Dura-Europos: Crossroads of Antiquity

This exhibition catalog serves as an interdisciplinary introduction to the ancient city of Dura-Europos, a vibrant, multi-cultural settlement at the crossroad between major Eastern and Western civilizations that was abandoned in 257 CE. Between 1928 and 1937, Yale University was involved in an excavation of the site, which is in present-day Syria, and uncovered wall paintings that fundamentally altered scholars’ understanding of religious practice in late antiquity. This excavation also revealed houses, fortifications, a Roman military camp, and administrative, religious and commercial structures. The focus of an exhibition organized by the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College, Dura-Europos and the Yale excavation are here explored in twenty essays on topics such as the synagogue and baptistery, house groups and technology, archaeological and historical approaches to the study of local groups, as well as excavation and conservation practices in the 1930s. The book includes color plates of each object in the exhibition.