• Franz Cumont et l'interprétation symbolique des sarcophages romains, à près de soixante ans des Recherches
• Contextes archéologique et iconographique
• Funerary Cult at Sarcophagi, Rome and Vicinity
• Autoreprésentation funéraire, entre mythe, art officiel et "Berufsdarstellung"
• Le "motif de Phèdre" sur les sarcophages romains : comment l'image crée la vertu
• À vendre. Les sarcophages romains dans les ateliers, suggestions méthodologiques
• Achille à Skyros : polysémie de l'image mythologique
• Pelops, der siegreiche Rennfahrer
• The Mythology of Everyday Life
• Contextes provinciaux et christianisme
• Les sarcophages dans l'Afrique antique : images romaines et provinciales
• Los sarcôfagos cristianos importados de Cartago en Tarraco. Un inventario de los manufacturados en "kadel"
• Méthodes, questions et hypothèses d'interprétation concernant l'iconographie des sarcophages en Gaule Narbonnaise
• Les représentations des défunts sur les sarcophages chrétiens: sarcophages païens et chrétiens en comparaison
• Société et iconographie. Le choix des images des sarcophages paléochrétiens au IVe siècle
• En somme, et sans vraiment conclure.

"Abondamment illustré, cet ouvrage constitue les Actes du Colloque de Perpignan qui a réuni, en septembre 2010, les meilleurs spécialistes français et étrangers s'étant intéressés à la signification des sarcophages romains, païens et chrétiens. À côté d'une approche germanique bâtie essentiellement sur l'identification des personnages et des thèmes mythiques, le colloque a ainsi affirmé l'originalité d'une approche anthropologique des images romaines développée autour des travaux de Richard Brilliant, Paul Zanker ou Robert Turcan. C'est aussi en hommage à ce dernier, présent à Perpignan, que les collègues du monde entier se sont déplacés, et pour faire le point, soixante ans après sa mort, sur les théories du grand savant belge Franz Cumont."--P. [4] of cover.

• Introduction / Tracey Long and Annette Højen Sørensen
• The body language of Palmyra and Rome / Glenys Davies
• Changing identities, changing positions: jewellery in Palmyrene female portraits / Signe Krag
• The Parthian haute-couture at Palmyra / Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis
• The use of Parthian costume in funerary portraiture in Palmyra / Tracey Long
• The pious butcher and the physicians: Palmyrene professions in context / Eleonora Cussini
• Professions in Palmyra: a matter of ethnicity / Tommaso Gnoli
• The iconography of caravan trade in Palmyra and the Roman Near East / Eivind Helaas Seland
• To be or not to be depicted as a priest in Palmyra: a matter of representational spheres and societal values / Rubina Raja.

• Introduction / Tracey Long and Annette Højen Sørensen
• The body language of Palmyra and Rome / Glenys Davies
• Changing identities, changing positions: jewellery in Palmyrene female portraits / Signe Krag
• The Parthian haute-couture at Palmyra / Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis
• The use of Parthian costume in funerary portraiture in Palmyra / Tracey Long
• The pious butcher and the physicians: Palmyrene professions in context / Eleonora Cussini
• Professions in Palmyra: a matter of ethnicity / Tommaso Gnoli
• The iconography of caravan trade in Palmyra and the Roman Near East / Eivind Helaas Seland
• To be or n ot to be depicted as a priest in Palmyra: a matter of representational spheres and societal values / Rubina Raja.

Palmyra in the Syrian Desert has in the last years come to the attention of the world due to the destructions caused by the Civil War. Right before the conflict broke out the Palmyra Portrait Project funded by the Carlsberg Foundation and headed by Rubina Raja was initiated. The anthology, Positions and Professions in Palmyra, is one of the results emerging from the project. The contributions are written by leading scholars, who focus on Palmyra, portraiture in the Roman Empire, art and writing in Palmyra and the cultures of the Near East in general. Issues of how status and professions were communicated through self-representation stand at the centre of the volume. Through the contributions it becomes clear that there was a dichotomy between the funerary sphere and the public sphere. In the funerary sphere the family alone took centre stage, whereas the public sphere was a space for civic status to be communicated. These differences inform us about the choices made by the Palmyrenes according to the meaning of the spaces in which self-representations were displayed. The Palmyrenes were world citizens, who saw themselves as central players within the broader imperial context. This book gives the basis for assessing some of the mechanisms at play within Palmyrene society, both in family contexts as well as broader societal contexts.