Photo: Courtesy of the Yale University Art Gallery
 

In 1920, British soldiers digging on a bluff alongside the Euphrates River in eastern Syria unearthed a wall decorated with frescoes. Subsequent excavations revealed it to be part of Dura-Europos, a multicultural city founded in 303 b.c. and abandoned in the third century a.d. The finds included a synagogue, the first known Christian church, pagan temples, and some 7,500 artifacts, among them this shard of first century a.d. limestone relief (5 x 10 x 2 inches) depicting a Syrian or possibly Roman pagan goddess. It is among 75 objects on display at the McMullen Museum through June 5, 2011, as part of the exhibition Dura-Europos: Crossroads of Antiquity, a collaboration between the museum and the Yale University Art Gallery. The show features paintings, sculptures, and articles of daily life from Yale’s Dura-Europos collection.