The City of Dura-Europos and its Mithraeum

   The City of Dura-Europos has provided a wealth of well preserved relics and artworks due to its abandonment after a Persian invasion left it uninhabitable. Yielding over 12,000 artifacts preserved at Yale Universities art gallery, the city contains three major cultural cites in the form of a Mithraeum, an Early Christian site, and a Synagogue. Due to increased hostilities in Syria, the site is no longer being excavated, but it does contain a series of caves underneath that contain evidence of the worlds first chemical warfare attack. 

    Europos was founded founded by the Seleucid Empire near 300 B.C.E. It is located alongside the Euphrates river giving it natural protection from the east side. The construction of the walls around the city created a safe zone that would eventually be called "Dura" by its citizens, which means "the Fortress (Dura-Europos).  Upon its discovery in 1920, Yale University and the French Academy enlisted a team of Bedouin tribesmen to excavate the site from the sand that covered it after centuries abandoned. Under Roman control, Dura-Europos was in the line of fire of the war between Rome and Persia in 230 C.E.. Romes efforts to reinforce the city in 256 led them to bury the western wall, church and synagogue located within to created a rampart for defense; they would remain buried for the next 1700 years. During the fighting for the town, a squad of 19 Romans forced their way into a Persian tunnel, and made use of a cloud of poison gas that they pumped into an underground chamber. This attack was very effective, killing most of the affected soldiers instantly (Curry). 

     The Mithraeum located in the city has been completely reconstructed in Yale Universities art gallery. Mithraeums were temples dedicated to the Iranian god Mithras, who was adopted by Roman culture just as so many other gods were. Mithras was the god of friendship, contract and order, with his name meaning contract in Akkadian. The romans created the cult called Mithraic Mystery's, and would establish places of worship all across the Roman world (Thome). The Mithraeums popularity among the soldiers and merchants in Dura-Europos led to it being enlarged after the garrison stationed at the city was increased. Multiple wall paintings and reliefs have been taken from the Mithraeum, with some being installed into the full scale reconstruction of the site.  

Curry, Andrew. "Roman Frontiers" National Geographic,  Accessed Sep 18, 2020. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2012/09/roman-walls/

 "Dura-Europos: Excavating Antiquity." Yale University, Accessed Sep 18, 2020. http://media.artgallery.yale.edu/duraeuropos/dura.html

Thome, Pierre. "Mithraism" Ancient History, Accessed,Sep 18, 2020. Published, June 10, 2015. https://www.ancient.eu/Mithraic_Mysteries/

Comments

  1. Madison CunninghamSeptember 19, 2020 at 12:36 PM

    Alex, great post! I appreciate all of the history you gave. I looked a bit more into the cult named Mithraic Mystery's. I was thoroughly enthused at what I found. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. David FloresSeptember 20, 2020 at 10:04 AM

    That was very interesting, and cool to learn about, one thing that surprised me about the background of this place; is how the Romans used the tunnel to trap and kill the Persians with poison gas. That was really surprising, but I thought every thing was also very interesting, I liked it a lot.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ChloSeptember 20, 2020 at 8:26 PM

    Alex, your blog post was so informational, it gave me insight on the art in the City of Dura-Eurpos. Its amazing that they included that artwork into Yale.

    ReplyDelete

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