Palmyran Limestone Head of a Priest

From a funerary bust, wearing a high cylindrical headdress with two vertical grooves, his face with down--turned nose, square chin and prominent ears, his arching brows sharply defined, the thickly--lidded eyes with the pupils and irises incised, a dimple below the thin lips. On the edge of the Syrian desert, in the eastern periphery of the Roman empire, the ancient city of Palmyra stood as a gateway linking the Western world to the luxuries of the Orient. To the ancient denizens of this arid realm, Palmyra was known simply as the Bride of the Desert, and for centuries intrepid merchants passed through this oasis seeking relief from the merciless desert sun. The Hebrew Bible attributes the city to King Solomon, though ancient Mari records mention Palmyra from the second millennium BC. Under the mercurial reign of the Seleucids—the progeny of Alexander the Great—the city experienced the delights of Hellenic civilization, continued three hundred years later when in the first century AD Tiberius incorporated Syria into the Roman Empire. From the Romans the city passed to Byzantium before falling to the armies of Muhammad and being abandoned around 800 AD.