Hypogeum of the Family of Bôlbarak: Tomb no. II
Palmyra’s Valley of the Tombs
Syrian National Archaeological Mission, 1958: Adnan Bounni and Obeid Taha (1958)
The Hypogeum of the Family of Bôlbarak is Tomb no. II in Palmyra’s Valley of the Tombs. It was excavated in 1958 by Adnan Bounni and Obeid Taha of the Syrian Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums.
Architecture
The tomb is oriented east–west. A descending staircase leads to a vestibule and a gallery ending in a central exedra; an unfinished lateral exedra opens to the right. Burial bays were arranged in the vestibule, along the south wall of the gallery, and at the rear of the central exedra.
A raised podium stood in the central exedra before its rear bays. A funerary bed was placed on this podium.
The Family and Its History
No foundation inscription of the hypogeum survives. An inscription on the sculpted altar within the funerary bed records that Bôlbarak, son of Moqîmû, made the central exedra and podium in Nisan of Seleucid year 550, corresponding to April AD 239.
The family genealogy is reconstructed from the inscriptions and portraits and remains partly hypothetical. The tomb appears to have had two main periods of use. In the earlier phase, about AD 100–160, ʿOgeilû, son of Bôlbarak, is identified as the probable founder. His mother and two wives were buried in the vestibule. The exedrae were not completed at that time.
In AD 239, a later descendant, Bôlbarak son of Moqîmû, completed the central exedra and podium. He, his mother, two wives, and six children were buried in the rear part of the tomb. The limited number of later sculptures corresponds to the final generation’s lifetime, which overlapped with the fall of Palmyra.
Sculptures
The hypogeum contained eight funerary sculptures:
- Five portrait busts: Cats. 188–191 and 194
- A small funerary banquet: Cat. 193
- A funerary bed with sculptural decoration: Cat. 195
- A winged Victory statuette: Cat. 192
The earliest portraits date approximately to AD 100–160. The later sculptural programme, including the central funerary bed and the Victory statuette, belongs to the remodelling of the central exedra around AD 239.
Plan of the Hypogeum of the Family of Bôlbarak (Tomb no. 2), Valley of the tombs Palmyra. – Reproduced after Anna Sadurska and Adnan Bounni, Les sculptures funéraires de Palmyre (1994), Plan VII.
