The feared iconoclasm of the world cultural heritage site by IS terrorists leaves most people in this country cold. Yet the site belongs in the cultural memory of European nations. An article by Michael Sommer, ancient historian and expert on Roman Syria.
BY MICHAEL SOMMER
On 20 May 2015, the fighters of the so-called "Islamic State" (IS) captured the oasis city of Tadmur, the ancient city of Palmyra. It is said that there are important gas deposits nearby and that the oasis is also home to a prison in which numerous IS sympathisers are being held. The militia leaders are probably even more interested in conquering and destroying the ruined city itself. Of all the ancient sites in the catchment area of IS terror, Palmyra is the only one that enjoys a certain degree of recognition in the West. Nevertheless, most people in this country are unconcerned about the iconoclasm that is to be feared for the world cultural heritage site. Is it hard-hearted to worry about "a few ruins" while all around people are dying, being threatened and forced to flee?
However, it is not the worry that is cynical, but rather the offsetting between human lives and cultural heritage. Anyone who does not realise what is being lost here, not just to one region but to humanity as a whole, cannot comprehend that the ancient sites in Syria and Iraq represent a fundamental condition of human existence. The question "Who are we?" is directly linked to another question: "Where do we come from?" Sites such as Palmyra belong in the cultural memory of European nations because they show that the Orient and the Occident are not opposites, but historically belong together. This is precisely why they are at the top of the hit list of those responsible for IS.
However, it is not only Western historians who associate the legendary desert queen Zenobia, who defied the Roman emperors from Palmyra; the Baath dictatorship of the Assad clan also derives a focal point of Syrian national sentiment from the alleged revolt against Rome. Palmyra's destruction would therefore also be an important symbolic victory over the hated Alawite dynasty. In addition, the high-profile levelling of the archaeological site, as could be seen in Nimrud and Hatra, would have been a well-crafted PR campaign for selling off the finds looted from museums, which found buyers on the art market who were as solvent as they were unscrupulous.
Palmyra owed its wealth and its brilliant, albeit brief, appearance on the big stage of world politics to long-distance trade. From the 1st century AD, the merchants from the oasis city were responsible for almost the entire exchange of goods between the Mediterranean and India - and, above that, China. The rich and beautiful of the Roman Empire were in constant demand for exotic prestige goods: Silk, spices and ivory were particularly popular. The shippers of luxury were the Palmyrenes, who first shipped the goods, which could hardly be outweighed by gold, by sea from the west coast of India through the ocean and Persian Gulf to the Shatt al-Arab; from there they followed the Euphrates by caravan, across Parthian territory. Halfway between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean was Palmyra, strategically located thanks to the oasis, where traders from the Mediterranean waited impatiently for the arrival of the caravans.
Although subject to the jurisdiction of the Roman governor of Syria from the 1st century AD, Palmyra had greater political and economic room for manoeuvre than any other Roman city. Like Hatra on the Parthian side of the border, it owed its special role to its special relationship with the nomadic tribes, whose leaders came and went from Palmyra. A regulated relationship with both the nomads and the Parthians was the lifeblood of Palmyrene's long-distance trade. Along the steppe border, Palmyrene notables acted with a self-confidence that bordered on audacity: They went so far as to maintain a temple for the Roman imperial cult in the middle of the Parthian Empire, which was cordially opposed to the Romans.
The great hour of the oasis city came when Rome's rule in the Orient slipped into its most serious crisis to date in 260 AD. The emperor Valerian had suffered a heavy defeat east of the Euphrates against the Persians of Shapur I and, at the height of the humiliation, had been taken prisoner. While Rome's military infrastructure collapsed all around him, Septimius Odaenathus, a Roman citizen and Palmyrene aristocrat, organised the resistance. A few years later, his troops were in front of the Persian capital of Ctesiphon. Palmyra had become a global player while Rome lay on the ground. The emperor in Rome showered Odaenathus with titles and offices. Odaenathus probably died in 268 AD and his widow Zenobia grabbed the titles - and the power.
The empire had barely recovered a little when the freedom with which Zenobia ruled the East became a thorn in the side of the Roman emperors. Emperor Aurelian marched against Palmyra at the head of an army, forcing Zenobia to openly revolt against Rome. In the end, the Palmyrenes were defeated by Aurelian, and in 272 AD the supernova of power politics had burnt out. Economically and politically, Palmyra never again played a key role, although the city continued to be important as a fortress and later as a bishop's see.
The ruins of Palmyra still bear witness to the heyday of the trading metropolis in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. The kilometre-long colonnaded street across the city, the colossal Bel Temple in its walled courtyard, the Roman theatre, the market square and the many bilingual - Greek-Palmyrenian - inscriptions impressively document the lifestyle of a city society on the broad border between Orient and Occident. Palmyrene master builders were unafraid to make use of the building kit of forms presented to them through their contact with the Romans. They used the architectural language of a Roman temple and used it to build tombs. They placed classical columns in front of a temple in which cults were practised that the Romans had no idea about. Palmyrene aristocrats dressed in a Roman toga in the morning and rode through the desert in the afternoon in the costume of the steppe nomads.
If, as is to be feared, the Islamic State will also destroy Palmyra, then the destruction of the world cultural heritage by the iconoclasts is only logical: from their point of view, the synthesis of seeming opposites must be disturbing, the willingness to accept the foreign and incorporate it into one's own reality of life irritating.
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Literature:
Butcher, K. (2003). Roman Syria and the Near East (London).
Hartmann, U. (2001). Das palmyrenische Teilreich (Oriens et Occidens, 2, Stuttgart).
Millar, F. (1993). The Roman Near East. 31 BC - AD 337 (Cambridge, Mass.).
Smith, A. M. (2013). Roman Palmyra. Identity, community, and state formation (New York).
Sommer, M. (2005). Roms orientalische Steppengrenze (Oriens et Occidens, 9, Stuttgart).
Sommer, M. (2008). 'The Lion of Tadmor. Palmyra and the improbable rise of Septimius Odaenathus', Historische Zeitschrift 287: 281-318.