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Archaeological
Museum
A visit to
the Archaeological Museum which has been installed in a building
specially built for it, will answer most of the questions the
visitor has been asking him-self as he walked around the ancient
city. The items on display have been carefully chosen in order to
cover every aspect of Palmyrene civilization through-out the ages;
they are many but there is little repetition or duplication. There
are informative labels in Arabic and French. Points of particular
interest ate illustrated by large charts. There is thus little point
in going into detail about the collections in this guide. A few
land-marks will be sufficient. The entrance hall is devoted to
prehistory - depicted in a series of highly realistic dioramas. The
room to the right of the entrance shows the evolutions of the
Palmyrene script.
In the next room there are religious sculptures. One of the most
beautiful is a carved lintel on which the god Baalshamin, "God of
the Heavens", is depicted as an eagle with outstretched wings and
smaller eagles by its side, each with an olive branch in its beak;
also beside it are figures of the gods of the sun and moon with
light beaming from their heads. There is also a great model of the
Temple of Bel as it was when it was built. In the third room there
are sculptures mostly from public buildings. They depict everyday
life, commerce, honors. In them people are dressed either in local
costumes: a long down under a wide cloak worn round the shoulders,
or in Parthian dress: a tunic worn over trousers tucked into boots.
The pack or army dromedaries wear harness very similar to that used
today.
The gallery that leads back to the entrance contains many
representations of the various gods of Palmyra notably of Yarhibol,
the sun god, dressed in Palmyrene costume. The three rooms and
gallery on the left of the entrance hall are occupied mainly by
splendid funerary sculptures. The actual tomb chests in the hypogeia
were sealed by limestone slabs on which the deceased was depicted,
as if alive, in high relief, in an attitude of serenity. Various
details reveals his social rank or symbolize traits. One hand is
generally open, as a token of resignation in the face of death,
while the other clasps some familiar object to indicate attachment
to life.
In the museum there are many collections of objects explanatory
panels, and reconstruction - with life-size wax figures - which
together constitute a veritable museum of the Syrian desert and its
traditions Certain scenes show everyday life in the oasis of Tadmor,
others depict nomadic life which is gradually -disappearing today.
Family life is portrayed most real-istically, with all the
appropriate clothes chests and tools, appropriately arranged, and
models of men and women going about their household tasks. Elsewhere
the range of Palmyrene craft-work is displayed - rugs -trays, made
of straw, leather and wickerwork. The production of turpentine is
also shown, with the special press that is used. The turpentine
tree, the rare plant much sought after by Egyptians for the
mummification of their dead, grows in abundance on the hills around
Palmyra.
In other rooms, camels, Arab horses, tents and the desert itself
with the animals that live there - eagles, falcons, wolves, and
hyenas - help to illustrate the life of the nomadic Bedouin, a
people whose social structures, adapted over centuries to severe
conditions of life, have been severely shaken by the development of
the economy, by modern transport and by changes in customs and
behavior. |
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