Palmyra: At the Crossroads of the Ancient World

Abstract

The Syrian oasis city Tadmor, better known as Palmyra, has received by far the most attention within scholarship on the Roman Near East over recent decades. New evidence and recent research allow us to better understand many aspects of Palmyra on its own terms, but it also has highlighted the lack of synthetically published data from Palmyra itself and from broader comparative settings. In this review article, we discuss the contributions of recent research on urban development, material culture, religion, environment, economy, identity, and heritage in Palmyra, as well as the implications for our understanding of wider dynamics in the Roman Near East and beyond.