The Oxford handbook of Palmyra

In: Oxford handbooks series

Abstract

"The Handbook of Palmyra comprises 37 chapters written by specialists, ancient and global historians, archaeologists, epigraphers, and philologists, working on the ancient world, all of them with a particular interest in Palmyra, ancient Tadmor, the famous oasis city in the Syrian steppe desert. The handbook covers the site's archaeology and history from its pre-Roman phases, from the time of its deepest prehistory, until the recent destruction of many of the city's monuments and the looting that it has seen during the devastating conflict in Syria, which broke out in 2011. Numerous of the authors have conducted fieldwork in Palmyra prior to the 2011 conflict, and others have collected large corpora of evidence from the site or specialized in particular themes concerning the site and its relations across the ancient world. The handbook is structured in five main sections, proceeded by an introductory chapter and concluded with a postludium chapter that focuses on the time from the conflict in Syria broke out in 2011. A broad range of themes are covered in the book, which do not only relate to the development of the site, its archaeology, and history, but just as much to its position and networks throughout the ancient world from Antiquity until modern times. The chapters hold firsthand expert knowledge that is condensed for the readership in an easily accessible manner with updated bibliographies, making this the ideal place to begin research on this important location in the ancient world"--