Jews and Others
discovery, published the Mithraeum himself in a section of thePreliminary
Reportson the seventh and eighth seasons (, see appendix). He was then
seventy-one, and Rostovtzeff sixty-nine.
I emphasise all this in order to make clear that the work, conducted under
difficult and dangerous conditions, was carried out by an evolving team of
quite young, and in many cases inexperienced, archaeologists, under the
guidance of these two great figures. The work was carried out with great
speed, while inevitably leaving untouched large parts of the city (see the
plan of the city, and the indications of the areas excavated, in map below).
More important still, by no means all that was found was ever published,
even in preliminary form. The approach of war, and the effects of the war on
individuals, meant that much remained in the form of excavation notes and
reports. To gain an impression of the incompleteness of it all, and the dis-
ruption caused by the war, it is instructive to read Susan Matheson’s article
(which in no way claims to be a full report) on the tenth season, of –,
published in .^5
Even the wonderful series ofPreliminary Reports, of which the ninth and
last, on the season of –, was published only in ,^6 are not in fact
in character preliminary reports at all, in the sense of formal presentations
of raw data. They are much closer to general narratives on the one hand,
and to discursive and wide-ranging interpretations on the other. For that
reason they must rank among the most interesting, readable, and stimulat-
ing archaeological volumes ever written. But for that same reason, it would
be both desirable, and extremely instructive, for the entire corpus of ma-
terial from Dura, whether unpublished, embodied inPreliminary Reports,or
set out inFinal Reports, to be systematically reviewed. Such a review would
on the one hand be a fascinating case study of a great excavation, conducted
with unbelievable energy, and interpreted with perhaps too great intellec-
tual force; and on the other it would be a review of what it is that we can
actually claim now to know about Dura.
As regards the site as it now is, and what can be made of the interwar exca-
vations, the papers published inSyriaand inMesopotamiaoffer some starting
points for a review.^7 Some further excavations are also continuing. As re-
. S. Matheson, ‘‘The Tenth Season at Dura-Europos, –,’’Syria (): –.
.The Excavations at Dura-Europos, Preliminary Reports(–). Henceforth the single
reports will be numbered according to the season:First SeasonReportI etc. For the dates
of eachReport, see appendix below.
.Syria (): P. Leriche, A. Al-Mahmoud, B. Mouton, and G. Lecuyot, ‘‘Le site
de Doura-Europos: état actuel et perspectives d’action,’’ –; A. Allara, ‘‘Les maisons de