The Palmyrene Banqueting Tesserae
An Updated Corpus
By (author) Aleksandra Kubiak-Schneider By (author) Rubina Raja By (author) Julia Steding By (author) Jean-Baptiste Yon
Banqueting tesserae — small, moulded terracotta tokens — were used in the religious sphere of Palmyra in the first three centuries AD, conveying a vivid iconographic language that underpinned sacral banquets held in the city’s sanctuaries and banqueting halls. Found today in those locations, these artefacts offer a rare glimpse into the overwhelmingly rich ritual and social lives of Palmyrene society. This book and corpus provides the first comprehensive revision to the study of banqueting tokens since the 1955 publication Recueil des tessères de Palmyre, which catalogued 1132 types. Building on that foundational work, this publication updates the original corpus with 168 newly identified tesserae types, including numerous previously unpublished examples from the Palmyra Museum and a private collection in Damascus. Each new type is presented with detailed descriptions of motifs and inscriptions. The book examines the rich iconographic and epigraphic landscape of tesserae, which feature depictions of priests, deities, animals, and symbolic imagery, while also casting light on some of the individuals who financed these feasts. With extensive indices on the iconography and epigraphy of the new types, as well as a translation of the indices from the Recueil des tessères de Palmyre, this new corpus presents a comprehensive overview and systematic study of this overlooked yet revealing class of material culture, which provides a unique source for our understanding of Palmyrene religious life.
Banqueting tesserae — small, moulded terracotta tokens — were used in the religious sphere of Palmyra in the first three centuries AD, conveying a vivid iconographic language that underpinned sacral banquets held in the city’s sanctuaries and banqueting halls. Found today in those locations, these artefacts offer a rare glimpse into the overwhelmingly rich ritual and social lives of Palmyrene society. This book and corpus provides the first comprehensive revision to the study of banqueting tokens since the 1955 publication Recueil des tessères de Palmyre, which catalogued 1132 types. Building on that foundational work, this publication updates the original corpus with 168 newly identified tesserae types, including numerous previously unpublished examples from the Palmyra Museum and a private collection in Damascus. Each new type is presented with detailed descriptions of motifs and inscriptions. The book examines the rich iconographic and epigraphic landscape of tesserae, which feature depictions of priests, deities, animals, and symbolic imagery, while also casting light on some of the individuals who financed these feasts. With extensive indices on the iconography and epigraphy of the new types, as well as a translation of the indices from the Recueil des tessères de Palmyre, this new corpus presents a comprehensive overview and systematic study of this overlooked yet revealing class of material culture, which provides a unique source for our understanding of Palmyrene religious life.
- By (author) Aleksandra Kubiak-Schneider
- By (author) Rubina Raja
- By (author) Julia Steding
- By (author) Jean-Baptiste Yon
Other Titles in this Series
Studies on Palmyrene Sculpture
A Translation of Harald Ingholt's Studier over Palmyrensk Skulptur
Volume 1
The Pal.M.A.I.S. Syro-Italian Joint Project
Selected Essays on the Southwest Quarter and the Peristyle Building of Palmyra in Memory of Prof. Maria Teresa Grassi
Volume 12
Excavating Palmyra
Harald Ingholt's Excavation Diaries: A Transcript, Translation, and Commentary
Volume 4
Nurturing the Elite
Representations of Drinking, Eating, and Religious Vessels in Palmyrene Funerary Iconography
Volume 13
Similar Books
Caesar’s Visions and Impact on the Roman Empire
Revisiting the Archaeological and Historical Record of the 40s BC
Volume 2
Construction Processes in Historical Western Societies (5th c. BC – 10th c. AD)
Case Studies on Techniques, Models, and Costs
Etruscan and Roman Hellenistic Anatomical ex votos
Reassessing Popular Religious Expressions in Central Italy
Volume 8
Invisible Labour in Antiquity
Visualizing Obscure Work in the Ancient Mediterannean and West Asia
Volume 1
Late Antique villae in the Balkans (3rd–7th c. AD): Current Research Questions and Perspectives
HAEMUS Companion to the Late Antique Balkans 1
Volume 4
Portraying the Individual in the Roman East
Local–Imperial Entanglements in Sculpture, Mosaics, and Paintings (First–Fourth Centuries AD)
Volume 18
Roman Copies, Collecting, and Culture in the Bay of Naples and Beyond
Papers in Honor of Eugene J. Dwyer
Small Worlds and Relational Agencies: Local Societies in Early Medieval Iberia
Pequeños mundos y Agencias relacionales: Sociedades locales altomedievales en la Península Ibérica
SOMA 2023: Proceedings of the 24th Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology
Ideas that Travelled by the Sea, Udine, 2-4 February, 2023
The Iron Age Pottery from Tell Atchana / Ancient Alalakh
A Typological and Functional Analysis
Volume 8
Writing in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem
Inscription and Graffiti in a Multilingual and Multigraphic Perspective
Volume 45
Zooarchaeology of Ancient Greek Sanctuaries in Southwestern Sicily
Faunal Analysis from Selinus and Akragas as Evidence of Differences in the Treatment of Animals for Ritual Purposes
Alabaster
An Interdisciplinary Study of the Sources and Uses of Calcite Alabaster in Antiquity
Volume 5
Echoes from the Past: Traditional Cypriot Pottery
An Exhibition at the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute in October 1995
