The ancient city of Dura-Europos, in modern-day Syria, halfway between Aleppo and Baghdad, is famous for its exceptional state of preservation. Like Pompeii, this site founded in 300 BC on the banks of the Euphrates River has produced great discoveries and serves as a window to the Hellenistic, Parthian and Roman periods.
The settlement, located on the remains of a Semitic town, was a strategic point for important trade routes in ancient times. Extraordinary are the frescoes in its Byzantine synagogue, made in 244 AD. and that they make up an unusual case because the Jewish religion prohibits representations of figures.
Despite the importance of Dura-Europos in the Middle East, archaeologists at the University of Leicester have discovered that there is another city, located just a few kilometers downstream, with the same level of relevance. A true “forgotten twin” of the Syrian city that has been neglected for a long time.
As the researchers explain in an article published in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, the ancient enclave of Giddan/Eddana, which is currently known as Anqa (in Iraq), is comparable to Europos in both size, composition and potential value.
Anqa is located just across the Syrian border, in the Al-Qaim district of Anbar Governorate. Its remains include a tell mound (mainly the result of the accumulation of adobe bricks and other construction elements) at the northern end of the site, a polygonal inner wall circuit and a large outer defensive wall.
Situated at a point where the Euphrates floodplain narrows dramatically, the city would have controlled movement between the populated section of the valley upstream and the downstream trade route linking Syria, northern Mesopotamia, and Babylon. This privileged enclave gave the city great strategic and economic importance.
The settlement, however, was completely ignored by archaeologists until the publication in 1850 of a study of the British expedition to the Middle Euphrates. In the late 1930s, Aurel Stein conducted a more comprehensive study of the site, including aerial photographs of the standing structures. But even after these forays, there was little desire to know more about the twin city of Dura-Europos.
One of the reasons for the disparity of interests between Anqa and Dura-Europos, writes Professor Simon James, lead author of the study, is the history of British and French colonial intervention in the region. In 1920, as a result of the San Remo conference, Iraq came under British control and Syria under French control.
“The new political, military and administrative frontier created a barrier to research and understanding of the previous history of the region as a whole,” notes James. However, while Dura-Europos and some other sites in Iraq and Syria have suffered looting, destruction and civilian deaths as a result of the conflict in the region, Anqa has remained relatively intact.
As more and more archaeological research is carried out, Anqa provides increasingly valuable information about the history of the Middle Euphrates. And furthermore, as digital methods bring archaeologists together “across political boundaries,” the practice of studying sites like this may even, in the words of Simon James, help “address the consequences of colonialism in archaeology.” .
