CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES IN EUROPOS-DURA

Excavated since 1922 until the present, the ancient city of Europos-Dura offers an excellent field for studying ancient building techniques in the Classical Near East. This medium-size town, founded in the middle of the second century BC, was successively dominated by the Macedonians, the Parthians, and the Romans before its demise in AD 256. Each period of habitation, depending on its cultural architectural concepts, geological conditions, the development of technology, and the heritage of local experience, developed its own distinctive building materials and techniques. Thus, the precise observation of these construction techniques can help us to reconstitute the general history of the city.