Number 35

I visited Boston College’s art museum today. The current exhibit at the McMullen Museum of Art is Dura-Europos: Crossroads of Antiquity. Dura-Europos was an ancient city in modern-day Syria. It was settled by Macedonians before Christ, then seized by a few different groups, the last time being in 256 CE. It was totally “sacked” and lay untouched until British troops stumbled upon it in the 1920s. Then the archeaological games began.

It was pretty incredible to look at artifacts that are more than fifteen hundred years old. Jewelry, ceiling tiles, altars, shields and helmets. Beautiful limestone carvings.

The exhibit included photos of the initial digs in the ’20s and ’30s. The idea of an archaeology dig makes me swoon. There’s something so romantic about it. Maybe I should have been an archaeologist. I have a sudden urge to watch The Royal Tenenbaums; Anjelica Huston’s character is an archaeologist, if I recall correctly…