From 3 December, visitors will have access to three exhibitions – “Two Palmyras. Archaeology”, “Two Palmyras. Architecture” and “Two Palmyras. real and virtual”.
People began calling Saint Petersburg the Northern Palmyra in the 18th century. The expression arose in the era of Neo-Classicism, which drew inspiration from the Ancient World: European travellers of that time were impressed that among the endless northern marshlands a succession of regular façades with innumerable columns suddenly sprang up before their eyes – in a similar way to that in which the same sort of Classical edifices adorn an oasis in the uncivilized Syrian desert.
The exhibition “Two Palmyras. Archaeology” reveals some of the chapters in the history of the study of this majestic city from late Antiquity. The basis of the exhibition is provided by the Hermitage’s Palmyrene collection, funerary reliefs and fragments of sculpture, the famous customs tariff (a large stone slab bearing an inscription in Greek and Aramaic), coins and tesserae, archaeological materials and drawings of the architectural edifices of Palmyra. The exhibition makes it possible to take a fresh look at the familiar permanent display, supplemented by items that are not usually on display in the hall.
Palmyra (known as Tadmor in the ancient Aramaic) is the city of palms, a once flourishing trading hub in the Syrian desert, the foundation of which was attributed to King Solomon, while the earliest mentions of the place date from the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. Archaeological excavations on the territory of Palmyra have shown that the ancient Roman-era city that we know nowadays existed from the 1st century BC to the 3rd century AD. In the reign of Emperor Trajan (AD 98–117), in the course of his campaign against Parthia, Palmyra was destroyed by Roman forces, but soon rebuilt. A new period in the life of the city began after it was visited in AD 129 by Emperor Hadrian in whose presence a second foundation ceremony for the city was held. That chapter in the history of Palmyra is illustrated in the exhibition by a unique fragment of a Roman milepost mentioning Palmyra that was set up in the agora, probably at the time of Hadrian’s visit (the name given to the city on the mileposts from Hadrian’s reign is not attested anywhere else). It is from roughly this same time that the famous Customs (Duty) Tariff dates. It was adopted in the year 137 and clearly demonstrates the change in Palmyra’s administrative status as a self-governing polis (independent city-state, de facto under the control of Rome). In the early 3rd century, Palmyra was proclaimed a Roman colony. Following an unsuccessful uprising led by Queen Zenobia, in AD 273 Emperor Aurelian laid waste to Palmyra.
In the late 19th century, the amateur archaeologist Prince Semion Abamelik-Lazarev made a journey around Syria in order to study its ancient cities, including Palmyra, and he was the one who discovered the Palmyrene Customs Tariff in 1882. In 1884, he published a paper entitled “Palmyra. An Archaeological Study” that can be seen in the exhibition. It was on Abamelik-Lazarev’s initiative that representatives of the Russian mission in Jerusalem conducted negotiations with the Ottoman Porte (Syria was at that time one of the provinces of the Ottoman Empire) about the transfer of the stele to the Imperial Hermitage for further study. Sultan Abdul Hamid II gave his consent to the stele being passed over as a diplomatic gift to the Russian Emperor. The artefact was delivered from Palmyra to Russia in 1901 by an expedition led by Yakov Ivanovich Khuri, a non-staff dragoman (interpreter) attached to the Russian consulate general in Jerusalem. Khuri drew up the detailed report illustrated with photographs about the extraction of the tariff and its transportation that can be seen in the exhibition.
A major role in the study of Palmyra was played by the Russian Archaeological Institute of Constantinople. Systematic scientific exploration of the site dates back to the year 1900, when the RAIC sent a special expedition there under the scholarly leadership of the archaeologists Feodor Uspensky, Boris Farmakovsky and Pavel Kokovtsov. Its participants did not envisage carrying out excavations and restricted themselves to the study of the edifices at the site and the publication of a report. The collection of gravestones assembled by the RAIC formed the basis of the Hermitage’s stocks of Palmyrene antiquities.
At various times, scholarly interest in the antiquities of Palmyra has been shown by researchers from many countries. Excavations have been conducted on its territory by some outstanding archaeologists, acknowledged experts on the classical cultures of the Mediterranean region. At present, archaeological exploration at Palmyra has been suspended due to the civil war in Syria, and the majority of its priceless edifices have been partially or completely destroyed.
The present-day period in the study of Palmyra is represented by a drawing made by the architect and graphic artist Maxim Atayants depicting the Arch of Triumph. Maxim Atayants’s Architectural Studio was involved in the creation of a 3D model of Palmyra and a virtual reconstruction of one of its most famous edifices – the Temple of Bel.
The exhibition curators are Alexander Borisovich Nikitin, senior researcher in the State Hermitage’s Department of the East, and Natalia Viktorovna Kozlova, head of that department.
