Europos

The Middle Euphrates Valley has always been a key trade route and cultural melting pot since antiquity. Located on, actually bisected by, the modern border between Turkey and Syria, the site of the ancient Hittite capital city of Karkemish has been the object of archaeological excavations since the late 19th century. In 1911-1914 and 1920, an archaeological expedition by the British Museum uncovered levels of the Bronze and Iron ages, but also gave notice for the existence of a Classical settlement which overlay them, identified with Classical Europos. Their final reports gave only tantalizing bits of material culture dated to the later phases of occupation, especially to the Hellenistic, Roman and Islamic periods. Precisely after one century, in 2011 a Turco-Italian archaeological expedition started the excavations anew on the field, providing much new and firmer evidence on the Classical city as well. The main aim of this volume consists in giving a general and complete presentation of the data collected by the joint project of the Universities of Bologna, Istanbul and Gaziantep, in order to produce a general overview as much complete as possible on Europos after the Seleucid re-foundation of the town, from its beginning in the 3rd century BC till the Late Antique period in the 5th-6th centuries AD.