Painting of Conon and family from Temple of Bel

YUAG, Dura-Europos Collection, negative number y338

The chance discovery of paintings including this one of Conon and family by British soldiers on March 30, 1920, prompted James Henry Breasted of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago to come to Dura to study and photograph them on May 3. Subsequently, he wrote a book based on this day of research, The Oriental Forerunners of Byzantine Painting, and gave a report to the French Academy on July 7, 1922. Franz Cumont, who had recognized the importance of the paintings from the time of their discovery, was commissioned by the Academy as director of excavations at Dura, which began in November, followed by a second season in October-November 1923. This photograph was taken after the painting’s removal from the site and reinstallation in the National Museum of Damascus: it was originally located in the naos (shrine) of the Temple of Bel. Two priests identifiable by their tall conical headdresses perform sacrifices on tall thymiateria (incense burners), which is the religious ritual depicted most frequently in Dura’s paintings and relief sculptures. Conon and his daughter Bithnanaia flank the two priests (a third one appears on the far left), accompanied by other members of their family: they are identified as Europaioi, members of Dura’s elite during the Arsacid era who traced their descent back to the city’s Graeco-Macedonian colonists.

 

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