Halfway between the Mediterranean and the River Euphrates, the Efqu spring offered refreshing respite for ancient traders crossing the dusty Syrian desert. The city of Palmyra flourished at the oasis, its merchants amassing their wealth through trade networks that brought silk from China, spices from India, pearls from Arabia, ivory from Africa, and wine from the Mediterranean. While there is evidence from the archives at Mari that the site was occupied as early as the 2nd millennium BC, it was between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, when the city was under Roman rule, that business boomed and Palmyra reached its zenith.
One way the city and its inhabitants showcased their wealth during this period was in their funerary monuments. In addition to simple pit-graves, Palmyrenes buried their dead in loculi or shafts inside underground tombs, temple tombs with elaborate façades, and tall tower tombs that are rarely seen elsewhere in the Roman world. With around 180 tower tombs known today, some of which were originally more than 20m in height and vied in stature with the large temples inside the city, the sepulchral surroundings presented an impressive sight for visitors approaching Palmyra. They could hold up to 300 burials in their loculi, which were sealed with slabs featuring the likeness of the person who wasburied within.
These funerary portraits, largely sculpted from local limestone, make up a remarkable body of evidence for the people who lived in the upper echelons of the cosmopolitan city. Despite being part of the Roman world, Palmyra kept close contact with the Parthian Empire in the east and traders from elsewhere, leading to a wonderful blend of styles and local traditions in the unique portraits. It is these funerary sculptures that are the focus of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek’s latest exhibition, The Road to Palmyra. Fittingly set with a view of the tall palm trees of the Glyptotek’s own oasis-like Winter Garden, the exhibition is a joint venture between the museum and the Aarhus University-based Palmyra Portrait Project, whose researchers are compiling a corpus of all Palmyrene portraits, not just those from burials.
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