Paintings of the synagogue and the church at Dura-Europos

Dura-Europos, a Hellenistic foundation on a cliff above the Euphrates, had been Roman since 165, and its mixed population of Greeks, Semites and Roman soldiers worshipped many gods. An ordinary house near the western wall, which bears an inscription of 232/233, was converted into a Christian meeting place around 240; its baptistery was painted with the Good Shepherd, the healing of the paralytic, Christ walking on the water and the women coming to the tomb (or the wise virgins of the parable) — among the oldest Christian pictures known. A few streets away the synagogue was rebuilt in its final form in 244/245, according to its Aramaic inscription, and the walls of its assembly hall were covered with scenes in three bands up to some 7 metres high — 58 survive, perhaps 60% of the original number: the binding of Isaac, Moses leading Israel out of Egypt, Samuel anointing David, Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones, Esther and Mordecai and many others.

As the army of Shapur I approached, the garrison filled the buildings along the western wall with earth and rubble to strengthen it against mining. The town fell in 256 or 257 and was abandoned, but the rampart preserved the paintings. A Yale–French expedition uncovered the church in 1931–1932 and the synagogue in 1932; the synagogue hall has been reassembled in the National Museum of Damascus, and the frescoes of the church are at the Yale University Art Gallery. The synagogue’s figurative art overturned the assumption that ancient Judaism rejected images. In one of the siege mines lay the remains of at least 19 Roman soldiers and one Persian; the archaeologist Simon James has argued that the Persians killed the Romans with fumes from burning sulphur and bitumen — possibly the earliest archaeological evidence of chemical warfare.