Dive into the video series Stay Curious, which offers down-to-earth explanations of complex science, as well as portraits and talks with the Carlsberg Foundation's top researchers.
STAY CURIOUS: The city ruin of Palmyra is an important archeological area, which has been home to settlements for millennia and played a pivotal role in the infrastructure of the Roman empire. Professor Rubina Raja studies Palmyrene funerary portraits and what they reveal about the past and present.
STAY CURIOUS: To Rubina Raja, central to being human is the understanding of what came before us. In high school, she aroused an interest in scrutinizing antique sources. Curiosity and thoroughness fuel her work to understand the great connections on a basis of, e.g., tiny potsherds.
STAY CURIOUS: Palmyra has always been fascinating to archeologists. The location of the city made it a pivotal point to caravans between the East and the West along the Silk Road. Denmark has one of the world’s largest collections of funerary portraits from Palmyra at the New Carlsberg Glyptotek, making it possible to study society and culture of the centre of the Syrian desert.