Some remarkable finds have been brought to light, including numerous temples, wall decorations, inscriptions, military equipment, tombs, and even dramatic evidence of the Sasanian siege.

Its rebuilding as a great city after the Hippodamian model, with rectangular blocks defined by cross-streets ranged round a large central agora, took place in the 2nd century BC.

[6] Pierre Leriche, excavations director of the site in early 2000s, opposes the name Dura-Europos, because it "obscures what he sees as the fundamental Greekness of the city" and proposes to use "Europos-Dura" instead.

[6] The city was probably built on the site of a previous town; a clay tablet dating to King Hammurabi of Hana's times, 1900 BC, refers to the place as Da-ma-ra.

In terms of sociopolitical phenomena, it lacked a developed epigraphic habit, representative civic government, sophisticated bureaucracy, and its own mint (bar one short episode).

The administrative center ("palace"), patterns of land ownership, royal cult, and state officials show, however, it was more than a fortified army community, isolated from its local and imperial environments.

All the space enclosed by the walls gradually became occupied, and the influx of new inhabitants with Semitic and Iranian names alongside descendants of the original Macedonian colonists contributed to an increase in the population,[1] which was a multicultural one, as inscriptions in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, various Aramaic dialects (Hatran, Palmyrene, Syriac), Middle Persian, Parthian, and Safaitic testify.

Its original Greek settler population was increasingly outnumbered by people of Semitic stock; and by the first century BC, the city was predominantly eastern in character.

[23][24][22] An archaeologist at the University of Leicester suggested that bitumen and sulphur crystals were ignited to create poisonous gas, which was then funnelled through the tunnel with the use of underground chimneys and bellows.

[27] The sixth-century historian Peter the Patrician wrote that Odaenathus approached Shapur I to negotiate Palmyrene interests but was rebuffed and the gifts sent to the Persians were thrown into the river.

[33] There is evidence from a Syriac document called Life of the Martyr Mu'Ain, dating from the fifth century, that a Christian (perhaps Byzantine[18]) hermit lived there during the time of the Sassanid emperor Shapur II (c.

[32] J. M. Unvala wrote that "The fortress of Doura-Eropos is mentioned by ancient authors like Polybius, Isidore of Kharax, Lucian, Ptolemaeus, Ammianus Marcellinus, Zosimus the Cosmographer of Ravenna.

He quotes Jean Maurice Fiey regarding the dating and place, and notes that "Dura is specifically described as being 'ruined'":[35] Fiey is more plausible in his suggestion that the History was written at a monastery that had grown up on the site of Mar Ma'in's cell at Shadba (=Shadwa, Shadbo), 6 miles from Europos, and on the basis of this he is able to give c. 636, the end of Byzantine rule in that area, as the terminus ante quem, since the author is clearly writing at a time when the Byzantine emperor controlled the area.

In the course of its excavation, over a hundred parchment and papyrus fragments, and many inscriptions, have revealed texts in Greek and Latin (the latter including a sator square), Palmyrene, Hebrew, Hatrian, Safaitic (proto-Arabic dialect), Pahlavi, Parthian, and Middle-Persian.

The texts offer a unique view of the organization of the Roman army on the eastern border of the empire, and include a religious festival calendar, various letters—some of which are in Latin—daily reports on troop movements, and various lists of names.

For example, on a ceiling tile of Heliodoros, an actuarius (an official responsible for the distribution of wages in the Roman military), there is a Greek inscription that identifies the man by name and occupation.

[36] Another example is an inscription that reads: "... brave in campaigns, mighty in wars, dead..."[48] These words are part of the epitaph of Julius Terentius, tribune of the twentieth Palmyrene cohort.

As historian Jennifer Baird wrote, Julius is known better than most of the Roman soldiers who were stationed at Dura, as he is recorded in papyri from the military archives as well as from a painting, depicting him with his men.

It is notable because it shows that a man who bears a Latin name, Scribonius Moucianus, and holding a Greek-titled office in the Roman army, worshipped a local deity and offered his dedication in Greek.

John Noble Wilford compared the ancient city with modern New York: New Yorkers would have felt at home in the grid pattern of streets, where merchants lived, scribes wrote and Jews worshiped in the same block, not far from a Christian house-church as well as shrines to Greek and Palmyrene deities.

[58] The Temple of Atargatis, which is south of the centre of the city (referred to by the excavators as the agora) and which occupies the northern part of H2 Block, was built on roughly the same principle.

[77] The dedication reads:[5] Θεᾷ Νεμέσι Ιούλιος Αὐρήλιος Μαλωχὰς Σουδαίου Παλμυρηνὸς εὐξάμενος ἀνέθηκεν Translation: Julius Aurelius Malochas, son of Soudaios, Palmyrene, set this up in gratitude to the goddess Nemesis.

‘bd wmwd’ mlwk’ br šwdy tdmry’ lnmsys šnt 556 Translation: Maloka son of Shudai, Palmyrene, made (this), and with gratitude, for Nemesis.

"Their evidently open and tolerated presence in the middle of a major Roman garrison town reveals that the history of the early Church was not simply a story of pagan persecution".

[84] The statuary and altars were found intact, as was the typical relief of Mithras slaying the bull, with the hero-god dressed, as usual, in "oriental" costume ("trousers, boots, and pointed cap").

Fifteen years of excavations led to a revival of issues on the Hellenistic levels (P. Leriche) and on the history of the city thanks to studies on the fortifications (J.-C. Bessac 1997) and stone architecture (J. Abdul Massih 2000) and mud brick (M. Gelin 2000).

The current shape of this interior wadi is the result of natural erosion but also of considerable exploitation as a stone quarry, as shown by the faces of cuts erected under the edge of the plateau to the west.

On Friday, January 18, 1935, Clark Hopkins, field director of excavations, wrote in his notes:[97] Just after breakfast, three painted shields were found one right a top of the other.... Herb and I spent all morning removing them.

[103][104] In 2015, according to satellite imagery, more than 70% of Dura-Europos was destroyed by looters;[105] and National Geographic reported further plundering of the site on a massive scale by the Islamic State in order to fund their hold on the region.

[106] Fire in the East (2008),[107] the first book in the Warrior of Rome series by the Oxford scholar Harry Sidebottom, is centred around a detailed description of the Sassanid siege of Dura-Europos in 256 AD, based on the archeological finds in the site, although the city name was changed to "Arete."