Excavations at Dura Europos: Final Report VII: Arms and Armour and other Military Equipment (None) [Hardcover]

Simon James (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2003 | ISBN-10: 0714122483 | ISBN-13: 978-0714122489

The ancient city of Dura-Europos, destroyed by a Sasanian Persian siege in the AD 250s, was an important regional centre of commerce, government and military control under the Seleucid, Parthian and Roman empires. During excavations in the 1920s and 1930s it became famous for finds such as a painted synagogue and early Christian chapel. Not the least spectacular of the discoveries in this 'Pompeii of the Syrian Desert' were the remains of the town's garrisons and siegeworks and massive quantities of military artefacts. The latter comprise perhaps the most important single collection of arms, armour and other equipment to survive from the Roman period, a collection which is exceptional in its size, diversity and state of preservation. Its colourful painted shields and horse armour, for example, are unequalled anywhere else in the vast Roman empire or in neighbouring lands. It is also holds vital importance for our knowledge of the material culture of the military in the eastern frontier lands of the Roman world. This book provides a complete catalogue of the military artefacts, most of which are now housed in Yale University Art Gallery, and analyses and assesses their cultural affiliations and uses. The archaeological evidence from the site is combined with the equally rich and rare textual and representational evidence in the form of papyri, graffiti and wall-paintings, not to mention the buildings of the city themselves, to examine the ways in which material culture actively creates and expresses identity, in this case of Roman soldiers of Syrian origin.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Simon James is Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester. His other publications include Britain and the Celtic Iron Age (with Valery Rigby) and The Atlantic Celts: Ancient People or Modern Invention?

Product Details

• Hardcover: 456 pages
• Publisher: British Museum Press (September 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0714122483
• ISBN-13: 978-0714122489
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 8.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,102,427 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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