Andreas Schmidt-Colinet: No temple in Palmyra!

Description

"All talk of 'saving' and 'rebuilding' the 'world cultural heritage site' of Palmyra will have to be measured by whether and how quickly the tens of thousands of displaced people from Palmyra and/or their children will be able to return and live there in peace."

Based on the destruction of the ancient world cultural heritage site in Palmyra, this bilingual publication sheds light on the significance of the ancient caravan city as an economic and cultural link between different cultural traditions at the crossroads between Orient and Occident.

The focus is on the Bel Temple of Palmyra, its original form and significance, its history and exploration up to its destruction and the controversial discussion about the possibilities of reconstruction.

The Temple of Bel, built in the 1st century AD, was the cultural center of Palmyra from ancient times until the temple district was ruthlessly cleared by French archaeologists in 1929. Traces in the architecture prove the changing, at times even simultaneous use of different religions and cults. The increased "pilgrimage" of European tourists since the 20th century and finally the destruction by terrorists of the so-called Islamic State are also aptly addressed in the argumentation on the intercultural significance of the temple.

Prof. Dr. Andreas Schmidt-Colinet is a classical archaeologist. From 1975 he worked at the Archaeological Institute in Frankfurt. From 1980 to 1984 he was a scientific consultant at the Damascus Station of the German Archaeological Institute. From 1981 he was head of the Palmyra project. In 1984, he moved to the University of Bern and completed his habilitation in 1990 with the publication "Studien zur Palmyrenischen Grabarchitektur und ihrer Ausstattung". From 1992 to 1996, he held visiting professorships in Vienna, Paris, Warsaw and Mainz, among other places. Finally, from 1996 to 2010, he was a professor at the University of Vienna.