7 Palmyrena. Settlements, Forts and Nomadic Networks Jørgen Christian Meyer The French archaeologist Daniel Schlumberger was terns.4 The main source of water was cisterns, which THE SC I.D A N .H . ROYAL the first scholar to carry out investigations outside the could be seen in large numbers in the landscape and DANISH oasis Palmyra.1 1933 - 1935 made in the sites.5 of 23From he surveys relation to 4 • and excavations in the mountainous area north-west Schlumberger did not excavate the ordinary build­ Ü • ACADEMY of Palmyra, and the results were published in his pio­ ings; but the places of worship were investigated in THE neer work La Palmyrene du nord-ouest. Villages et lieux de culte detail.6 The shrines were of different shapes and sizes WORLD OF de l’époque imperiale. Recherches archéologiques sur la mise en and more solidly built with larger stones and blocks.7 SCIENCES OF valeur d’une region du desert par les Palmyréniens from 1951. The smallest ones are simple structures, only measur­ PALMYRA For the first time archaeological data were available ing about 6x4 meters. At other sites, some shrines are AND for a discussion of the relationship between the oasis part of a larger group of buildings with banquet LETTERS city and the surrounding territory. halls.8 Many of the shrines and altars were adorned with inscriptions and li • Schlumberger excavated 15 settlements primarily dedicatory reliefs, showing ­ 2 0 l 6 in the northern part of the Jebel Chaar tableland ons, mounted horsemen and deities. The Arabian god about 50 km north-west of the oasis (fig. 1).* The most Abgal, mounted on a horse on the reliefs, was the important settlements consist of a cluster of smaller most popular and the sanctuary at Kheurbet Semrine and larger buildings, enclosures and small shrines (fig. was dedicated to him.9 10Baal Såmin, the god of thun­ 2)? The larger buildings have a rectangular or square der and lightning, 'Algliböl, the Sun God, Malakbél, layout, measuring up to 50 x 50 m, with small rooms the Moon God, and ’Allåt, equivalent to the Greek facing an internal courtyard. The walls of the build­ Athena, are also represented.“ Otherwise, we find a ings were constructed with bigger outer stones and a large group of other Arabian deities, Ma'anü, Sa'adü filling of smaller ones and clay in the middle, a tech­ or Asar, mounted on a camel and Salman together nique still used in the oasis of Palmyra in modern with local gods for the villages and gardens (fig.5).11 times. Schlumberger noted the absence of springs in the area and found no traces of larger irrigation sys- 4. PNO, 131. 5. PNO, 10-11. 1. From 1936 - 1938 he also excavated the impressive Umayyad 6. This was probably due to priorities, as his excavations were castle, Qasr al-Heir al-Gharbi, south-west of Palmyra, and an emergency campaign with emphasis on inscriptions, investigated the huge Harbaqah dam south of the castle architecture and finer artefacts. (Schlumberger 1986). 7. PNO, 93-101. 2. PNO, 2. The Syrian-Canadian oil company and the 8. PNO, 101-106. Syrian-Norwegian survey have later identified Schlumberger’s 9. PNO, 124-128. sites. 10. See also Drijvers 1976, 20-21. 3. /<V0,13-44. 11. PNO, 67, 76, 156-157,161. Teixidor 1979, 82-84, 99-100. 86 SCI.DAN.H. 4 • 6 PALMYRENA. SETTLEMENTS, FORTS AND NOMADIC NETWORKS Marzouga a a Kli. Farouåne Kh. Abou Douhour S Ras ech (.'haar 0 Hassan Madhour BEI Mkemlé LabdaH H Kh. Chteib □ Rasm ech Chaar a BKh. Leqleir Kh. Ouadi Souåné Kh. Semrine Kh. es Sané J e h e 1 C h a a r a Jeb el Kh. es Souåné a M e r a h Kh. Messaade a El Kh. Ramadane Kh. Madaba □Ouéchel ’// ■ Wadi A by ad Tahoun el MasekO O Forts JebelAbyad S Villages Fig. i: Villages and forts investigated by D. Schlumberger. (J. C. Meyer, based on Google Earth). Schlumberger also investigated three forts. Two of is located above an important spring area at the north­ them are in the north-eastern part of the Jebel Abyad eastern edge of the Jebel Abyad.13 The forts are small, mountain range about 30 km north-west of Palmyra. but solidly built with large blocks. Inscriptions in At Tahoun al-Masek a small fort (25 x 10 m) on an Greek and Latin mention a military cohort of dromeda­ oblong promontory overlooks an intersection be­ rii, and two Thracian names, and the military function tween Wadi al-Takara, the main communication cor­ of the buildings is undisputed.14 The last fort is locat­ ridor from north to south through Jebel Abyad, and a ed at Rasm ech Chaar in the northern part of Jebel side wadi, Wadi Shalalah, leading north-east to Ouéchel (fig. 4)™ At Ouéchel another fort (20 x 20 m) 13. PNO, 46-48. 12. PNO, 48-50. 14. PNO, 85-87. 8? JØRGEN CHRISTIAN MEYER SCI.DAN.H. 4 • 6 Fig. 2: Village of Kheurbet Farouåne in the northern part of Jebel Chaar. (PNC), 26). Chaar/5 It is larger (25 x 19 m), with rounded tower­ berger the cisterns, which were a precondition for the buttresses at the corners, along the sides and flanking existence of villages, were most probably constructed the entrance. No inscriptions were registered, and with the financial support of the great merchants in both the function and the date of the building have Palmyra. He suggests that their primary interest in later been contested. It should probably be dated to the pastures of Jebel Chaar was related to the herding the Umayyad period/6 of horses, which was essential for the Palmyrene mili­ What, then, was the relationship between the city tary power. The two forts in Jebel Abyad show the on one hand and the settlements and the small mili­ importance the elite attached to the northern territo­ tary installations on the other? According to Schlum- ry/7 On the other hand, he stresses that the settle­ ments were not totally integrated with Palmyra from a cultural point of view. The influence from Hellenistic- 15. PNO, 44-46. Roman culture is almost absent in the villages, both 16. PNO, 107. The only registered find from the site is a in the rather rustic architecture of the shrines and in fragment of a relief, showing the head of a man, which can be dated to the Roman period. It was found in a debris, and it may be from an earlier edifice. PNO, 85, pl. XLII, 4. See Genequand 2004,18; Genequand 2012,184-186. 17. PNO, 108,130. 88 SCI.DAN.H. 4 • 6 PALMYRENA. SETTLEMENTS, FORTS AND NOMADIC NETWORKS Fig. 3: Relief from Ras ech Chaar. To the left the god Ma’anu mounted on a horse, to the right the god Sa’adu or Asar, mounted on a camel. (TWO, pl. XXVII, 3). the reliefs/8 The Arabian Pantheon dominates, and artefacts, inscriptions and coins;22 and the more inten­ most inscriptions from the villages are in Aramaic, not sive exploitation of north-western hinterland is relat­ in combination with Greek, as is common in the city ed to the flowering of Palmyra as a caravan city. This of Palmyra. On smaller slabs not connected to any of came to an abrupt end at the end of the third century the buildings, there are also examples of inscriptions AD, when Diocletian converted the city into a mili­ in Safaitic, which are extremely rare in the oasis of tary stronghold along Strata Diocletiana?3 Palmyra/9 The language was spoken by some Bedou­ In the following decades, most scholars largely ac­ in groups in southern Syria, north-eastern Jordan and cepted Schlumberger’s idea about herding and pasto­ north-western Saudi Arabia in antiquity.2018 19 ral villages.24 E. Will proposed that the Jebel Chaar According to Schlumberger, the villages were also area was essential for the organisation of the caravan part of a larger, relatively independent pattern of no­ trade, not only as a provider of horses, but also of madic transhumance from north to south, in which camels and personnel.25 M. Gawlikowski suggested Jebel Chaar became an important base during the hot that the patrons of caravans could have owned large summer months. This was partly due to the construc­ herding estates around Palmyra.26 tion of cisterns and to the existence of villages, which New investigations north of Palmyra since 2008 could be used as more permanent bases for part of the have changed the empirical basis for our understand­ nomadic groups during the winter months, both of ing of the relationship between the city and the sur- which made the tableland more attractive. Schlum­ berger also suggested that they practiced some limited rain fed agriculture in years with higher precipitation.21 22. PNO, 132-133. All the settlements and the forts in Jebel Abyad 23. Lafin brutale de la grandeur de Palmyre marque certainement aussi la were dated to the three first centuries AD based on fin de laprospéritéde noire region (PNO, 133). 24. An exception was G. K. Young, who proposed that the Palmyrene elite initially based their wealth not on the caravan 18. PNO, 133. trade, but on large farming estates around Palmyra (Young 19. TWO,133-134- 2001,137,150-151,154). 20. Macdonald 1993. 25. Will 1957, 271-273; Will 1992, 22-24. 21. PNO, 129-132. 26. Gawlikowski 1994, 31. 89 JØRGEN CHRISTIAN MEYER SCI.DAN.H. 4 • 6 Fig.