Circular Economy in Palmyra in Light of Sale and Reuse of the Funerary Spaces

The so-called cession texts, monumental inscriptions from the funerary context, are the only source for the study of property management at Palmyra, and specifically, of family funerary property. The actual contracts of sale, written on perishable writing material, have not survived and therefore, these monumental inscriptions offer a unique insight on sale transactions. Moreover, they illustrate reuse of sections of the monumental tombs (and in a few cases, of the entire structure) by the new owners. In some cases, other brief epigraphs from the same context, dipinti and graffiti, are directly connected or result from the sale transactions and represent a small, yet significant addition. Having investigated elsewhere the formulation of the cession texts from a legal perspective, and the background of Palmyrene legal practice in the light of the Aramaic legal tradition, attention is given here to this body of texts from the economic viewpoint, in order to discuss the significance of the transactions they illustrate, in the broader context of a reflection on Palmyrene circular economy.