‘Forgotten city:’ the identification of Dura-Europos’ neglected sister site in Syria

Editors' notes This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: fact-checked trusted source proofread by University of Chicago Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain The Dura-Europos site in modern-day Syria is famous for its exceptional state of preservation. Like Pompeii, this ancient

Liked this post? Share with others!

Hexbyte Glen Cove



Editors’ notes

This article has been reviewed according to Science X’s
editorial process
and policies.
Editors have highlighted
the following attributes while ensuring the content’s credibility:

fact-checked

trusted source

proofread

by University of Chicago

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

The Dura-Europos site in modern-day Syria is famous for its exceptional state of preservation. Like Pompeii, this ancient city has yielded many great discoveries, and serves as a window into the world of the ancient Hellenistic, Parthian, and Roman periods. Yet despite the prominence of Dura-Europos in Near Eastern scholarship, there is another city, only some miles down the Euphrates river, that presents a long-neglected opportunity for study.

A new paper in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, entitled “The Ancient City of Giddan/Eddana (Anqa, Iraq), the ‘Forgotten Twin’ of Dura-Europos,” identifies the city of Anqa as a near mirror image of Dura-Europos, of the same size, comparable composition, and potentially equal value to scholars of the region.

Anqa is located just across the Syrian border from Dura-Europos, in the present-day Al-Qaim district of the Anbar Governorate in Iraq. Its remains include an identifying tell mound, at the northern end of the site, a polygonal inner wall circuit, and a large outer defensive wall, or enceinte. Situated at a point where the Euphrates floodplain drastically narrows, the city would have controlled movement between the populous section of the valley upstream and the trade route downstream linking Syria, Northern Mesopotamia, and Babylonia, giving it great strategic and economic significance.

However, the site was ignored entirely by archaeologists until the 1850 publication of a British Middle Euphrates expedition survey. A more thorough study of the site was performed in the late 1930s by Aurel Stein, including aerial photographs of the standing structures, but even after these forays, there was little desire to learn more than the geographical location of this twin city to Dura-Europos.

One reason for the disparity in interest between Anqa and Dura-Europos, posits article author Simon James, is the history of British and French colonial intervention in the region. In 1920, as a result of the San Remo conference, Iraq was seized for British control, and Syria for French. As James writes, the “new political, military, and administrative boundary created a barrier to research and understanding of the earlier history of the region as a whole.”

Yet while Dura-Europos and some other sites in Iraq and Syria have suffered from looting, destruction, and civilian death as a consequence of conflict in the region, Anqa has remained relatively untouched. As further archaeological inquiry is performed, Anqa may continue to provide valuable insight into the history of the Middle Euphrates. And furthermore, as methods of digital scholarship bring thinkers together “despite ,” the practice of studying sites like it may even, in the words of Simon James, help “address the consequences of colonialism in archaeology.”

More information:
Simon James, The Ancient City of Giddan/Eddana (Anqa, Iraq), the “Forgotten Twin” of Dura-Europos, Journal of Near Eastern Studies (2024). DOI: 10.1086/729226

Citation:
‘Forgotten city:’ the identification of Dura-Europos’ neglected sister site in Syria (2024, April 20)
retrieved 20 April 2024
from https://phys.org/news/2024-04-forgotten-city-identification-dura-europos.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.



% %item_read_more_button%% Hexbyte Glen Cove Educational Blog Repost With Backlinks — #metaverse #vr #ar #wordpress

Subscribe to our newsletter

Collect visitor’s submissions and store it directly in your Elementor account, or integrate your favorite marketing & CRM tools.

Do you want to boost your business today?

This is your chance to invite visitors to contact you. Tell them you’ll be happy to answer all their questions as soon as possible.

Learn how we helped 100 top brands gain success