Online Resources

Manar al-Athar website, University of Oxford

An extensive archive containing images of historical and archaeological sites found in the Middle East and North Africa that were part of the Roman Empire. Images are available without cost for teaching, research, and publication.

Monuments of Syria

A comprehensive resource for historical sites in Syria, many of this website’s sections, such as the one on Palmyra, juxtapose the author’s photographs with historical sources. It also includes documentation of the damage wrought by the Syrian conflict.

#NewPalmyra

This digital archaeological project dedicated to preserving the memory of the lost cultural heritage of Palmyra features virtual reconstructions and 3-D models of major monuments, created to raise global awareness of these unique historic structures.

Pal.M.A.I.S. Progetto Palmira

A joint Italian and Syrian archaeological project exploring the southwestern quarter of Palmyra with a focus on the chronology of the urban development and transformation of the city.

Palmyra, Freer Sackler

A short introduction to Palmyra accompanied by an exhibition video with engravings published in 1753 by Robert Wood and photographs taken in the 1860s by Felix Bonfils. The museum is currently working on a three-dimensional scan of the 3rd-century funerary bust of Haliphat, a highlight of its Palmyra collection.

Palmyra: Loss and Remembrance

Partnering with the Palmyra Portrait Project (Aarhus University), Getty Villa curated and mounted this exhibition of Palmyrene funerary portrait sculptures, on long-term loan to Getty, from the collections of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen and Stanford University.

Palmyra Portrait Project, Aarhus University

More than 3,000 Palmyrene funerary sculptures and fragments are held in museums around the world. This project aims to compile a definitive corpus of these objects for online research, to publish scholarly texts on Palmyrene art, and to digitize the archive of Danish archaeologist Harald Ingholt.

Palmyre

Mounted by the Ministère de la Culture, this site documents Palmyrene sculpture held in French institutions and provides an overview of Palmyra, noting the work undertaken between 1930 and 1945 by archaeologist Robert Amy.

Photorientalist

A collection of glass lantern slides, albumen prints, stereoviews, silver gelatin prints, postcards, and 35 mm slides collected by Norbert Schiller, who worked as a news photographer in the Middle East and Africa for over 30 years.

Site of Palmyra, UNESCO World Heritage Centre

This site contains state-of-conservation reports, photos, and maps describing the recent devastation of several buildings and damage to artifacts in the Palmyra Museum.

Syrian Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums

Official information on Syrian heritage, data on preservation issues related to the destruction of the archaeological sites, and updates about Syrian museums.

Syria Matters

This exhibition at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar, highlighted Syria’s extraordinary cultural heritage, with a plead to safeguard it. Five periods of Syria’s history were explored through 120 objects on view that illuminated the region’s key role in the artistic and intellectual history of the world.

Syrian Heritage Archive Project

An initiative by German institutions to gather and maintain detailed documentation of Syria’s cultural heritage.

Supporting Technical Works in Palmyra, Iconem

Using a variety of digital tools and imaging techniques, the Iconem team documents and assesses damage to heritage sites. Their work in Palmyra involves acquiring field data to create 3-D models that simulate the dynamics of the explosions that leveled the site’s monuments.

The American Schools of Oriental Research

An international organization that promotes research into the history and cultural heritage of the Near East and wider Mediterranean from the earliest times. This website includes special reports on the Syrian conflict.

The Iris

Read scholarly insights and a behind-the-scenes perspective of The Legacy of Ancient Palmyra on the Getty blog.

Wisconsin Palmyrene Aramaic Inscription Project

Using Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), scholars will re-collate inscriptions from Palmyra and analyze stylistic changes in the scripts to understand how family relations are described.

Zenobia: Empress of the East

A blog by classical scholar Judith Weingarten highlighting the life and times of Palmyra’s famed Queen Zenobia, as well as other “ambitious” female rulers from antiquity.