Die Turmgräber von Palmyra

Tower tombs of local origin [1st century B.C. to 2nd century A.D.] with a stepped base, shaft, internal staircase, and accessible flat roof for ceremonies are the largest group of monuments with some 180 specimens in this oasis. Together with T-shaped hypogaea [1st to 3rd century] and temple tombs with a colonnaded front [mid-2nd to 3rd century] they lined the arterial roads in a total of five contemporaneous necropoleis. By means of Aramaic / Greek inscriptions 54 graves can be dated safely. Burial took place in up to 400 shafts per grave, so-called locustadtgeli, or in sarcophagi from the mid-1st century onwards. Due to equal expenses, the choice of grave type was probably made according to family tradition or religious conviction. Tower tombs had hollow masonry walls, the opus Palmyrenum, were slightly tilted until the 1st century A.D., and were built by simple technical means.