This dataset presents Palmyra’s public inscriptions from the first four centuries CE, a period of time during which the city flourished. The Palmyrene elite used inscriptions to advertise their contributions to public and private building projects, and commemorate the dead. These stone carved inscriptions were written in all the major languages of the region: Palmyrene Aramaic, Greek, and Latin. A total of 1134 public inscriptions have been compiled and digitized by researchers, thus constituting the most comprehensive dataset of the public inscriptions from Palmyra to date. As such, it is a unique source of information about building activities, elite patronage, and the evolution of Palmyrene social structures.

This paper explores how the systematic collection, digitization, and analysis of Palmyra’s public inscriptions can enhance our understanding of the interplay between language, public space, and the city’s elite. By applying computational methods, the study identifies key periods of urban development and shifting elite self-representation, particularly through bilingual inscriptions in Greek and Palmyrene. The spatial and chronological patterns reveal how inscriptions were used to express cultural identity and personal means. The research highlights Palmyra’s unique position between East and West and emphasizes the broader value of large-scale, context-driven epigraphic studies. It also calls for integrated, multilingual inscription datasets to enable more comprehensive comparisons across the ancient world.

Abstract Since 2015, Danish school children have been able to explore science and research in their free time. Behind this initiative stands the Copenhagen-based NGO Videnskabsklubben (English: Science Club), which facilitates science programs running for seven weeks on an annual basis. What began as a series of clubs focused on the natural sciences has, as of 2024, expanded to include the humanities, with the launch of a nationwide archaeology program for pupils in the fourth and fifth grades (ages 10–12). The archaeology program was developed by archaeologists at the Centre for Urban Network Evolutions at Aarhus University. This article introduces the archaeology program as a best practice example of educational outreach. It also introduces the concept of Videnskabsklubben and examines the specific challenges and opportunities of integrating archaeology into a classroom setting. By this it hopefully inspires archaeologists and educators alike to initiate research-based activities within the humanities for school children.

Abstract This chapter discusses the production of Palmyrene funerary portraiture. When studying the surfaces of the objects, all carved in local limestone, many tool traces can be detected. This makes it possible to reconstruct the steps of stone carving and to explain the process from the quarrying of stone to the finishing of a portrait. On the one hand, this leads to new insights into the carving of limestone in ancient Syria and the economic structures that were affecting or leading the production. On the other hand, the study of production processes will lead to insights into workshops and their organization. This includes the discussion of changes in style in relation to technical changes and changes in the production of portraits.

Abstract In recent years, studies on reuse practices in premodern societies have multiplied. Nonetheless, a linear model (production – usage – discard) is still widely employed for describing past economic systems. Integrating it with a circular model, instead of assuming that products were discarded after their usage, would greatly benefit our knowledge of ancient and medieval economies. In this work, we present a model of circular economy and define the terms used in this context. Thereafter, a possible agenda on how to study circularity both through archaeological material and written sources is traced. This covers archaeological fieldwork methods, as well as the process of interpretation and the re-evaluation of old data. It also proposes new strategies to use and read written sources to explore reuse practices. If different theoretical and methodological approaches are combined, a more holistic and vivid picture of premodern economies can be gained and help our understanding of how past societies used the resources available to them.

The dataset presented here are the first ever 3D scans and models of the so-called banqueting tesserae from Palmyra. These clay tokens were used as entrance tickets to religious banquets hosted by Palmyrene priests. Today more than 1300 different types are known. These tokens have been collectors’ items since the late 19th century, coinciding with the beginning of systematic archaeological work at the site. Today, the tesserae are spread across the world in public and private collections. The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen holds a collection of 92 tesserae of which we present five 3D-scanned examples here.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the Danish archaeologist Harald Kai Ingholt (called Harald Ingholt, 1896–1985) excavated in Palmyra, Syria. During his field campaigns of the Southwest necropolis in 1924, 1925, and 1928 he kept diaries—six in total. These have been digitized, translated, and commented on within the framework of the Palmyra Portrait Project, and have been published in print for the first time. Through the documentation of the excavations and Palmyrene material culture in the form of annotations and drawings, these diaries offer unique insight into Ingholt’s work on the Palmyrene graves and their sculptural and epigraphic evidence. Ingholt’s documentation of ground-plans, inscriptions, and finds are supplemented by his notes on the daily (excavation) life, thus offering pictures of early twentieth century excavation practices and the local environment that can now be explored as an open data resource, since we with this article make them available through figshare.