The research focus of ancient societies is often the funerary sphere. By studying tombs and funerary portraits, we learn more about communities’ beliefs, societal structure, and identity. Palmyra is famous for the grave towers that mark the landscape. They also became a symbol of the destruction of the city by the so-called Islamic State (IS) when some of them were destroyed in 2015.
As was common in the ancient Near East, the tombs were situated outside the city. At Palmyra, four large necropolises were located to the north, west, southeast, and southwest of the city. In total, more than 500 tombs are known, 150 of which are still visible today.
In Palmyra, three types of graves existed: tower tombs, temple tombs, and hypogea. While the temple and tower tombs were prominent landmarks, the hypogea were underground graves. The tower tombs were introduced in the late 1st century CE and replaced single-shaft graves. The first hypogea were built in the late 1st century CE. The temple tombs only appeared in the middle of the 2nd century CE and were used alongside the hypogea until the sack of the city in 273 CE.
A characteristic of all the monumental tombs of Palmyra is that they were built to house successive generations of a family. On the façade, we find inscriptions set up by the tomb’s founders; these help to date the building and record which family paid for the tomb. In addition, cession inscriptions tell us what parts of a tomb were later sold to other elite members and their families.
In the graves, loculus shafts provided space for bodies. The niches were closed off with funerary portraits representing the deceased. Multiple rows of loculus shafts were placed on top and next to one another, and when they were closed with reliefs, the graves functioned as a sort of an ancestral hall.
The most common way to close off a loculus was the loculus relief, a stone plaque depicting most often one but sometimes multiple individuals in the form of bust and torso, including the arms. Other forms of funerary portraiture were the banquet reliefs depicting a reclining man and standing or seated persons around him, stelai depicting standing individuals, and sarcophagi depicting multiple armless busts on the box and a banquet scene on the lid. The Palmyrene elite emphasised their family relations. For example, in the inscriptions that preserve the names of the deceased, their paternal line is mentioned. Entire families are depicted on the sarcophagi, and on loculus reliefs we find depictions of couples, parents with their children, and siblings.
The tombs were also decorated with wall paintings. Most of them are not well preserved, if at all. An exception is the Tomb of Hairan. In this hypogeum, situated in the south-western necropolis, wall paintings of men, women, and an eagle are preserved, giving us an impression of the decoration on the walls.
The evidence for burial customs is very scattered, and the looting of many graves makes it difficult to determine a standard practice. Mummies were found alongside non-skeletal remains in tower tombs from the 1st century CE. Disarticulated skeletal remains were also found in some hypogea. Both practices must thus have existed alongside one another. It was not uncommon that multiple individuals were buried in one loculus shaft.
Because of the looting, little is known about the funerary goods. From some intact graves we know that individuals were buried with glass wares, lamps, jewellery, and other goods.
