Oxford Handbook of Palmyra
The Oxford Handbook of Palmyra gives a detailed analysis of the archaeology and history of this ancient oasis city in the Syrian Desert, spanning evidence from several millennia, with contributions from archaeologists, epigraphists, historians, and philologists.
The Oxford 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 that 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 parts, preceded by an introductory chapter, and concluded with a postludium chapter that focuses on the time since 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 in the networks running 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 and with updated bibliographies, making this the ideal place to begin research on this important location in the ancient world.
Raja, R. (ed.) (2024). The Oxford Handbook of Palmyra, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Raja, R. (2024)."Palmyra–Tadmor in the Syrian Desert: An Introduction to the Handbook of Palmyra", in: Raja, R. (ed.) (2024). The Oxford Handbook of Palmyra, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1-12.
Raja, R. (2024). "Religious Life and Priestly Representations in Palmyra", in: Raja, R. (ed.) (2024). The Oxford Handbook of Palmyra, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 467–480.
Raja, R. (2024). "The Banqueting Tesserae from Palmyra: Tokens for Religious Events", in: Raja, R. (ed.) (2024). The Oxford Handbook of Palmyra, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 517–530.
Raja, R. (2024). "The Palmyrene Funerary Sculpture", in: Raja, R. (ed.) (2024). The Oxford Handbook of Palmyra, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 417-432.
Steding, J. (2024). "The Production Economy of Funerary Portraiture" in: Raja, R. (ed.) (2024). The Oxford Handbook of Palmyra, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 499-515.