Archaeological gem Dura-Europos found to be mirror image of Iraq's Anqa

• Published date: 21 April 2024
• Author: JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Yet despite the prominence of Dura-Europos in Near Eastern scholarship, there is another city only a few kilometers down the Euphrates River that presents a long-neglected opportunity for study. A new paper in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies entitled "The Ancient City of Giddan/Eddana (Anqa, Iraq) the 'Forgotten Twin of Dura-Europos'" identifies the city of Anqa as a near mirror image of Dura-Europos, of the same size, comparable composition, and potentially equal value to scholars of the region

Anqa is located just across the Syrian border from Dura-Europos, in the present-day Al-Qaim district of the Anbar Governorate in Iraq. Its remains include an identifying tell mound at the northern end of the site, a polygonal inner wall circuit, and a large outer defensive wall (enceinte).

Situated at a point where the Euphrates floodplain narrows radically, the city would have controlled movement between the populous section of the valley upstream and the trade route downstream linking Syria, Northern Mesopotamia, and Babylonia, giving it great strategic and economic significance.

Dura-Europos was built on steep slope 90 meters above the southwestern bank of the Euphrates river. It is located near the village of Salhiyé, in present-day Syria. It was founded around 300 BCE by Seleucus I Nicator who also established the Seleucid Empire as one of the Diadochi of Alexander the Great. In 113 BC, Parthians captured and held it, with one brief Roman intermission of 50 years.

The Romans decisively captured Dura-Europos in 165 CE and greatly expanded it as their easternmost stronghold in Mesopotamia until it was captured by the Sasanian Empire after a siege in 256–57 CE. Its population was deported, and the abandoned city eventually became covered by sand and mud and disappeared from sight.

Dura-Europos is of extreme archaeological importance, and was called the "Pompeii of the Desert" because it was abandoned after its conquest in 256 to 57 CE, and nothing was built over it. As we remember, It was looted and mostly destroyed between 2011 and 2014 by the Islamic State during the Syrian Civil War.

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