Positions and professions in Palmyra / edited by Tracey Long and Annette Højen Sørensen

• Superior document: Palmyrenske studier
• HerausgeberIn: Long, Tracey; Sørensen Højen, Annette
• Place / Publishing House: København : Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, 2017
• Year of Publication: 2017
• Language: English
• Series: Palmyrenske studier bind 2; Scientia Danica. Series H, Humanistica 4 / Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab vol.9
• Classification: 15.17 - Klassische Archäologie
• Physical Description: 136 Seiten; Illustrationen; 27 cm

Palmyra in the Syrian Desert has in the last years come to the attention of the world due to the destructions caused by the Civil War. Right before the conflict broke out the Palmyra Portrait Project funded by the Carlsberg Foundation and headed by Rubina Raja was initiated. The anthology, Positions and Professions in Palmyra, is one of the results emerging from the project.0The contributions are written by leading scholars, who focus on Palmyra, portraiture in the Roman Empire, art and writing in Palmyra and the cultures of the Near East in general. Issues of how status and professions were communicated through self-representation stand at the centre of the volume. Through the contributions it becomes clear that there was a dichotomy between the funerary sphere and the public sphere. In the funerary sphere the family alone took centre stage, whereas the public sphere was a space for civic status to be communicated. These differences inform us about the choices made by the Palmyrenes according to the meaning of the spaces in which self-representations were displayed. The Palmyrenes were world citizens, who saw themselves as central players within the broader imperial context. This book gives the basis for assessing some of the mechanisms at play within Palmyrene society, both in family contexts as well as broader societal contexts

Table of Contents

Introduction Tracey Long and Annette Højen Sørensen

The body language of Palmyra and Rome Glenys Davies

Changing identities, changing positions: jewellery in Palmyrene female portraits Signe Krag

The Parthian haute-couture at Palmyra Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis

The use of Parthian costume in funerary portraiture in Palmyra Tracey Long

The pious butcher and the physicians: Palmyrene professions in context Eleonora Cussini

Professions in Palmyra: a matter of ethnicity Tommaso Gnoli

The iconography of caravan trade in Palmyra and the Roman Near East Eivind Helaas Seland

To be or n ot to be depicted as a priest in Palmyra: a matter of representational spheres and societal values Rubina Raja