Doura-Eropos.

Abstract

The present article is an analysis of the monumental work of the Belgian archæologist and savant, M. Franz Cumont, which embodies the results of excavations made by him on the site of the ancient Macedonian colony of Doura-Eropos. As it was impossible to give a mere resumé of this work without leaving out some of the important points and erudite suggestions which are scattered in the text and valuable foot-notes, I thought it best to give as clear and as complete an idea as possible of this once important and flourishing Macedonian colony situated in the heart of the Syrian desert. Further, speaking from the purely Iranian standpoint, the excavations atDoura-Eropos have furnished new documents pertaining to the Parthian civilization, which had penetrated into Parapotamia with its Parthian conquest, and which had left its traces not only in the costume of priest and soldiers, but also in fine arts—in sculptures and paintings, in ceramics and jewellery, as can be amply proved by the results of the excavations of 1928 and 1929.