Das Tempelgrab Nr. 36 in Palmyra: Studien zur palmyrischen Grabarchitektur un ihrer Ausstattung, 2 vols.

• Author: Cussini, Eleonora

This is a study of Palmyrene funerary temple no. 36 (hereafter TG 36), a tomb located in the west necropolis at Palmyra. The funerary temple (sometimes also referred to as house-tomb in scholarly literature, but this last appellation properly refers to the type with an internal peristyle only) is one of the three commonly attested tomb-types at Palmyra, the others being the funerary tower (with or without hypogeum), and the hypogeum. Until now, the main reference works on Palmyrene funerary architecture were the study of the Syrian and Palmyrene funerary tower by E. Will ("La Tour funeraire de Palmyre," Syria 26 [1947]: 87-116) and the 1970 monograph by M. Gawlikowski, Monuments funeraires de Palmyre (Warsaw: Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe; hereafter MF) which discussed Palmyrene tomb types, including funerary temples. Schmidt-Colinet's detailed study of TG 36 is a welcome addition that greatly enhances our knowledge of Palmyrene funerary architecture.

The two-volume monograph, produced in collaboration with the architect C. Muting-Zimmer and with Kh. Al-As ad, well known for his numerous contributions to Palmyrene studies, was originally presented in 1990 as Schmidt-Colinet's Habilitation at the University of Bern. It presents the results of the excavation and study of TG 36, a project carried out under the auspices of several institutions, including the Direction generale des antiquites et des musees de Syrie and the Deutsches archaologisches Institut, Station Damaskus. A preliminary presentation of the project, anticipating some of the results of the study of TG 36 appeared in a 1985 article, by Schmidt-Colinet with Kh. Al-As ad, "Das Tempelgrab Nr. 36 in der Westnekro-pole von Palmyra: Ein Vorbericht" Damaszener Mitteilungen 2 (1985): 17-35. The results of the excavation and study project conducted between 1983 and 1990 allowed the author and his collaborators to offer, not only a thorough analysis of TG 36, but also a valuable evaluation of the Palmyrene temple-tomb type as a whole, within the broader context of Syrian architecture. The author's analysis of TG 36 offers insight on the process of planning, construction, and decoration of a Palmyrene temple-tomb. Study of architectural planning and decoration shows the presence of local oriental elements, a process that has been called "reorientalization." The present monograph has an introduction summing up the purpose and extent of the project and the methodology employed, followed by...