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Excavation at Southeast Necropolis in Palmyra from 1990 to 1995

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Excavation at Southeast Necropolis in Palmyra from 1990 to 1995 ARAM, 7 (1995) 19-28 19 EXCAVATION AT SOUTHEAST NECROPOLIS IN PALMYRA FROM 1990 TO 1995 SAITO KIYOHIDE This paper introduces the work that we have been doing at the Southeast Necropolis in Palmyra since 1990. This work has been carried out by Dr. T. Higuchi who is the head of the Research Center for Silk Roadology which was established at Nara. The work has been carried out with the per- mission of the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums of Syria and with the cooperation of the Palmyra Museum. These excavations were finan- cially supported by the Nara Prefectual Government of Japan. A goal of our archaeological work in Palmyra is to understand the Pal- myrene funerary practices such as the system of burial goods, the process of constructing tombs, the comparison of sculptures and skeletons, and so on. At the suggestion of the Palmyra Museum, we chose the Southeast Necropo- lis which has underground tombs in fine conditions. The Southeast Necropolis stretches for approximately 1.5 km on the south of the Temple of Bel. There are about twenty tombs which still visi- bly existing as tower tombs and house tombs. However, underground tombs were not well known until the installation of pipelines started in the late 1950s. About twenty tombs were discovered and about ten tombs were ex- cavated by Syria. Since then, no archaeological work has been performed around this area. In 1990 we carried out a search for well-preserved underground tombs for the purpose of understanding funerary practices, using a ground-probing radar, a geophysical prospecting technique using electro-magnetic waves. At that time we searched about 30,000 square metres and the radar showed us unusual reflections in five localities (A to E) which indicated underground tombs. In 1991 the second season of our mission started from the excavation of Loc. A, later called Tomb A. Though this tomb was supposed to be an under- ground tomb on the showing of the reflection in the radar measurement taken in 1990, it was in fact the foundation of a house tomb and the basement of the 20 EXCAVATION AT SOUTHEAST NECROPOLIS Fig. 1. Map of Palmyra. loculi. We then noticed that we had misconstrued the reflection of the ceiling of the underground tomb and the foundation of the house tomb in Tomb A. In this tomb only the basement, which consisted of sixteen loculi, still existed. The upper structure had been destroyed completely, but we could not find any building materials of the upper structure to reconstruct this tomb. Moreover, even the inside of the loculi had been disturbed and there were no burial goods. However, we gleaned useful information about the construction of the tomb through this excavation. We learned that this tomb might have been constructed using the standard unit of 1.85 cm, especially in the loculi. KIYOHIDE SAITO 21 Fig. 2. Distribution map of tombs in the research area. Loc. C, later called Tomb C (the Tomb of YRÎY) was tentatively exca- vated at the same time to confirm the existence of an underground tomb with the reflection of the radar. Fortunately we could reach it, which resulted in the first excavation of the underground tomb. We carried out the excavation of Tomb C in 1991 and 1992. This underground tomb consisted of a stair- way, a dooryard, a portal, a central first chamber, a central second chamber, and a left side chamber. The stairway was 8.0 m long and 2.9 m wide, the central chamber was 10.4 m long and 3.0 m wide, and the left side chamber was 3.4 m long and 2.0 m wide. We found a rectangular stone plate with a Palmyrene inscription on the left side of the central first chamber. It says that the tomb was founded by YRÎY, the son of LSMS, the son of MLKW, in April AD 109. More- over, there were two lines of loculi in the right side wall of the central first chamber and funerary sculpture of a man in one of them. This sculpture does not have inscription. There was a line of loculi in the left side wall. A boy's and girl's sculpture were in a line of loculi but the boy's sculpture 22 EXCAVATION AT SOUTHEAST NECROPOLIS Fig. a. Tomb F and C from the air. Fig. b. Plan of Tomb A. KIYOHIDE SAITO 23 Fig. c. Front of main funerary traves of Tomb C. was not in place. The girl's sculpture is a full-length figure with an olive leaf in her left hand and shows an inscription indicating that she is a daughter of YRÎY. The boy's sculpture is also a full-length figure holding a pigeon and a bunch of grapes in his hands, with an inscription stating that he is YRÎY, a son of LSMS. The facade of the central second chamber was constructed with soft lime- stone slabs and consisted of four columns for loculi and an arched niche. There were four funerary sculptures in situ in the facade. The arched niche, like a loculus, was set up the center of the facade and was sealed by a semi- circular funerary sculpture. This sculpture, without inscription, is 42 cm high and 87 cm wide, and indicates that a man is being carried with a round plate 24 EXCAVATION AT SOUTHEAST NECROPOLIS Fig. d. Semicircular sculpture from Tomb C. held by two so-called “goddesses of victory”. This kind of a sculpture is the first to make an appearance as a funerary sculpture in Palmyra. However, we can see the same motif in the mural painting of the facade, of the three brothers, and on a sarcophagus in No. 186 of the southeast necropolis. There were two male funerary sculptures under the arched niche. One is a sculpture of YRÎY who founded this tomb and another is a sculpture of SLMA who is a son of YRÎY. This sculpture shows a boy on SLMA's right shoulder but the inscription describes SLMA and a daughter of MLA. Moreover, there is a male sculpture leaning against the left end of the wainscot in the facade. This sculpture is a of son of YRÎY named MLA. There is only a sarcophagus and a pit grave in the left side chamber. The sarcophagus was made of soft limestone and its surface was roughly finished without any decoration or human figure. This consisted of two floors, and one body was buried on each floor without any grave goods. Tomb C had seven loculi which consisted of seven loculi. The total num- ber of loculi which were used for the interment was thirty. In thirty loculi, fifty one individuals were buried. It was noticed that in most loculi more than one individual had been buried, and we found as many as six adults in a locu- lus. Moreover, we found three bodies from the left side chamber and seven infant bodies in the pit graves on the floor of the central chambers. Accord- KIYOHIDE SAITO 25 Fig. e. Central funerary chamber of Tomb F. Fig. f. Central first chamber and sarcophagi of Tomb F. 26 EXCAVATION AT SOUTHEAST NECROPOLIS Fig. g. Medusa on the keystone of the right side chamber of Tomb F. ing to the observation of Dr. Nakahashi, who is a physical anthropologist, the remains of sixty one individuals consisted of thirty males, thirteen females and eighteen non-adults and consisted mainly of adult males. This figure might be related to the lineage or marriage system. Also, we noticed that many infants were buried in the rectangular grave pits in the floor. For the most part, they died before the age of one. It is very significant that the floor was used only for babies and infants aged more than 4 years, and that most of them were buried with adults. This shows us some different notions among them concerning funerary practices. Dr. Nakahashi's observation is that YRÎY died aged between 40 and 59 years, and was about 170.2 cm tall. He was accompanied by an infant. SLMA died aged between 20 and 39 years and was buried with a mature male, a mature female, and a child. The bones of a mature male were cremated. MLA died aged nearly 60 years, was about 168.8 cm tall, and was accompanied by an approximately 20-year-old female. 'STRT was buried alone and died at about 10 years of age. This part of Dr. Nakahashi's work was directed at differen- tiating between the sculptures and the human remains. KIYOHIDE SAITO 27 Fig. h. Right side chamber of Tomb F. We found various burial goods from the loculi, grave pits and the floor of the chambers. However, most of the objects were unearthed from grave pits for infants and the loculus for MLA. We could not find any artifacts from the loculi of YRÎY, SLMA, a boy's YRÎY, ‘STRT and a male sculpture which does not have any inscriptions. Even YRÎY, who founded this tomb, was not buried with any grave goods. This may indicate that the dead were not gen- erally accompanied by grave goods in Palmyrian burial customs. We can sur- mise that the dead who were buried with grave goods died as a result of some tragic incident such as a infantile malnourishment or a low birth rate and sac- rifice. For instance, the loculus of MLA was accompanied by a bronze mir- ror, many glass wares, a leather container etc. and one of the grave pits had glass wares and a bronze pin.
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