Rubina Raja – författare

Palmyra has long attracted the attention of the world. Well before its rediscovery in the seventeenth century, the ancient city gained legendary status because of its Queen Zenobia, who in the third century CE rebelled against Rome and expanded Palmyra's territory into what is now modern Turkey and Egypt. Even though Zenobia's empire was a fairly short interlude and the Romans struck back hard, devastating the city, her path to imperial power was one which tells us much about Palmyrene identity in the period before the defeat. While Zenobia has gained renewed interest among both scholars and the press, and while she has served as a political symbol for Syria's president Assad--a statue of her was recently erected in Damascus--the time leading up to her reign still remains underexplored.Pearl of the Desert is the most comprehensive history of this fabled ancient city in English. Assimilating the rich archaeological and literary evidence, Rubina Raja unfolds the story chronologically, from the earliest evidence of settlement in the Bronze Age to Palmyra's rise as an urban center in the late Hellenistic and Roman periods, its destruction by Rome in 273 CE, and its survival in the Byzantine and medieval Islamic periods. The book ends with a discussion of Palmyra's modern rediscovery and, more recently, its chaotic misfortunes during the Syrian civil war when it was used as a symbol of, alternately, the resistance of the rebels, the power of ISIS, and the supremacy of the Syrian state. After several years of destruction and looting, securing of the site has begun as well as planning for its restoration. At this turning point in Palmyra's long history, there is no better time to assess the past, present, and future of this remarkable city.

The monumental remains of Palmyra (also known as Tadmor) have fascinated travelers and scholars for centuries. The Oxford Handbook of Palmyra gives a detailed analysis of the archaeology and history of this ancient oasis city in the Syrian Desert, spanning evidence from several millennia. With contributions from thirty archaeologists, epigraphists, historians, and philologists, this book covers the city's archaeological findings and history from its earliest mentions in the pre-Roman era to the destruction of many of its monuments during the Syrian Civil War and the subsequent looting. The authors recap evidence and present significant new findings and analyses from fieldwork they or others undertook in Palmyra prior to the 2011 conflict and discuss the recent occupation by ISIS and calls to defend the site's remains from current and future threats.A broad range of themes are covered, which not only relate to the archaeology and history of the site, but also to its standing and relationship with the rest of the ancient world as a major trade hub connecting routes from East to West during the Roman period. Thirty-seven chapters relay firsthand expert knowledge in an accessible style and include up-to-date bibliographies, making this handbook an ideal and comprehensive resource for professional researchers, students, and anyone interested in this major UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Near East during the Hellenistic and Roman periods has been studied for centuries. This Handbook includes fifty chapters written by experts from a variety of disciplines: archaeology (including classical, near eastern, and Islamic), ancient history, anthropology, art history, data and network science, epigraphy, and historiography. Together, these chapters shed a fresh light on the vast regions that made up Hellenistic and later Roman Syria and the Near East. The material and written evidence from the region is considered side-by-side with historical sources as well as scientific data coming out of archaeological science and network science, and shows how new knowledge about the region can be brought to the forefront of current literature on the subject. The dynamic, volatile, diverse, and culturally rich regions that this volume focuses on have left an abundant cultural heritage--and in many places these regions are under constant threat. In this Handbook, knowledge about the newest research on a myriad of these regions, sites, and locations is highlighted together with overviews of the centuries-long history of research. The Handbook is essential for students, scholars, and the archaeologically-inclined reader, and constitutes the definitive collection of current research in the field.

The Oxford Handbook of Digital Classical Studies offers three distinct views: (1) an expansive approach to classical studies, which encompasses sub-disciplines that are usually treated separately, such as archaeology and philology; (2) concise overviews of the various digital tools, methods, and approaches currently in use; and (3) an exploration of their uses in and beyond academia, taking in research, pedagogy and heritage. As well as giving a sense of what is now possible, the handbook places digital technology within a theoretical framework that examines its use critically, advocates for ethical practices in the production and management of data, and considers its impact on the material and digital world. The handbook is divided into four sections that: sketch out the historiography of the field and articulate the impact that the digital turn has had on classical studies (Section II: Contexts); explore the importance that digitization and data management plays in shaping the field (Section III: Data); provide concise and up-to-date introductions to new digital methods and approaches (Section IV: Methods); and present a selection of case studies that exemplify how these can be used in various sectors as a source of inspiration for readers (Section V: Case Studies).

Palmyra is one of the most famous sites of the ancient world and played a major role in the overland trade between the Mediterranean and the East. This volume explores fascinating aspects of Palmyrene archaeology and history that underline the site's dynamic relations with the Roman world, whilst simultaneously acknowledging its extremely local nature. The chapters explore Palmyra as a site, but also Palmyrene society both at home and abroad - as travellers in the then known world and contractors and businesspeople as well as innovative political and military leaders of their time. They illuminate Palmyra's and Palmyrene society's negotiations, struggles, benefits and disadvantages from being part of the Roman Empire, situated on the fringes between the East and the West, and their use of this location to recreate themselves as a central power player - at least for a time - within a rapidly changing world.

This is a cross-disciplinary study of the Mediterranean, which combines archaeology, historiography, ecology, climate, globalization, and network theories. It situates the Mediterranean both within and beyond traditional area studies, promoting broader, comparative, and cross-disciplinary approaches to antiquity. Its nine contributions, written by internationally recognized scholars within their respective study areas, challenge existing frameworks and encourage scholars to rethink how the Mediterranean is conceptualized, drawing on renewed concepts and diverse evidence. The studies guide the reader to desert environments such as the Sahara, Egypt, Palmyra, and Greece, while exploring topics including urban religion, mythology, social complexity, and iconography.

This is a cross-disciplinary study of the Mediterranean, which combines archaeology, historiography, ecology, climate, globalization, and network theories. It situates the Mediterranean both within and beyond traditional area studies, promoting broader, comparative, and cross-disciplinary approaches to antiquity. Its nine contributions, written by internationally recognized scholars within their respective study areas, challenge existing frameworks and encourage scholars to rethink how the Mediterranean is conceptualized, drawing on renewed concepts and diverse evidence. The studies guide the reader to desert environments such as the Sahara, Egypt, Palmyra, and Greece, while exploring topics including urban religion, mythology, social complexity, and iconography.

A Companion to the Archaeology of Religion in the Ancient World presents a comprehensive overview of a wide range of topics relating to the practices, expressions, and interactions of religion in antiquity, primarily in the Greco-Roman world.• Features readings that focus on religious experience and expression in the ancient world rather than solely on religious belief• Places a strong emphasis on domestic and individual religious practice• Represents the first time that the concept of “lived religion” is applied to the ancient history of religion and archaeology of religion• Includes cutting-edge data taken from top contemporary researchers and theorists in the field• Examines a large variety of themes and religious traditions across a wide geographical area and chronological span• Written to appeal equally to archaeologists and historians of religion

The Lived Ancient Religion project has radically changed perspectives on ancient religions and their supposedly personal or public character. This volume applies and further develops these methodological tools, new perspectives and new questions. The religious transformations of the Roman Imperial period appear in new light and more nuances by comparative confrontation and the integration of many disciplines. The contributions are written by specialists from a variety of disciplinary contexts (Jewish Studies, Theology, Classics, Early Christian Studies) dealing with the history of religion of the Mediterranean, West-Asian, and European area from the (late) Hellenistic period to the (early) Middle Ages and shaped by their intensive exchange. From the point of view of their respective fields of research, the contributors engage with discourses on agency, embodiment, appropriation and experience. They present innovative research in four fields also of theoretical debate, which are “Experiencing the Religious”, “Switching the Code”, „A Thing Called Body“ and “Commemorating the Moment”.

For millenia, urban networks have shaped the development of human societies. Today, new archaeological approaches are unveiling the evolution of these networks in unprecedented detail. Urban Networks Evolutions reviews the new approaches to urban evolution as archaeology endeavours to characterise both the scale and pace of historical events and processes. Issuing from the work of the Danish National Research Foundation's Centre of Excellence, the Centre for Urban Network Evolutions (UrbNet), the book compares the archaeology of urbanism from medieval Northern Europe to the Ancient Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean World. The 40 contributors demonstrate how new techniques for refining archaeological dates, contexts, and the provenance ascribed to material culture, afford a new high-definition approach to the study of global and interregional dynamics. This opens up for far-reaching questions as to how and to what extent urban networks catalysed societal and environmental expansions and crises in the past.

It is widely agreed that the birth of modern archaeology happened in Denmark in the 19th century. A particular set of intellectual and material circumstances came together in a small northern European country to forge the making of a new academic field of enquiry. The history of this event has been widely constructed from the vantage points of certain schools and subjects. This anthology aims to demonstrate that the early Danish pioneers saw little distinction between the study of classical antiquity, the middle ages, prehistory, ethnography and human evolution, nor between humanities and natural sciences. The contributions show how Danish scholars remained key actors and delivered pioneering achievements in the archaeology of Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East. In many cases, a full appreciation of their work has been blinded by the disciplinary boundaries of post-war academia. Rediscovering the intimate links between what was later to become separate subjects within the work of individual scholars, this book recasts the history of archaeology in the 19th and early 20th centuries as a joint quest for a global understanding of human history.

The spectacular ancient desert city of Palmyra was heavily destroyed during the Civil War in Syria. Shortly before the conflict escalated in 2011, the Palmyra Portrait Project was initiated. The research project is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation and headed by Professor and Centre Director Rubina Raja. The project's important work with the Syrian cultural heritage has since been widely published, and the latest edited volume within the project is now available as part of the Palmyrene Studies series published by The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.This book covers the roles of women and children within the family in Palmyra during the Roman period (1st-3rd centuries CE). The nine chapters are written by leading scholars of Palmyra who all participated in a two-part workshop held at Aarhus University in October 2016 and February 2017 under the auspices of the Palmyra Portrait Project. The chapters discuss different aspects of family constellations and assess which implications different representations of women and children may have carried in relation to the Palmyrene family structure and wider Palmyrene society.By looking at portraiture and the written evidence from the city, this volume adds further aspects to our understanding of how women and children were perceived in Palmyra and how identity aspects were included in their portraiture and the written evidence.