The city of the dead outside the walls
Palmyra, in the Syrian desert, is best known today for its colonnades and temples, but some of the most personal evidence about its people comes from the burial grounds outside the city. Tombs spread along the valleys to the west, south and north-east, built mainly between the first and third centuries CE. They show how families in a wealthy caravan city wanted to be remembered, and they also preserve a large body of portraits of ordinary prosperous residents, rather than only rulers.
The tombs come in several forms. The tower tombs are tall, narrow stone buildings of several storeys, with burial niches inside. Underground tombs, usually called hypogea, were cut into rock and reached by stairs. Others were built as freestanding “house tombs” or temple-like structures. A tower tomb is often dated by an inscription: the Tower of Elahbel, for instance, carries a dedication from the early second century CE. Families might buy a section in a shared tomb, and inscriptions record who owned which part.
The tomb busts
The best-known portraits are carved limestone slabs or busts that closed the burial niches, each showing the deceased from the chest up, often with a hand raised or holding an object. They are typically about life-size or slightly smaller. Men and women appear in separate or paired portraits, children appear less often, and some tombs show groups of relatives or a banquet scene.
The faces are fairly standardised, with large eyes and carefully drawn eyebrows, and they are not realistic likenesses in a modern sense. The style mixes Greek and Roman portrait habits with Near Eastern conventions, such as a frontal pose and strong emphasis on detail in clothing and jewellery. The tomb inscriptions are mainly in Palmyrene Aramaic, the local language, although Greek was also used in the city, especially on public monuments.
Most busts have a short inscription naming the dead person, their father and sometimes grandfather and great-grandfather. It usually ends with a word that is often translated as “alas”. The emphasis on descent shows how much weight Palmyrene society placed on family and lineage.
What the portraits show about dress
Because the sculptors paid so much attention to clothing, the busts are a rich source for the way people dressed. Men often wear a tunic and a cloak draped over one shoulder, in a style related to Greek and Roman dress. Some show a different local style, with trousers or a belted garment influenced by the Parthian world to the east. Priests are identified by tall, cylindrical hats, sometimes with a wreath, and may carry a small vessel or other ritual object.
Women are usually shown wearing a long tunic, a veil or headcloth and a turban-like headband. Their jewellery is detailed: necklaces, earrings, bracelets, rings and brooches are carved with care, and some pieces were probably painted or gilded. These carvings do not show every piece of jewellery actually worn, but they do show what families thought appropriate to display. The fabrics of ancient weaving, with embroidered or patterned bands on garments, are suggested by incised lines and borders, and textile fragments have also been recovered from Palmyrene tombs. The Silk Road cultural exchange that ran through the city may help explain the presence of imported fabrics, though the carvings alone cannot prove which cloth was real silk.
Status, family and women
The portraits also hint at social rank. Large tower tombs were expensive and belonged to wealthy families, probably merchants, caravan leaders and landowners whose income depended on a trade linked to the Silk Road trade routes. The busts that come from them show people who could afford fine fabrics and costly jewellery. Smaller tombs and plainer carvings point to families with less wealth.
Some portraits of women stand out because of their detail and their frequent use of inscriptions that name the woman’s own ancestry. It would be wrong to claim that Palmyrene women had the same status as men, but the quality of the evidence suggests that wealthy women were visible in public memory. Comparisons with Roman matrons, whose public image was shaped by Roman customs, show similar interests in modesty and rank but different details of dress.
Where the portraits are now
Over the last two centuries many busts left Syria through excavation, gifts and sales. Large groups are held in museums in Europe and North America, including the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, and others remain in the museum at Palmyra and in Damascus. The damage and looting of the Syrian conflict affected the museum and the tombs. In 2015 the Tower of Elahbel and other tower tombs were damaged or destroyed, and some sculptures were smashed. Archaeologists and conservators have worked since on restoration and on documenting what survives, using photographs and earlier records.
The portraits cannot tell us everything. They idealise their subjects, they were made for families who could pay, and the words on them are short. Even so, they give the people of Palmyra a lasting presence and help balance the usual picture of a city known mostly through its monuments and its famous queen.