Known as the “Bride of the Desert,” Palmyra was once a flourishing oasis stop and military outpost, now located in modern Syria. Following its incorporation into the Roman empire as part of the province known as Roman Syria, “It is generally supposed that incorporation occurred between the reigns of Tiberius and Claudius” (Butcher, 117), today the site provides scholars with one of the best preserved examples of Greco-Roman/Near Eastern urban hybridization during the late Roman Imperial period (Butcher, 291).

Examples of this cultural syncretism within the bounds of a distinct local art and architectural aesthetic are clearly visible in the ancient city’s religious, civic and funerary monuments (Miller, 319).

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