The Women of Palmyra:  Textile Workshops and the

Influence of the Silk Trade in Roman Syria

by

Cynthia Finlayson

 

By the first century A.D. the oasis city of Palmyra, Syria was a major conduit for the East-West caravan trade in luxury textiles originating in China and Asia and moved by ship, donkey, and camel to the hungry markets of the West and Rome.  The indigenous tribal headdresses of the women of Palmyra as exhibited in their sculpted funerary portraits indicate that the woven and embroidered motifs displayed within headdress compositions played potent roles in defining and maintaining Arab-Aramaean tribal and clan identities as well as marking the historic and religio-political alliances formed within Palmyra itself through intra-clan marriages.  This political and related cultic religious dynamic was imperative ultimately to the safety of Rome since Palmyra, as a primary client kingdom, bore the heavy responsibility of defending the eastern Roman frontier from the incursions of Parthians and Sassanians while at the same time safeguarding the avenues of trade from the East that carried luxury trade items including sensuous silk.

 

This paper examines the impact that Oriental silks and silk patterning had on the indigenous textile production shops of Palmyrene women from the first century B.C. through the final destruction of Palmyra in 272/273 A.D. as manifested in Palmyrene funerary portraits.  A careful examination of Palmyrene funerary art points to the important roles women played in the textile industries of the oasis.  Specifically, this paper will address the question of whether silk patterns impacted Palmyrene production techniques.  Did these exotic Asian goods penetrate the artistic models which were already deeply rooted in Palmyrene Aramaic tribal origins and identities?  Did the silk trade enhance the creativity of these Roman-Syrian workshops and thus redefine clan and tribal iconographical identities?  Or, did the silk trade eventually smother individual expression and lead to the decline of indigenous textile workshops and female craft production in Roman Palmyra?  A four year study of the local textiles of Palmyra as displayed in Palmyrene funerary portraits coupled with the examples of Oriental silk products found within the tombs of the oasis will provide the springboard for this investigation.

 

Cynthia Finlayson received her Ph.D. in Ancient Near Eastern and Classical Art History from the University of Iowa-Iowa City.  She also minored in Islamic art.  Her dissertation topic focused on an in depth study and re-cataloguing of the female funerary portraits of Palmyra, Syria.  She currently is an Assistant Professor of Art History at Brigham Young University where she teaches not only ancient and classical art history but also Islamic Art and Architecture.  She is currently the Director of the BYU/Syrian Department of Antiquities Museum Computer Registration and Conservation Project and travels between Utah and Syria to teach, do research, and assist the Syrian Department of Antiquities.  This summer she will also return to excavate in Petra, Jordan where she began her graduate studies.  Dr. Finlayson has given numerous presentations on both Palmyrene and Islamic art at the national conferences of both the College Art Association and the Archaeological Institute of America.