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Michael Sommer is Professor of Ancient History at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Germany.
“Sommer has written an account of Palmyra that is firmly rooted in a geographical setting and placed in a wider historical context. His panoramic overview of the various facets of Palmyra’s great civilization – tribes, temples, long-distance trade – is interspersed with important research questions. Attention is paid also to the lesser-known periods before and after the well-documented rise of the oasis, including written records from the second millennium BC referring to Tadmur, and the later Christian and then Muslim town. The final chapter discusses the tragic demolition which the ruins suffered during the ongoing civil war in Syria. This highly readable history of the famous caravan city in the centre of the Syrian steppe will serve to keep Palmyra’s memory alive in an age of destruction by introducing a wide readership to the town’s successes and tribulations throughout the centuries.” Ted Kaizer, Durham University, UK
