Tadmor-Palmyra, an ancient city located in an oasis in the middle of Syrian dry steppe (commonly known as Syrian Desert), has a long occupation history from the Bronze Age to modern times. Double naming shows the city’s multicultural background. Tadmor is the original Aramaic name of the place, while Palmyra was used by Greeks and Romans. These two names are not exactly a translation. Pliny the Elder in his Historia Naturalis described Palmyra, that it was situated between two empires: Roman and Parthian and grew up on the rich soil. Being between two empires required great diplomatic skills, which the Palmyrenes mastered in their long distance trade, sending caravans to Spasinou-Charax, ships to India and Arabia, etc. The trade and particular situation of Palmyra on the geopolitical arena, being long independent, resulted in urban development and the appearance of monumental architecture: columned streets, theater, monumental tombs (tower-tombs, hypogeas and funerary temples) and temples. Palmyra also had an advanced epigraphic culture. The city provides about 3000 inscriptions of different sorts: honorific, funerary, religious, etc. written mostly in the local dialect of Aramaic, but also many texts in Greek and only a few in Latin. The city provides an important material culture: epigraphical, iconographical and archaeological remains concerning the gods and their worship. About 40 divine names and titles are known through the written sources from Palmyra. Palmyrenes show themselves in the sources as multicultural society worshipping the deities of various origins: Mesopotamian, Phoenician, Aramaic, and Arabic. The divine protector of Palmyra was Bel, the Lord of Universe and Fate (of Mesopotamian origins), having the largest temple in the city, the ruins of which were destroyed in 2015 by terrorists. It hosted not only a temple devoted to Palmyrene gods, as it was labelled in the inscriptions, but later also a church and a mosque. The temenos was until 1930’ literally a house of Tadmoreans, where a modern village was located. Second in size, was the temple of Ba’alshamin, the storm god. Beside these two, there were also temples of the goddess Allat, of the god Nabu (or Nebo), of Arsu, of Belhammon and Manawat, of Rabbaseire, of Yarhibol, of Aglibol and Malakbel (so-called Sacred Garden) and of Atargatis. However, the latter was never discovered and is only attested in the inscriptions. In the Late Antiquity, Palmyra was a bishop's seat and had at least 6 churches. Status of Participants: ✓ Elite ✓ Religious Specialists ✓ Non-elite (common people, general populace) General Variables Sources and Excavations DOI: URL: https://religiondatabase.org/browse/1185 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Please see our Terms of Use here: https://religiondatabase.org/about/credits Page 1 of 43 © 2023 Database of Religious History. The University of British Columbia. For any questions contact project.manager@religiondatabase.org